Woodson Says Johnson 'Trying To Do Too Much,' Indiana Missed Hood-Schifino At Rutgers

Jalen Hood-Schifino and Xavier Johnson played their best game together in Indiana's win over North Carolina. But with Hood-Schifino out with a back injury against Rutgers, Xavier Johnson and the Indiana offense struggled, revealing how valuable Hood-Schifino is to Indiana's future.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Mike Woodson spent the last six months working to make Indiana's offense gel with two point guards on the court at the same time. 

Certain moments have shown that Xavier Johnson and Jalen Hood-Schifino are still learning to play alongside each other, but everything seemed to click on Wednesday against North Carolina. Hood-Schifino scored Indiana's first seven points and finished with a season-high 14 on 6-for-10 shooting. Johnson had one of his best games in an Indiana uniform, scoring 20 points with eight rebounds and four assists. They simply outplayed RJ Davis and Caleb Love, who shot a combined 9-for-27 from the field.

Guard play is so important in college basketball, and Indiana has lacked game changers in the backcourt since 2016 when Yogi Ferrell graduated. Indiana has two good ones this year, and we'll see just how good in upcoming games against No. 10 Arizona and No. 6 Kansas away from Assembly Hall. Johnson had his best games of the year at Xavier and against North Carolina, but Saturday loss at Rutgers revealed just how valuable Hood-Schifino is to the Hoosiers and to Johnson. 

"We've kind of taken the ball out of X's hands a little bit," Woodson said. "And not having Jalen on the floor, it put it back in his hands in a dominant way, which is okay, but you've got to be smart about some of the things you're doing."

Indiana Hoosiers guard Xavier Johnson (0) drives to the basket drives to the basket as Rutgers Scarlet Knights forward Mawot Mag (3) defends during the first half at Jersey Mike's Arena / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Johnson turned the ball over six times while shooting 2-for-11 with eight points, four assists, four steals and one rebound. Indiana's offense was harassed by Rutgers' swarming defense, and everyone outside of Miller Kopp had awful shooting performances, going 9 for 44, or 20.5 percent.

Johnson and Hood-Schifino had their best collective game running Indiana's offense against North Carolina, but with Hood-Schifino out with a back injury against Rutgers, the pressure was on Johnson. He was on his own after months of working to mesh with Hood-Schifino, and Trey Galloway and Tamar Bates couldn't replicate Hood-Schifino's production, combining two points on 1-for-10 shooting. 

"I think X is just trying to do too much," Woodson said. "He kind of, to me, converted back to when I first got him, and for the sake of our team, he doesn't have to do a whole lot. He's got to do his part, but he's got to also make sure that everybody's involved and he's not just going off on a tirade doing things that he shouldn't do."

Woodson thought the root of Indiana's struggles against Rutgers was a product of being out-toughed and out-rebounded. Rutgers won the rebounding battle 47-33, including 12 offensive rebounds. That's unacceptable from Woodson's perspective, and it has to improve moving forward. There's reason to believe it will with a front court led by Trayce Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson, Malik Reneau and Jordan Geronimo.

Woodson said Hood-Schifino remains day-to-day before Wednesday's game against Nebraska at 8:30 p.m. ET at Assembly Hall. It's a game Indiana should be able to win without its standout freshman guard, but Saturday's loss to Rutgers showed that the Hoosiers desperately need Hood-Schifino to achieve their Big Ten title aspirations. 

"No doubt, missing Jalen hurt, having another ball handler to take the slack off a little bit from [Johnson]," Woodson said. "But hey, I don't know when Jalen's going to get back, and we're going to have to figure it out with X running the point and Tamar and Galloway helping him along with CJ [Gunn] helping him handle the basketball out front."

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