My Two Cents: Jerome Hunter's Journey Still Very Much a Work in Progress

Jerome Hunter has had a couple of big games back to back for Indiana, and they've been a long time coming for the Ohio native who's had to deal with difficult health issues.

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Injuries are something that athletes have to deal with at some point in their careers. But the vast majority of the ailments usually have a timeframe for recovery, and guys move on.

But there are some injuries -- especially mysterious ones -- that completely change the body and the mind of a player. Jerome Hunter knows that, because he's lived it. The Indiana forward missed an entire year of his basketball life two years ago because of a serious leg issue, and he's never been the same since.

Not yet anyway.

Hunter came to Bloomington as a gifted athlete from Pickerington, Ohio, who could do it all. He was a wonderfully smooth and talented player with a feathery shooting touch and a knack for attacking the basket. All signs pointed toward a big college career and then a long, successful professional career.

But then a mysterious ailment that's never been explained required multiple medical procedures on Hunter leg, and he spent all of the 2018-19 season with doctors and therapists instead of coaches and teammates.

A year completely away from basketball.

This isn't like recovering from a high ankle sprain or even a torn ACL. With those, you have a plan for rehabilitation, and you work on it every day. With Hunter, he had to live through an entire year wondering if he would ever be able to play basketball again. He had to live through an entire year wondering if even living a normal life of walking and running might be in question.

And all that nature athletic talent? A year away erases that, some physically but all of it mentally. That journey back to being a prolific player? It takes a long, long time and is still a challenge, as much between the ears as it is inside the shoes.

 When Hunter returned to the team last year, Indiana coach Archie Miller kept reminding everyone over and over that this was above and beyond some player coming into college as a true freshman. Hunter spent an entire year away from the game. This was different.

Hunter was very reliant on three-point shooting a year ago, with nearly 60 percent of his shots coming from behind the arc. Mixing it up physically and attacking the basket wasn't really part of his game anymore, which was a shame, because that's how he dominated games in high school. But it was a year of learning. And developing. And getting confidence back.

It's all still a work in progress

This season has brought new challenges. With senior center Joey Brunk out, Indiana has only two true post players, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson. That means the 6-foot-7, 215-pound Hunter has had to spend almost all of his playing time at the 4-spot (power forward) and mix it up with guys who are taller and stronger. 

That's been an adjustment, too, but it's starting to come. Hunter has been very good the past couple of games, and he's slowly gaining the confidence of Miller to stay out there in crunch time. That happened Thursday at Wisconsin, where Hunter played a season-high 26 minutes and had a career-high 12 points and seven rebounds in the 80-73 double-overtime loss. 

“Archie’s giving me a lot of confidence right how, especially leaving me out there longer.” Hunter said Saturday when he met with the media via Zoom from Lincoln, where the Hoosiers were preparing for Sunday's game against Nebraska.  “In more minutes, I think I can do more things. Him having confidence in me is giving me confidence. I do feel like I’m getting back to my regular self.

“I know the type of player that I can be. Me not playing my first year, I think that kind of set me back a little bit. But this year is the year there’s no problem with me. I’m healthy. There’s really nothing wrong with me. So I’m just going out on the court playing my game, and playing like I know how to play.”

For Hunter, the game always came naturally to him, and that hasn't been the case at Indiana. He's had to re-learn things, especially this year when he's had to be more of a post defender. It hasn't always been good, especially with Indiana switching screens more and having to adjust very quickly on the fly.

Hunter had a couple of bad fouls on three-point shooters late in the game against Maryland and he lost his man (Tyler Wahl) late in the second overtime against Wisconsin.

All that, it's tough to play through. It's a completely different game, and it takes adjustment, not always with positive results. Thus far, he's averaging 4.8 points and 3.0 rebounds in game in 17 minutes.

“Each game as I’m playing the 3 and 4, I’m learning how to guard big men,” Hunter said. “Playing all last year guarding guards, that helped me, too. It’s just a matter of time. If I’m out there more, there’s more stops I can contribute for the team.

“The thing that I say I’m still lacking in or missing from my freshman year is my defense. My defense was a lot better then than it is now. It was more guarding the ball and having my man on lock, being a lock-down defender. In high school, I barely get scored on a lot. Now I don’t think I get scored on a lot, but they’re getting to the paint a lot.”

Hunter's perimeter shooting is needed for the Hoosiers. He's 4-for-9 the past two games, and that's helped a lot. But he was just 3-for-12 in six games prior to that, and some were rushed or early in shot clocks when a lengthy possession would be preferred.

With Brunk gone after back surgery and Armaan Franklin out now with an ankle sprain, Indiana has only nine scholarship players. Having flexibility to adjust with the right five is a challenge. Miller used Hunter at the 3 (small forward) to help close out the Maryland game, and he stuck with him over Race Thompson at the end of the Wisconsin game. 

That's confidence.

"Guys are going to need to step up when their number is called and they are going to have to do a good job in the areas they can,'' Miller said earlier in the week. "The more experience they get, the better they will be. Jerome played a little bit on the perimeter for the first time all season with Race and Trayce. That's a lineup we haven’t used all year, but we are going to have to go to it more.''

As Hunter gets better on both ends of the floor, he will play more, though Miller's hands are tied a bit with zero depth in the front court. He needs Hunter up there to give Jackson-Davis and Thompson a blow, and that limits his ability to have all three of them out there at once.

Being smarter on defense matters, too.

"Those were really two tough foul calls at the end of shot clocks and when we had a stop (against Maryland). He has to be more disciplined in fouling, and we've have talked to Jerome a lot about that,'' Miller said. "It's about being smart. Offensively, he got a big one for us and thank goodness the second one went in because that was a questionable shot at that point in the game.

"That's who he is, and I think the more he plays, the more confidence he has. He was great on the boards. He had an unbelievable offensive put-back that Trayce Jackson-Davis ultimately got in, but he kept that play alive. He played the three for us for the first time this year. In our defense, he did a great job, and in our offense, he can shoot the ball for us when we needed some added fire power. We needed to finish better and Jerome helped us do that.''

Miller said Thursday night that he thought it was Hunter's best game. No one would really dispute that, especially when it comes to the points and rebounds. The defense will come, over time.

Time. It's on his side now. That erased season is ancient history, and little by little, he's re-introducing himself as the Jerome Hunter we had hoped to see those many years ago. Indiana is a different team on Hunter's best nights than they are if he has little or no role. 

The journey continues, and the ending is nowhere close to being written. Not even close. It's on the next one, a game at Nebraska that Indiana really needs to win.

"We know it came down to little mistakes at the end of the (Wisconsin) game,'' Hunter said. "That just lit a fire under us to come out and take it one game at a time and focus on Nebraska. Just trying to win that one and go home with a dub."