When Xavier Johnson broke his foot at Kansas in December, the lead ball-handling duties fell on the freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino.
At the time, there were questions. Was Jalen Hood-Schifino going to be able to lead the offense? Is he ready? How can he fill Johnson’s shoes? What kind of player does he need to be for IU to succeed?
14 weeks later, it’s safe to say that he’s answered those questions. The Montverde product did everything he could to keep Indiana afloat, and then some. Without Johnson for the final 24 games, Indiana finished 23-12 and 12-8 in the Big Ten while making the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. And the play of Hood-Schifino has created exciting possibilities for his future. The Big Ten freshman of the year played his way into the first round of NBA mock drafts. Before the season began, the projection was for him to be picked somewhere in the second round. It looked like if that happened, he may have decided to stay at Indiana for his sophomore season. Now, it seems a foregone conclusion that Hood-Schifino will enter his name into the 2023 NBA draft.
A deeper look into the Pittsburgh native’s play shows why his season propelled him into the first-round discussion and how he helped lead the Hoosiers after Johnson’s injury.
The freshman averaged 13.5 points per game, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 41.7 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from beyond the arc and 77.6 percent from the free throw line.
What Hood-Schifino did well
Poise: Most impressively, Hood-Schifino didn’t seem to be having the regular growing pains of a freshman point guard. In the game’s biggest moments, he never shrunk. After making a careless turnover at home against Illinois, he went down the court and made a pull-up jumper to tie the game at 67. Then, he drew a foul and made the game-winning free throws a possession later. In Indiana’s big home win over Purdue, Hood-Schifino sealed the game with a layup which extended Indiana’s lead to five with 25 seconds remaining.
Managing the pick-and-roll and two-man game with Trayce Jackson-Davis: Down the stretch of last season, the two-man game between Johnson and Jackson-Davis became the bread and butter of Indiana’s offense. 40.4 percent of Indiana’s offensive plays involving JHS were in the pick and roll. Jackson-Davis was the biggest benefactor in this. The guard’s ability to pull up from mid-range and hit at an effective rate caused opposing…