For Jalen Hood-Schifino and Trayce Jackson-Davis, the big day has finally arrived.
The IU duo will learn their NBA destinations Thursday night during the 2023 NBA Draft. The draft begins at 8 p.m. and will air on ABC and ESPN.
These will be Indiana’s first NBA Draft selections since 2019, when the Boston Celtics took Romeo Langford at No. 14, the final pick of the lottery. Should Hood-Schifino go higher than that, he’d be IU’s highest pick in nearly a decade, since Noah Vonleh went ninth overall to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2014.
IU has had seven players drafted since 2010, with six of those coming in the first round. The four-year gap between Langford’s selection and this year’s draft is tied for the longest such period in IU history. The only other time IU went three straight years with no NBA draft picks was 1990-1992; Jay Edwards was taken in 1989, and Calbert Cheaney and Greg Graham went in 1993.
Hood-Schifino and Jackson-Davis will be the first players in Mike Woodson’s college coaching career to be selected in the NBA Draft. Hood-Schifino is expected to go in the middle of the first round; Jackson-Davis appears more likely to go in the second round, though the back end of the first round is a possibility.
Three mock drafts from major outlets — the Associated Press, Yahoo!, and The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, all posted June 21 — had Hood-Schifino going No. 13 overall to the Toronto Raptors.
SB Nation (posted June 20), Bleacher Report (June 21), and USA Today (June 20) pegged JHS at No. 14 to the New Orleans Pelicans.
ESPN (published June 21) and CBS Sports (posted June 21) have Hood-Schifino going No. 15 to the Atlanta Hawks.
247Sports (posted June 20), NBADraft.net (updated June 21), and FOX Sports (posted June 19) projected JHS to go No. 16 overall to the Utah Jazz.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger (posted June 21) was lower on Hood-Schifino than those other mock drafts, putting him at No. 20 to the Houston Rockets.
Meanwhile, only two of those mock drafts — SB Nation and NBADraft.net — projected Jackson-Davis in the first round. NBADraft.net pegged him at No. 27 to the Charlotte Hornets, while SB Nation had him at No. 29 to the Indiana Pacers (although that pick has since been traded to the Denver Nuggets).
Among second-round projections, Yahoo! had TJD the highest, at No. 32 to the Nuggets. ESPN put him at No. 34 to the Hornets. Bleacher Report had Jackson-Davis going to the Sacramento Kings at No. 38. And Vecenie picked him to go No. 40 to the Pacers.
Hollinger, 247Sports, USA Today, CBS Sports, the Associated Press, and FOX Sports did not include Jackson-Davis in their mock drafts, as they didn’t make second-round projections.
MORE 2023 NBA DRAFT COVERAGE:
- “Huge for our program” — 2023 NBA Draft can be key milestone for IU basketball
- IU basketball: The complete all-time list of former Hoosiers selected in the NBA Draft
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