Defensive mindset of freshmen guards to fit right in with Indiana system

Indiana's freshmen guard duo Jalen Hood-Schifino and CJ Gunn enter their first year in Bloomington with different expectations and also different roles.

While Hood-Schifino will be expected to play major minutes and potentially start alongside Xavier Johnson in the backcourt, Gunn will play a reserve role and potentially see time in just specialty scenarios.

Despite that, however, both players have a similar mindset when it comes to their time on the court. That is a hard-nosed and uber competitive style of play -- something that translates well to the defensive end of the floor.

"I grew up always having that dog in me on both ends of the floor," Gunn said last week.

"I'm just very competitive," Hood-Schifino said earlier this summer. "I hate for somebody to ever say they got the best of me."

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Jalen Hood-Schifino already prepped to play signifiant role for Indiana

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Indiana head coach Mike Woodson came to IU with the reputation of a good offensive coach with good defensive tendencies. In his first year in Bloomington he showed that for Indiana to be successful, it would be because of the intensity and discipline on the defensive end of the floor.

Indiana's front court did a good job masking some of the backcourt's deficiencies at times, but the Hoosiers struggled time and time again to limit dribble penetration from the guard position.

While it may not happen consistently this season, Indiana's freshmen pair of Hood-Schifino and Gunn bring that defensive stopping mentality to the floor.

"I really pride myself on defense and keeping my defender in front of me," Gunn said. "Also playing the right spot off the ball."

"As I grew up," Hood-Schifino added. "I always wanted to be the best defender and make sure no one ever got the best of me."

Hood-Schifino played against nationally ranked players every night playing for and practicing with Montverde Academy. While Gunn may not have faced the same challenge during his high school seasons, he played with Indy Heat on the Nike EYBL circuit. Last summer, he took on the challenge of guarding No. 1 player in the 2022 class Emoni Bates and drew two offensive fouls and forced countless forced shots and turnovers.

Now both players will bring that defensive mindset to Indiana -- but not without a bit of a learning curve.

"We've been working really good on offense and defense. On offense, we are all offensive players, so the offense takes care of itself," Gunn said. "We really try to focus on the defensive end. All the freshmen coming in are learning the spots on defense and learning the rotations and stuff like that."

So as the freshmen continue to learn the Indiana defensive system, neither of them will forget where that toughness and defensive mentality came from -- their families.

"So just growing up, I always played against older competition. Played against my older cousins. When I was younger, they used to like bully me, so I always took it to heart," Hood-Schifino said. "As I grew up, I always wanted to be the best defender and make sure no one ever got the best of me."

"Me and my sister used to go one-on-one, probably for about two, three hours out there. We used to scratch each other, make each other bleed, cry, fuss over, stuff like that," Gunn added. "Just doing that with my sister and having that competitive spirit since a young age, I can have that against anybody if I did it with my sister. So, I can do it with anybody."

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VIDEO Q&As:

CJ Gunn discusses summer workouts

Jalen Hood-Schifino discusses summer workouts

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