IU basketball: 5-star freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino expected to make immediate impact

While driving Jalen Hood-Schifino to the airport for his flight home after his junior year at Montverde Academy, Montverde assistant coach Rae Miller asked the talented combo guard how he felt about his first year with the powerhouse program in Florida. 

Miller wasn't at all sure of the answer he was going to get. 

After averaging 15.6 points and 6.0 assists as a sophomore at Combine Academy in Charlotte, Hood-Schifino came to Montverde as a top 30 recruit nationally in the Class of 2022, but couldn't crack the starting lineup with senior guards and top 70 recruits Ryan Nembhard and Langston Love holding down the starting spots. He was still part of the rotation on a national championship winning team, but in three games at the GEICO High School nationals tournament, he played a total of 37 minutes and scored six points. 

Miller could tell that coming off the bench bothered Hood-Schifino -- the coach would have been concerned if it didn't -- but the guard's response told Miller that he understood the big picture. 

"He said, “It was the best decision I’ve ever made,'" Miller said. "At that point, I knew his senior year would be fine."

It was more than fine. Hood-Schifino helped lead Montverde to another GEICO national championship and his development in his two years at Montverde is one of the big reasons Hood-Schifino is considered not only one of the best, but one of the most important incoming freshmen in the college basketball. 

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Unlike other recent IU blue-chip recruits, such as Romeo Langford and Trayce Jackson-Davis and slightly more distant ones, such as Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh and Eric Gordon, Hood-Schifino won't be asked to carry the Hoosiers on his back immediately as the featured scorer. Instead he'll be asked to adapt, to play not one role, but several, and to simply do whatever he can to try to elevate an IU team that already has several established pieces, including an incumbent at his chosen position.

For Indiana to get the most out of the 6-5, 210-pound Hood-Schifino this season as the Hoosiers pursue a Big Ten title they're suddenly among the favorites to win, he has to be willing and able to play alongside fifth-year senior point guard Xavier Johnson, but also take over the reins of the offense when Johnson is off the floor. He has to play on the ball and off it, defend primary ball-handlers but also wings. He has to be willing to take control of games but also to cede it and even spend some time on the bench again. 

During his time at Montverde, Hood-Schifino got useful experience that could help in all of those endeavors and did so playing a national schedule as part of a roster with arguably more raw talent than the one he's on with Indiana. With a perimeter job open, the No. 22 player nationally in the Class of 2022 will be expected to compete to be in the starting five right away, but he believes he is fully prepared. 

"I would just say that every-day grind," Hood-Schifino said in a Zoom news conference Thursday  when asked how the Montverde experience prepared him. "Just the practices, every day you're going against the five-star guys in high school, so it's just good. The coaches did a good job of pushing us, and you know, I think overall, you know, it gave me a big leap to where I am now." 

Hood-Schifino already had a head start by virtue of good genetics and competitive family, both immediate and extended. His father Glen Hood was a small-college quarterback. His mother Angel was a high school basketball star at Penn Hills High School in the Pittsburgh area, earning a scholarship to Division II Lock Haven, and her brothers Jake and Drew were also star athletes. They were teammates on the Penn Hills basketball team. Drew went on to star at West Virginia, then played professionally overseas. Jake focused on football, playing wide receiver at Akron, then had a brief stint in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans. 

From the time Jalen was young, he was pitted in pickup games against older cousins and forced to hold his own. 

"It was literally just every day playing in my grandma's backyard, my grandma and granddad's backyard, going against my other cousins Sherron and DeAndre, they pushed me every day," Hood-Schifino said. "I was always the young kid, and all their older friends, my big bros, they would be up there and they would always bully me. It got to a point where I got good and I was able to compete with them, so it just helped me and really bred me into who I am now."

By the time he was 12 he started winning those games, and not long after that he and his mother moved to North Carolina, He started as a freshman at Northside Christian Academy in Charlotte and averaged 13 points per game. Montverde took notice and recruited him throughout his sophomore year at Combine Academy. He actually committed to Pitt in late December of 2019 so he wasn't necessarily in need of more recruiting attention, but he decided to go to Montverde to make himself a better player, in particular to make himself a point guard. 

"I remember him going to USA basketball his sophomore year and not making a team," Miller said. "He was trying to fight through injuries and aches and pains at that time, but he wouldn’t stop. He kept wanting to work and be one of the best to play the game. That consistency of effort, that mental toughness and physical toughness said a lot about him. He was willing to be coached. He was very coachable. He wanted to be good. I think what impressed me is he tried to learn and grow."

Hood-Schifino went to Montverde knowing there was a good chance that for all his credentials, there was a good chance he wouldn't start, and he didn't. Montverde's two starting guards, Nembhard and Love, were both rated in the top 70 of the Class of 2021 and ended up going to Creighton and Baylor respectively. They were modestly rated compared to what the Eagles had in the frontcourt. Center Jalen Duren (No. 6) and power forward Caleb Houstan (No. 11) ended up going to Memphis and Michigan respectively and were taken in Thursday night's NBA draft as one-and-dones. The only junior who started, small forward Dariq Whitehead, is the No. 2 rated player in the Class of 2022 and is headed to Duke, likely to be a one-and-done himself and a lottery pick in the 2023 draft. 

But Hood-Schifino knew he had to take advantage of the talent and the coaching around him to develop as a point guard on both sides of the floor, and that such a pursuit was more important than putting up high numbers at a less-loaded program. 

"There are several players playing the point guard position who have to become point guards," Miller said. "They play because they are the best ball-handler on the floor, probably the guy that looks the part. But understanding the part, understanding what your coaches need and being able to communicate that to four teammates on the floor, being vocal, being alert and aware of the situation surrounding you and having a sense of when the ball needs to be where, all of those things need to be learned." 

Hood-Schifino needed to learn how to play more under control on both sides of the floor. He was a hard-nosed defender, but sometimes too aggressive trying to create turnovers and that often led to foul trouble. And on the offensive side of the floor, he was excellent at creating opportunities for himself and was willing to get others involved, but had never had to learn the nuances of connecting with elite teammates and how to not only get them the ball but create the the best possible scenarios. 

In Nembhard he had an excellent mentor and a challenging foil at practice, a much smaller player at 6-foot, but a true point guard who went on to average 4.4 assists per game as a freshman at Creighton this season. He also had to learn how to both defend and play with the other stars in practice, which was an education in itself. 

"I thought that just having to play against Ryan every day made him better," Miller said. "But Dariq handled the ball, Langston handled the ball, you have to guard those guys. You have to guard a 6-5 athlete in Dariq. You have to guard a small elusive guard in Ryan. And you have to handle the ball against him every day. Those kinds of things got him to where he needed to be. It was the first time he played with a guy lake Jalen Duren. It was his first time playing with an elite shooter like Caleb Houstan and knowing how to get him the ball in the spot where he wants it. Being accurate with your pass. Understanding the pick and roll, understanding who needs the ball and who’s open when. Reading those situations and having to play against that level of player really helped him to grow."

Hood-Schifino kept his head high throughout despite the lack of playing time, and in 2021-22 he was ready to take control. He still had Whitehead to work with at the 3, five-star senior Malik Reneau and five-star junior Kwame Evans Jr., in the frontcourt and Dillon Mitchell, the No. 5 player in the Class of 2022 on the wing. He had to share some time with four-star point guard Skyy Clark, but Clark struggled after an offseason ACL tear and Hood-Schifino was on his own at the point by the time the GEICO national tournament rolled around. 

In Montverde's three games in that event, Hood-Schifino showed how far he'd come on both ends. He had 12 points, four assists and three steals in a win over Arizona Compass, then eight points, six rebounds, eight assists and three steals in a semifinal win over IMG Academy in the semifinals. In the 60-49 victory over Link Academy in the title game, he took just two shots in 29 minutes but dished out five assists and helped the four other starters score in double figures while helping hold Link to 32.1% shooting. 

It was proof that Hood-Schifino had morphed into a facilitator, a player who could affect the game without scoring. 

Now he'll have to make more changes, but he's better prepared than ever before. He'll compete with the 6-3, 200-pound Johnson for time at the point, but it's hard to imagine Johnson coming off the bench after he averaged 12.1 points and 5.1 assists per game last season. 

The Hoosiers will be best served when they can get both men on the floor together. Hood-Schifino has the more experience of the two playing shooting guard. With Indiana's 2021-22 starting shooting guard Parker Stewart having transferred back to Tennessee-Martin, that gives Hood-Schifino a chance to start right away. He feels very comfortable with the idea of sharing the floor with another point guard. 

"Playing alongside Xavier Johnson, that would be great," said Hood-Schifino, who played pickup with Johnson when he was at Pitt. "I think we both complement each other's games pretty well. "Prior to coming into Indiana, I already had a relationship with Xavier. So we kind of already built that bond. So I get here now and to practice with him and kind of get a feel for everybody, I think it's going to be great."

Johnson shared the floor at times with backup point guard Rob Phinisee last year, but Hood-Schifino has more physical gifts. The 6-1 Phinisee is an excellent defender, but he usually guarded the ball when he was on the floor with Johnson, forcing Johnson to guard shooting guards. The 6-5 Hood-Schifino can take on bigger wings, however, and won't be out of place if he gets caught up in switches. He has a Big Ten-ready body, and now more so, a Big Ten-ready mind. 

"I think he’s prepared to hit the floor running at IU defensively," Miller said. "I think that will be his hallmark once the season starts. He’ll be able to defend multiple positions. He’ll be able to understand all of the defensive responsibilities, and he’ll be able to understand the communication process very quickly. Offensively, I think he’ll be playing with higher level players. That will allow him to be comfortable and run the offense the way coach Woodson wants him to. He comes in prepared. He's been a two-time champion."

He's prepared because he pushed himself, and was willing to go somewhere he wouldn't be the star so he could grow and learn. 

"The everyday grind at Montverde, people don't know what we put into it, like the practices," Hood-Schifino said. "It's almost like college practice; you're practicing three-plus hours every day. It really prepared me for now."

Follow Herald-Times IU Insider Dustin Dopirak on Twitter at @DustinDopirak or email him at DDopirak@gannett.com.