Film Session: Indiana’s late-game execution
II. VIC’S TIP-IN
On Indiana’s next possession, we see some weave action off the right wing — a Ferrell-to-Hulls handoff:
Hulls brings the ball around to the left wing and hands off to Zeller. And here is a familiar late-game play for the Hoosiers: Zeller driving off the top of the key. Oladipo gets a body on Derrick Nix as he begins to attack:
But Valentine does a great job of cutting Zeller off, and there will be no drive to the hoop for Zeller.
Indiana looked to reset on the perimeter after this, but Crean eventually opted for a timeout. The Spartans had taken away Indiana’s first option here, and it was time to draw up something new.
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Out of that timeout, Oladipo has the ball up top. Watford appears to come up to set a ballscreen, but there’s never any serious commitment to get a body on Valentine; Watford never gets to the side of him and actually sets up for a backscreen. Whether this was by design or not is unclear:
Vic comes left and again gets Valentine to the floor, but he actually loses the ball. And as he chases after the ball, it ends up being what appears to be an inadvertent perfect pass to Ferrell, who is curling around out of the corner and to the wing. Yet, this may have been the design all along — handing off to a curling Ferrell from the left corner, similar to how Watford got the ball on the play above:
In any event, Ferrell is able to get into the lane off of it and draw in the Michigan State. With Nix coming to stop him, Zeller is a quick option. We see Oladipo still way out in the corner as Ferrell gathers:
With Nix not getting up in the air on Ferrell’s shot, he’s able to get off a pretty clean look. As he does, Oladipo has snuck into the paint with Valentine’s back to him:
From there, with no boxout, Oladipo simply times his leap for a tip-in while Valentine, Harris and Nix never leave the floor and watch him give Indiana the lead:
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Filed to: Michigan State Spartans