Lakers take Indiana PG Jalen Hood-Schifino with 1st-round pick in ...

EL SEGUNDO — The Lakers selected Jalen Hood-Schifino, a point guard from Indiana, with the 17th overall pick in the NBA draft on Thursday night. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year after averaging 13.5 points on 41.7% shooting in 32 games for the Hoosiers in 2022-23.

Hood-Schifino, listed at 6-foot-5½ and 217 pounds, also averaged 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists this past season. During one three-game stretch against Ohio State, Northwestern and Iowa, he averaged 26 points per game, making 16 of 24 shots from 3-point range, plus five assists.

He turned 20 on Monday.

“NBA teams were able to see that I can take over a game, create my own shot, run a team, that I have a high IQ, that I’m tough and that I have a unique pace to my game,” he said during an interview with ESPN.

Hood-Schifino comes from an athletic family. His father, Glenn Hood, was a quarterback at Santa Monica College. His mother, Adrianne, played basketball at Lock Haven (Pennsylvania). His uncle, Jake Schifino, was a fifth-round pick in the 2002 NFL Draft and appeared in 14 games. Another uncle, Drew Schifino, played basketball at West Virginia.

Hood-Schifino attended Chris Paul’s Rising Stars Camp as a high school freshman. He grew up in the Pittsburgh area, but the family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina while he was in middle school. He helped Montverde Academy to high school national championships during his junior and senior seasons.

“It’s kind of crazy, so it’s kind of hard to say how I feel because I was a big Kobe (Bryant) fan when I was growing up,” he said. “I was always watching his videos, watching the Lakers’ games. So, to get drafted by the Lakers is kind of crazy, kind of surreal. I’m super excited.”

More to come on this story.