WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Matt Painter's Boilermakers flipped the script on the Purdue-Indiana rivalry series Saturday night with a 79-59 victory.
The win completed Purdue's season sweep of Indiana, which swept the series last season. Perhaps the most notable performance of last year's rivalry was Indiana's Jalen Hood-Schifino picking apart the Boilermakers' defense for 35 points with mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper.
Coach Mike Woodson put the weight of running Indiana's offense on Hood-Schifino's freshman shoulders after senior point guard Xavier Johnson suffered what turned out to be a season-ending foot injury on Dec. 17 at Kansas. Hood-Schifino made the most of his opportunity and ultimately won Big Ten Freshman of the Year, averaging 13.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.
Carving up Purdue for 35 points marked the best game of Hood-Schifino's freshman year, and it drew nationwide attention as part of "FOX Primetime Hoops," a national broadcast package added on Saturday nights beginning with the 2022-23 season.
If a loss ever comes with a positive takeaway, Painter suggested one after Saturday night's game.
"Obviously they swept us last year, even though we won the Big Ten by three games. They simply outplayed us," Painter said after Purdue's 79-59 win. "Hood-Schifino was so good here last year. I think we helped him get to the NBA with the way we defended him. So, that was the silver lining of that game, right?"
Had Hood-Schifino not had such an outburst against No. 5 Purdue, it's possible his draft stock would not have risen to surefire one-and-done status.
Even further, Johnson's injury made way for Hood-Schifino to have the ball in his hands every possession and develop into Indiana's go-to perimeter scorer. If Johnson didn't break his foot at Kansas, he would have exhausted his eligibility last season instead of getting a medical hardship waiver for this season. And maybe Hood-Schifino spends his sophomore season in Bloomington before heading to the NBA Draft.
It's all hypothetical, but Painter raises an interesting thought. Take a look at Hood-Schifino's freshman year path from an NBA perspective.
Hood-Schifino was not listed in the top 60 of a 2023 NBA Mock Draft by NBA.com's Jonathan Wasserman on Nov. 23, 2022, six games into his freshman season. He was still nowhere to be found on Wasserman's two-round mock draft published on Dec. 23, 2022.
But as Big Ten play ramped up, his climb began. Wasserman slotted Hood-Schifino No. 25 overall in his mock draft on Jan. 19, 2023. But there was still a bit of hesitation, stating "Hood-Schifino could be playing himself into the 2023 draft."
About a month later, Hood-Schifino inched up to No. 18 in Wasserman's mock draft on Feb. 14, noting "Scouts are catching on to Hood-Schifino with Indiana winning and the 6'6", 213-pound guard producing with flashy ball-handling and passing and three-level shot-making."
Shortly after the Purdue game at Mackey Arena, Wasserman's mock draft on March 8 had Hood-Schifino at No. 14 overall. He wrote that, "Interest in Hood-Schifino had been growing for weeks, long before Saturday’s 35-point eruption in Indiana’s win over Purdue [on Feb. 25]."
After the lottery order was revealed, Wasserman mocked Hood-Schifino at No. 21 overall on May 16, saying "Hood-Schifino, whose NBA fanbase gradually grew with his budding flashes of pull-up shot-making and flashy passes." Even closer to the draft, Wasserman wrote on June 21, 2023 that "Jalen Hood-Schifino is earning consideration as high as No. 9 from the Jazz."
The Los Angeles Lakers ended up drafting Hood-Schifino 17th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft. But due to injuries and the Lakers' roster construction, he hasn't played a huge role during his rookie season.
Hood-Schifino has appeared in 16 games for the 28-26 Lakers. In just 94 total minutes, he has scored 27 points with 11 rebounds, eight assists, eight turnovers, three steals and two blocks. He's shooting 22.2% (8-for-36) from the field, 9.1% (1-for-11) on 3-point attempts and 62.5% (10-for-16) at the free throw line.
While Hood-Schifino's 35-point game at Purdue – or any single-game performance on its own– didn't solely determine his NBA Draft stock, it clearly had an impact. Perhaps it ensured he'd be gone. It's possible he still would have turned pro with a 15-point game that night, because he caught the attention of NBA teams in several other previous games.
Still, the combination of Johnson's injury and Hood-Schifino's subsequent emergence raises one of the most interesting "what if?" scenarios in recent Indiana basketball history.
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