Hulls takes page from dad's playbook

• Jordan Hulls' father comes to every one of Hulls' games despite currently fighting cancer
• Hulls has seen Indiana go from the basement to No. 1 in his time there
• He wants to give every game his all during his final year

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There are moments, when the son is out there playing for the No. 1 college basketball team in the country, that the voice in his head comes from his father. The man who taught him the game, who counseled him through the dark days at Indiana and who now fights cancer.

"I can hear him," Jordan Hulls was saying. "'Slow down the ball. Don't make stupid passes. Take a charge.'"

Occasionally, the son will look at the crowd, and there J.C. Hulls will always be. Mother Joni Hulls, too. One family's chapter in what could be Indiana's fairy tale season.

Cody Zeller is the unquestioned star of this show, but Hulls is often the director. The graduate student who has been around long enough to see the low times. The hometown product who grew up 4 miles from Assembly Hall. The reliable solid-as-Indiana-limestone guard who averages one turnover every 28 minutes.

And the son.

"I love seeing him in the stands. He doesn't show too much emotion, which is what people tell me," Hulls says about his father. "It's pretty special to have a family that is never going to let you go through anything alone. He was the person I talked to through all the hard times basketball-wise, and when he was going through his hard time, as a family we gathered around and were able to get a lot of prayers up. And they were answered."

These are good days for the Hulls family. After radiation, chemotherapy and surgery to remove a golf ball-sized tumor from his throat, prospects are good for J.C. Hulls.

Speaking of good prospects, did you see what Indiana did to North Carolina recently? The Hoosiers are 8-0, and the 83-59 plastering of the Tar Heels suggested what might be ahead.

Indiana has five players (Zeller, Hulls, guard Victor Oladipo and forwards Will Sheehey and Christian Watford) averaging double figures in scoring. Zeller and Watford average seven or more rebounds a game. Hulls and guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell average between four and five assists.

"I don't think there's a selfish bone in those kids' bodies, and I think that that's probably the part that I admire most," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "They have a lot of weapons. I like how hard they play on the defensive end of the floor. We are not experienced enough or good enough or well-coached enough to get the ball inside and try to hurt them inside. ... They're well coached, and they want their team to win."

Tom Crean wants a running game so relentless that he has student managers with stopwatches timing the Hoosiers' transition plays in practice. He wants defense-shredding assists. Hulls averages six of those for every one turnover.

He wants sure and deadly shots. Hulls is hitting 52% of his three-pointers.

He wants players with goals and a quest to achieve. Hulls had a 3.94 grade-point average in high school and earned his college degree in exercise science in three years.

He wants guys who won't take no for an answer. You have to be that way when you're 6 feet tall, in college basketball's brightest lights.

"It's my last go-around," Hulls says. "No reason for me not to give it my all. Shoot. Be more aggressive, dish the ball, take some charges. Do whatever."

He has seen anguish at Indiana, as Crean tries to rebuild a storied program. During Hulls' freshman year, the Hoosiers lost 11 consecutive Big Ten games and could not beat Loyola of Maryland. In his sophomore season, they went 3-15 in the conference.

Then things changed. A program-validating win against No. 1 Kentucky and a trip to the Sweet 16 last season, and now everyone chases Indiana. The Hoosiers savor the new day, driven by memories of the old.

Junior Will Sheehey: "You've got to remember it. You've got to add fuel to the fire. The same teams that were beating down on you before, you want a chance to beat on."

Crean: "They're young men that have never been in this position before. I've never been part of a team that was No.1 in the country to start the season. There's not anyone running around the office or locker room that feels entitled or like this was bestowed upon them. l think everyone understands how hard we're working, and I don't think we're going to get away from that."

Who could appreciate it more than someone who watched Indiana's program fall apart from just down the road and wanted to help put it back together? Hulls won a state championship his senior year in high school, while Crean's first Hoosiers team was going 6-25.

"I had faith in what he was doing," Hulls says. "God was putting me in a place where something was going to happen. It was tough at the beginning, one of the hardest things I've ever gone through. I'm glad that I did it. It made me a better person and a better player."

So did hours in the gym. Don't leave today until you make 200. Or maybe 300. Never forget the little things that are required to win basketball games. Not one of them.

"I think anybody that knows the game of basketball is going to appreciate the way I play. I'm trying to get the most out of my abilities," Hulls says. "That's just the way my dad and mom raised me."

And if he forgets, there is the voice in his head from the man in the stands. The one who endured tough times, just like his son.

Contributing: The Indianapolis Star