Growing up, Jalen Hood-Schifino played basketball in his grandparents’ backyard. He played against his older cousins, Sherron and DeAndre Schifino. DeAndre Schifino would end up being a member of the University of Pittsburgh’s football team. Sherron Schifino would end up playing college basketball (and still currently is). Sherron and DeAndre Schifino’s friends — who were also older than Hood-Schifino — played with them, too. “I was always the young kid,” Hood-Schifino explained on Thursday via Zoom. When he was younger, Hood-Schifino got dominated by the older competition.
Eventually, though, Hood-Schifino caught up. Hood-Schifino said when he was 12 years old, he was able to compete with them. Then, Hood-Schifino said, probably when he was in eighth and ninth grade, he started to win some games.
“It got to a point where, you know, I got good and I was able to compete with them,” Hood-Schifino said. “So it just helped me and it like really bred me into who I am now.”
And now?
“It’s like, you know, I don’t lose no more,” Hood-Schifino said with a laugh.
Hood-Schifino, who is now preparing for his first season at IU, is a highly-touted prospect. He arrived at IU with an already impressive basketball résumé. He helped Montverde Academy win back-to-back GEICO Basketball Nationals titles (2021 and 2022). He played in the 2022 Jordan Brand Classic. In the spring, he spent some time working out in California with professionals, including the Los Angeles Clippers’ Paul George. As Hood-Schifino has begun his transition to IU, his two seasons at Montverde have helped the adjustment.
“The everyday grind at Montverde, people don’t really know what’s, you know, put into it, like the practices,” Hood-Schifino said. “It’s almost like a college practice; you’re practicing three-plus hours every day, so it really prepared me for now… Now going through college, it’s almost like I’m at Montverde but at a college level.”
Part of the intrigue of Hood-Schifino’s game is his versatility. He’s a two-way player. Some of that can be traced back to those games in his grandparents’ backyard when he’d get dominated. “I always took it to heart,” Hood-Schifino said. “So as I, you know, growed up, I always wanted to, you know, be the best defender and make sure no one ever got the best of me.”
Hood-Schifino also already has a physical frame — he’s listed on IU’s roster at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds. He…
