Film Session: Michigan State
While Indiana’s offensive struggles were an issue in its loss to Michigan State, the Hoosiers also had trouble with their ball-screen defense.
“That was a major breakdown as far as our pick-and-roll coverage,” Mike Woodson told reporters post-game. “Normally we’ve been pretty good at guarding the ball and really taking care of our assignments in the pick-and-roll and they had their way tonight. We got to go back, watch this tape, break it down and regroup. Because Wisconsin, they run a bunch of ball screens as well. We’ve been pretty good in that category but tonight we were awful. I mean, just awful.”
A look at what went wrong with Indiana’s ball-screen coverage highlights the latest edition of Film Session:
Marcus Bingham Jr. sets a ball screen for Tyson Walker. As Walker comes around the screen, Trayce Jackson-Davis makes the decision to switch onto Walker. Trey Galloway then switches onto Bingham Jr., who has popped to the top of the key.
But on Jackson-Davis’ switch, he never gets in front of the smaller, quicker Walker. So Walker simply drives right by him for the score.
While Jackson-Davis has been strong at blocking shots at the rim this season, Walker is too shifty here to time the block attempt. It would have been better for TJD to try and stop the ball fom the onset by squaring Walker up instead of chasing from behind.
Filed to: Michigan State Spartans