Indiana's Jalen Hood-Schifino Named Big Ten Freshman of the Week

Indiana point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week after scoring a combined 54 points, 12 assists and six rebounds in losses to Iowa and Northwestern.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – It was a big week for freshman point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, despite Indiana losing two games.

On Thursday at Iowa, Hood-Schifino set a career-high with 21 points, nine assists and three rebounds. Returning home on Sunday against Northwestern, he increased his career-high to 33 points, along with three assists and three rebounds. This was the most points scored by an Indiana freshman since Eric Gordon in 2007.

Across these two games, Hood-Schifino shot 18-for-30 overall and 10-for-15 from 3-point range. On Monday, Hood-Schifino was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the first time in his Indiana career. 

Jalen Hood-Schifino went for 33 points in Indiana's loss to Northwestern. Nearly led late comeback. Now 21-44 from three after hitting 5-7. Came in shooting 45% on dribble jumpers and raised that number today. Not explosive but good use of change of speed. Needs to cut down TOs. pic.twitter.com/XSVsvwMvgL

— Jonathan Wasserman (@NBADraftWass) January 8, 2023

Past winners of this award in 2022-23 include Ohio State's Brice Sensabaugh, Michigan's Dug McDaniel and Jett Howard and Purdue's Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith. The last Hoosier to win this award was Hood-Schifino's teammate Trayce Jackson-Davis on Feb. 24, 2020. 

Hood-Schifino missed games against Rutgers, Nebraska and Arizona with a back injury, but he has really stepped up his game since returning on Dec. 17 at Kansas. Indiana fifth-year point guard Xavier Johnson injured his foot at Kansas, and Hood-Schifino has taken control of the Indiana offense in his absence. 

12 games into his freshman season, the 6-foot-6 Hood-Schifino is averaging 13.4 points, 4.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals. He's shooting 45.6 percent overall, 70.3 percent on free throws and 47.7 on 3-point attempts. Hood-Schifino's biggest area of struggle as a freshman has been turnovers, averaging 3.3 per game with six on Sunday against Northwestern.

Hood-Schifino joined Indiana as a five-star recruit out of Montverde Academy, where he helped win back-to-back GEICO National Championships.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• INDIANA OUT OF AP POLL: Indiana basketball is not featured in Monday's Associated Press top-25 poll for the first time in the 2022-23 season. The Hoosiers suffered two ugly losses this week, at Iowa and on their home court against Northwestern. Only two Big Ten teams made this week's ranking, No. 3 Purdue and No. 18 Wisconsin. Here's the complete AP Top-25 poll. CLICK HERE
• GAME STORY: Jalen Hood-Schifino scored a freshman-high 33 points and Trayce Jackson-Davis had 24 rebounds, the most by an Indiana player since 1971, but it still wasn't enough in a disappointing 84-83 loss to Northwestern. It was the Hoosiers' first home loss of the season. CLICK HERE
• NORTHWESTERN CAPITALIZES ON TURNOVERS: Northwestern basketball scored 25 points off 16 Indiana turnovers to defeat the No. 15 Hoosiers 84-83 at Assembly Hall. Boo Buie scored 26 points, and the Wildcats moved into a tie atop the Big Ten standing with a 3-1 conference record, 12-3 overall. CLICK HERE