IU head men’s basketball coach Mike Woodson said it will be ‘huge for the program’ for Jalen Hood-Schifino and Trayce Jackson-Davis to be selected in the 2023 NBA Draft.
That vision became a reality on Thursday night. Hood-Schifino became IU’s first draft pick since 2019 when he went to the Los Angeles Lakers at No. 17 overall. Jackson-Davis slipped in the second round, but got the call from the Golden State Warriors at No. 57 overall.
This is the 14th NBA Draft in which IU has had multiple players selected.
Hood-Schifino lit up the Big Ten last season, earning Freshman of the Year and second team All-Big Ten honors for his efforts. He averaged 13.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, and stepped up in some big moments along the way. Undoubtedly, Hood-Schifino’s biggest moment in an IU uniform was his stellar 35-point performance against Purdue in West Lafayette, leading the Hoosiers to their first win at Mackey Arena in a decade.
“His ceiling is very high,” Woodson said about Hood-Schifino. “When I recruited him, I thought he had all the pro tendencies. When he came in here, he did everything so professionally, on and off the court, that you knew he had an opportunity to play at the next level. I thought the process was sped up because we did a lot of things to help him from an NBA standpoint. And he excelled. We kind of threw him to the wolves after Xavier Johnson got hurt and he never let us down. He did a lot of wonderful things during that time that has put him in this position. I think the sky is the limit for him. Los Angeles Lakers got a solid player on and off the floor that’s going to work his tail off. That’s all you can ask from a rookie coming in. He’ll learn the NBA and we’ll be talking about him probably 10 years down the road because he’ll have a solid career in the NBA.”
Jackson-Davis left Bloomington as one of the greatest players in program history.
He’s IU’s all-time leader in rebounding and blocks, and he’s third in both scoring and double-doubles. His senior season was his finest as a Hoosier, as he was named a consensus All-American. Jackson-Davis averaged 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.9 blocks per game.
Jackson-Davis earned a bevy of awards and recognition last year, in addition to his All-American plaudits. He won the Karl Malone Award for the nation’s top power forward, as well as first-team All-Big Ten and All-Big Ten defensive team honors.
“It is scary how far Trayce Jackson-Davis has come,” Woodson said. “The things I have shown him, he’s done. He rebounded the ball, he had high assists, he had blocks, he had big nights scoring the ball, rebounding the ball. There is nothing he cannot do. He has been questioned about his jump shot, but I think this summer he has been proving people wrong there in the camps that he’s attended, where he had to work and show these general managers and presidents of these teams, these scouts, that he can shoot the basketball. So, again, the sky is the limit for him. He is ready for the NBA because he is so athletic and can do a lot of things. He can get up and down the floor and finish around the rim. Golden State got a hell of a player.”
