Indiana basketball star freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino scored 19 points in Indiana’s 70-60 quarterfinal win over Maryland Friday night, helping advance the Hoosiers to the B1G Tournament Semis Saturday. Thanks in part to Hood-Schifino’s efforts, the Hoosiers will face off against Penn State for a spot in the B1G title game Sunday.

Hood-Schifino was thrust into the primary floor general role after veteran PG Xavier Johnson went down earlier in the season. Johnson won’t be back this year, but the confidence Hood-Schifino has carried to the position has the Hoosiers humming heading into the most important time of the year.

Head coach Mike Woodson praised that ability to step up after “being thrown to the wolves” earlier in the year. He detailed Hood-Schifino’s rise for Indiana basketball postgame Friday night.

“It’s something I saw in high school, and high school is not college,” Woodson said. “Once he got here, you could see how he approached things on and off the floor, his demeanor. It’s been a nice carryover from high school to college. He’s still growing. He has still a ways to go, but the fact that nobody says anything — us losing Xavier Johnson was huge, and it just threw him right to the wolves basically. He had to grow up awfully fast. And in doing that, he’s been great for us, man. He’s done a lot of great things for us to put us in this position.”

An unorthodox B1G semifinal

Indiana basketball tips off against Penn State at 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday. They’ll face off against the winner of Purdue/Ohio State. To recap, that’s the B1G 1-seed, 3-seed, 10-seed and 13-seed playing for all the marbles.

That’s unusual, to say the least. Regardless, Indiana is playing some of the best basketball of the group. The Boilermakers had to sweat it out against Rutgers, but don’t let the seeding by Ohio State and Penn State throw you – both have played at a high level to get to this point. Penn State especially is fighting for a spot in the Big Dance while Ohio State needs to win the title to crack the Field of 68.

Selection Sunday is just a day away!