Hulls struggles in loss at OSU

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a road matchup against the No. 2 squad in the country, the IU men’s basketball team needed every player clicking for a chance at an upset.

This was especially true for sophomore guard Jordan Hulls, one of the most prolific shooters on the Hoosiers’ roster.

But against Ohio State on Sunday — an 82-61 loss at Value City Arena — he was nowhere to be found.

Hulls, who came in averaging 11.5 points per game, finished the day with three points on 1-of-9 shooting. He also did not get to the free throw line, where he makes 90 percent of his attempts.

IU coach Tom Crean said he was not sure why Hulls couldn’t get into a rhythm.

“I said to him after the game, I don’t think we will ever see something like that from him, he’s too good of a shooter,” Crean said. “He didn’t have as good of looks, but he had some good looks. It just didn’t go in.”

The sophomore began the game 0-for-8 before hitting a 3-pointer from the left side with 11:48 remaining. At that point, though, the contest was already out of hand for IU (12-17) with the Buckeyes ahead, 58-39.

While some of the blame rests on Hulls, much of the problems stemmed from the tough defense of Ohio State (27-2).

The Buckeyes played solid on-ball defense on the perimeter and forced Hulls into contested shots.  

Ohio State senior guard/forward David Lighty said controlling Hulls’ offensive production was a main goal heading into the matchup.

“We just tried to disrupt him as much as possible, especially on ball screens,” Lighty said. “I think our bigs — Jared (Sullinger) and Dallas (Lauderdale) — did a good job containing him when he came off the screens and everyone else just rotated. It worked in our favor.”

Buckeyes coach Thad Matta emphasized how important it was for his team to limit IU’s shooting percentage.  

Guarding Hulls — who shot better than 50 percent from the field entering Sunday’s game — was an obvious way of accomplishing this.

“We had seen from game one to game two that he went from five shots to 10 shots a game, and so obviously he is more aggressive looking to score,” Matta said. “It wasn’t as much from the 3’s as it was the 2’s, and we were really just trying to use our size as much as we could and challenge shots.”

The Hoosiers welcome No. 12 Wisconsin to Assembly Hall on Thursday before traveling to Champaign, Ill., for a road matchup against the Illini.

Crean said if IU hopes to finish the season strong against two of the better teams in the conference, its top scorers need to fulfill their role.

“The better teams in the league are getting consistency in the scoring from their best players,” he said of Hulls, sophomore forward Christian Watford and junior guard Verdell Jones. “We’re not there yet. We’re not getting that now.”   

Jones echoed his coach’s thoughts and said when a teammate like Hulls has a poor game, others need to provide additional contribution.

“Guys are going to have bad shooting nights,” Jones said. “For our teammates, we got to step up and cover for them. We just didn’t do that for him tonight.”