NCAA tournament: Hull twins' hustle plays, floor burns lead defending national champ Stanford
SPOKANE, Wash. — In the interest of her team’s health, Tara VanDerveer years ago made a rule just minutes into the careers of twin sisters Lexie and Lacie Hull, guards on the Stanford women’s basketball team: Lexie and Lacie were not allowed to guard each other.
Like, ever.
Lacie understands why.
“There are literally no boundaries,” she said, adding that there have been a few bloody noses over the years. “Everyone on our team is really competitive but especially when it’s Lexie and I against each other, we throw each other to the ground.”
Admitted Lexie: “We’re not scared to shove each other, hit each other on the arm. I think our coach’s attitude is usually, ‘I’d rather not deal with this today.’”
“They play so hard, all the time, they used to spend a ton of time on the floor. They were constantly taking themselves out of the play,” VanDerveer told USA TODAY Sports. “So I told them, ‘If you’re on the floor, I’m gonna take you out.’ To them, being on the bench is the worst punishment. So they fixed that.”
The Hull sisters, separated by 20 minutes and one hair color, are known for their all-out style of play. They aren’t reckless so much as relentless, and if floor burns and loose balls saved were a stat, they’d surely lead the nation. VanDerveer said they “do the dirty work,” while forward Cameron Brink, between sniffles and declarations of love for the twins, called them “the glue of our team.” Brink and point-forward Haley Jones get most the accolades but it’s Lexie (blonde, older) and Lacie (brunette, younger) who are the heart of the defending champ Cardinal.
And this weekend, they get to play in their hometown for a shot at their second consecutive Final Four. In true twin fashion, they both described the opportunity as “incredible.”
They got here, in part, because of a record performance in the second round from Lexie, who scored a career-high 36 points and grabbed six steals in Stanford’s 91-65 win over Kansas.
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The Hull twins, and their parents Jaime and Jason, attribute their girls’ dogged, fierce style of play to numerous hours of driveway one-on-one, which usually ended “with one of them crying in the grass,” Jaime recalled.
Said Jason, an All-American forward at Division III Whitworth from 1990 to 1994: “They hate losing. But they hate losing to each other more.”
Usually, one twin would come inside and state, in dramatic fashion, that she wasn’t going to play against her sister anymore. That never lasted long though, and being left behind wasn’t an option. When one sister wanted to go work on her game, the other soon followed, even if she did so grudgingly.
“Playing against each other so much, that’s what drove them,” said Jason, himself a twin.
Digging in on defense
From the jump, they established themselves as defensive standouts. In their first official basketball league, at just 6 years old, players wore different colored wristbands that matched someone on the other team — that's how they knew who to guard. But Lexie and Lacie, already versed in the concept of help defense, got a scolding from referees when they didn’t stay glued to their player.
Cognizant of raising siblings who would likely always be compared to each other, Jaime and Jason Hull worked to instill empathy in their girls. In the fourth grade, when Lacie was crowned free throw champion of Washington state, Lexie came home from school, folded her tall frame into her mother’s lap, and sobbed.
“I know it’s really hard, but you need to remember how this feels,” Jaime said as she rocked Lexie. “’Cause some day, the tables might be turned.”
That has sometimes been the case at Stanford, where Lexie has won more accolades and more often shows up in the stat sheet. But true Stanford followers understand the value of Lacie.
The Cardinal returned almost their entire roster from last year’s title run except for one glaring omission: point guard Kiana Williams, who graduated. Early on, the lack of a go-to ball handler proved to be problematic, as Stanford couldn’t stop turning over the ball. Then Lacie, who hadn’t played point guard since eighth grade, volunteered for a position switch.
Initially skeptical, VanDerveer has become so enamored with Lacie’s ability to direct the offense and take care of the ball that she’s started planting seeds about Lacie possibly coming back for a fifth year. “Ever think about getting your PhD?” she’ll ask. (The twins are both set to graduate with their undergraduate degrees and masters this spring.)
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It’s helpful, Lacie said, for everyone to understand of her and her sister, “we’re different people who play different games.” Sure, they like winning individual honors. But they like celebrating their sister’s success even more.
As much as they might seem attached at the hip, Lexie and Lacie swear they aren’t totally identical — though they have had fun switching jerseys at practice and trying to pull a fast one on VanDerveer, who took awhile to catch on. They joined different sororities at Stanford (Lacie is a Kappa Alpha Theta, Lexie a Pi Beta Phi) and have different hobbies. Lacie enjoys crafting and volunteers at a local animal shelter, while Lexie, who Lacie says is the more fashionable twin, prefers online shopping and outdoor activities like paddleboarding. They lived apart their freshman and sophomore years, and made different groups of friends.
But because they tend to like the same things and the same people, those friend groups merged, and where one Hull sister goes, the other inevitably follows. This is true on the court, too. Lexie and Lacie are some of the best defenders in the country, using their long, 6-foot-1 frames to disrupt passing lanes and deflect balls. Together, over the course of their careers they’ve totaled 355 steals and four all-defensive conference honors for the Cardinal.
They like working together offensively, too. According to Her Hoop Stats, an advanced analytics site dedicated to women’s basketball, the Hull-to-Hull connection has resulted in a Stanford score 50 times.
“You’re going to have chemistry with anybody you play with for 15 years,” Lacie said. “It’s sort of like an expectation: If I cut here, she’s going to cut there — and not just offensively, but defensively, too. If I get extended right here, I know she’s got my back on the help side there.”
When COVID-19 hit and the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled, Lexie and Lacie headed home to Spokane for six months. They revived their one-on-one rivalry at that time, sneaking into gyms and playing at public parks. (“Wind can really impact a good shot attempt, it turns out,” Lacie mused.)
But they haven’t been in Spokane Arena since high school, when they played four years of “The Stinky Sneaker” rivalry. That changes Friday when they tip off against fourth-seeded Maryland.
It’s fitting, they said, that their careers have come full circle. They’ll get to hang with their parents and their dogs this weekend, just like old times. (Maggie, their Beagle, and Lily, their Dachshund, actually traveled with the Stanford team all of last year — as cardboard cutouts that got propped up in the stands when COVID-19 protocols kept spectators out of gyms.)
They know a new chapter awaits, and they’re not sure how they feel about it. At the end of the season, Lexie plans to declare for the WNBA draft while Lacie enters the workforce.
“We’ve never been apart for longer than a week,” Lexie said. “It’s definitely going to be a transition and it’s something I don’t think either of us are looking forward to.”
One thing they agree could help ease the transition: another national championship.
Follow Lindsay Schnell on Twitter at @Lindsay_Schnell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NCAA tournament: Hull twins hope to send Stanford to Final Four
