Film Session: Indiana’s late-game execution

  • 02/21/2013 2:22 pm in

III. INDIANA’S STOP

On the ensuing MSU possession, Nix receivers an entry pass way out near the right corner:

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As he tries making a move on Zeller, Ferrell is furiously waving his left arm to send Watford on a double team, as if to say “we got the weak side covered”:

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The double comes:

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Nix picks up his dribble. Valentine is open on the left wing, but Nix is simply unable to make that kind of pass out of this double team; it’s possible he’s even unable to see him:

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Watford eventually drops off and re-marks Payne. At this point, sensing that nothing’s working, Tom Izzo begins to call for a timeout. But with Sheehey looking at Nix, Valentine is sneaking into the lane off the left wing:

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Nix hits him and he does have room for a potential quick jumper here. But the timeout is now signaled and the Spartans will give it another try:

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Out of the timeout, Payne sets a pick for Harris on Ferrell, and it frees him coming across the lane:

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Zeller switches onto Harris with Ferrell switching onto Payne and we have two mismatches for the Hoosiers. Payne curls around to the right block as Harris receives the inbounds pass:

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Payne has the much smaller Ferrell posted up, but Watford is lingering on the backside. Harris has Zeller out on the right wing:

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Instead of dumping in an entry pass to Payne, Harris uses his quickness to breakdown Zeller and head to the rim. Ferrell and Oladipo come over to help:

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And with three Hoosiers giving attention to Harris — Oladipo being the primary one, as it looks like he almost gets a hand on the ball — Harris fails to hit on the drive and the ball goes out of bounds on MSU via a touch by Payne. Hoosier ball.

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Two back-to-back strong defense stands by the Hoosiers here — especially this second one here when MSU had two mismatches — and it allowed them to keep the narrow lead and get the ball back.

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