The Story of Two Games: “Hullsling” Your Way to Victory

 

Warren Grimes

On a February Sunday, Stanford endured a disappointing 72-67 loss to Washington, an unranked team that probably won’t get invited to the Big Dance.  Stanford played well enough to win, but Washington had what was likely its best overall game of the season, including a potent offensive showing that Stanford’s defense couldn’t squelch.  Four days later, on a Thursday, Stanford held 17^th ranked Arizona to 60 points in their home arena and easily prevailed by a 24-point margin.  At one point, Stanford had a 37-point lead over the Wild Cats.  What a difference.  And how does one explain it?

It all comes down to “hullsling.”

 I looked up the word in my basketball dictionary: To hullsle: to play like a Hull, as in a Lacie or Lexie Hull. 

When a Hull plays basketball, she has her mind on the game every second.  She is always thinking, always anticipating, always mentally there for the team making the little plays that matter so much.  She is focused and aggressive all the time.     

One measure of this hullsling skill is the number of steals on defense.  When Stanford played Washington in last season’s final conference game of the season (and the last conference game for Lexie, Lacie, and Anna Wilson), the Hulls and Wilson combined for 11 steals.  In this season’s loss against the Huskies, the entire team had just 3 steals.  Last season, the match was close, but still resulted in a  63-56 win for Stanford.  Last season, Stanford had 19 offensive boards; this year, only 2.  That must be a season low for Stanford.   Last year, Lexie Hull scored 15 points, had 8 boards, and 5 steals. This year, Brooke Demetre scored 15 points, but could not make up for Stanford’s overall lack luster performance.  

So a team that hullsles gets steals, gets blocks, gets offensive boards, gets fast break opportunities, disrupts the offensive flow of the opponent – and wins.  Exhibit number one is how Stanford played against Arizona, perhaps its best overall game of the season.  Stanford had 9 steals (Indya Nivar led with 3), 10 blocks (Lauren Betts had 4), 24 assists, 22 fast break points, and out-rebounded the Wildcats 45 to 27.   

My sense is that this year’s team too often relies on a few people (Brink, Jones, and Jump) to do too much.  Everyone must be involved in the offense and the defense for every minute of the game.  Two freshmen announced themselves against Arizona: Lauren Betts had 12 points, 4 blocks, and 2 nice assists; Indya Nivar had 8 points, 4 boards, 3 steals, and 2 assists (0 turnovers).   Everyone, not just the All Americans, played intensively, aggressively, and focused.  That’ s how Stanford scored 84 points against a highly ranked team that typically has a disruptive defense. 

Returning to the (probably unanswerable) question of which Stanford team (this year’s or last year’s) is the better team, I’d have to say that last year’s team wins the mark for consistency.  They went undefeated in the conference season, an amazing achievement.  But in terms of which team will be the best at the end of the season, the question is still open.  If Stanford hullsles the way it did against Arizona, they could easily win out the conference season and be a serious contender for the national championship. 

Stanford has 3 more games against tournament-bound teams (UCLA, Colorado, and Utah) and another against the USC team that humiliated Stanford in Los Angeles.  Let’s hope that Stanford’s team is inspired by the Hulls, wins the conference, and continues with that momentum into the post-season.