NCAA Basketball: Jalen Hood-Schifino announces commitment date while IU rolls again
This edition of Daily NCAA Basketball Musings will look at Indiana’s second exhibition win and where will 4-star Jalen Hood-Schifino end up?
Jalen Hood-Schifinoannounces commitment date
Consensus 2022 4-star recruit Jalen Hood-Schifino will make a decision on Aug. 24. Schifino-Hood is currently deciding between Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Memphis, and Texas. The 6-5 guard, a former Pitt commit, has taken official visits to Indiana and Tennessee., so it appears that the decision will come down to those two programs.
“A big and physical playmaker,” 247 Sports Eric Bossi wrote of Hood-Schifino’s game, “who can defend all three perimeter positions at a high level, Hood-Schifino is a strong ball-handler, gets to the rim, scores from the mid-range, and plays with an overall maturity that is far beyond his years. During the month of July, he was one of the top performers at Nike’s Peach Jam while playing with Team Thad.”
My best guess is that he ends up with the Hoosiers.
Indiana tops Serbian pro-team for a second time
The Indiana Hoosiers defeated BC Mega for the second time in three days in the Bahamas, this time by a score of 64-53. Xavier Johnson had a nice bounce-back game, delivering game-highs with13 points and seven assists despite only connecting on 4 of 15 shots from the field.
Rob Phinisee, who also struggled shooting again, had a nice floor game with six dimes while Trayce Jackson-Davis (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Race Thompson (10 points, 13 boards) each registered a double-double. Jordan Geronimo (7 points, 7 caroms) and Tamar Bates (9 points, 6 rebounds) showed well off the bench for the second straight game.
IU held the lead for all but 20 seconds as the Hoosiers’ stout defense held BC Mega to just 32.1% shooting from the field, and 27.6% (8-27) percent from beyond the arc. The Hoosiers also forced 12 turnovers, which they converted into eight points. Additionally, Indiana outrebounded BC Mega (47-41), held a 24-14 advantage in paint points and 5-2 in second-chance points.
Colorado improves to 2-0 in Costa Rica
The Colorado Buffaloes coasted to their second straight victory in Costa Rica with a 104-46 win over Colegio de Abogados Saturday night at Banco Nacional Arena in San Jose as six players scored in double-figures.
"“It was a lot of fun for them, and you know that’s kind of what this trip is about is those young guys,” said Associate Head Coach Mike Rohn, who took over head coaching duties for this game as head coach Tad Boyle has done in the past with his staff on foreign tours.“We did a lot of really good things; they really surprised us with a little zone, early in the game, we worked on it just a little bit in our camp, but they did a really good job with that. And so I was excited about it. And those guys are going to be good, they just got to keep learning.”“We played a lot of different lineups tonight We had some small guys in and played quick. Our ball screen coverage, we were able to put in a couple different ones and practice those and the guys did a really good job with that but, we should have been able to pressure this team a little bit and we did. “It puts some pressure on our help side defense, which is good because it made us work on that. Overall was really pleased with the effort.”"
Julian Hammond III led the way with 19 points while Keeshawn Barthelemy added 17 points and Luke O’Brien chipped in 16. Jabari Walker (14 points), Lawson Lovering (14), and KJ Simpson (13) rounded out the double-figure scoring.
Colorado continues its four-game exhibition tour on Sunday and Monday.
New Mexico State snags one more transfer
New Mexico State nabbed another transfer when sophomore guard Aquarn Butler announced that he will be an Aggie on Saturday morning.
“Love this guy! He won a lot of games in a Wrangler uniform,” Odessa College head coach Kris Baumann said in a tweet. “New Mexico State is getting a winner and a worker!”
Butler is the ninth transfer for head coach Chris Jans and the 10th guard on the Aggies 2021 roster. The 5-10 point guard averaged 6.3 points, 5.0 assists and 3.6 steals while shooting 38.2% from the field and 30.2% from beyond the arc for the Wranglers last season. He scored in double-figures on four occasions and doled out seven or more dimes six times.
Nate Pryor (Washington), Levor Williams (NJIT), Marsei Caston (Northwest Florida State College) Mario McKinney (John A. Logan), and Teddy Allen (Nebraska) are among the Aggies new guard transfers. Jermaine Harris (Rhode Island), Ishan White (Polk State), Marchelus Avery (Northwest Florida State), and Yuat Alok (Coppin State) are the other transfers.
Next. Predicting best player from top freshmen classes. dark
Ira Lee will not be able to play this upcoming season after his patella tendon in his knee playing pickup basketball and will be out for the next eight months. The 6-8, 245-pound forward transferred to George Washington from Arizona, where he averaged 3.9 points along with 3.2 rebounds for his career while shooting 55.8% from the field.