Film Session: Nebraska
On Wednesday night, Nebraska employed many of the same defensive tactics Rutgers used against Trayce Jackson-Davis over the weekend. The Cornhuskers threw a zone at Indiana. They double-teamed Jackson-Davis. They put an extra defender in the paint on the pick-and-roll.
But the differences were stark.
The Cornhuskers weren’t as together as the Scarlet Knights in their schemes. And Indiana, unlike in Piscataway, did a much better job from distance, going 11-of-25 as opposed to 6-of-25.
All this allowed Jackson-Davis to get more assists, which aided his ability to lock down the third triple-double in IU basketball history.
We’ll take a look at Jackson-Davis’ passing work in the latest edition of Film Session:
On our first play, Jackson-Davis gets the ball on the left low block extended. From there, Wilhelm Breidenbach comes on the double team and Jackson-Davis gets pushed out to the perimeter. On the weak side, Xavier Johnson is on the right wing unmarked, as Nebraska guards the rest of the Hoosiers 3-on-4. With Nebraska’s defense’s back turned to Johnson, he uses the opportunity to cut into the lane. Jackson-Davis does a nice job spinning out the double team and finding Johnson in time for the bucket.
Next, Trey Galloway calls for a ball screen from Jackson-Davis out on the left wing. Anticipating Jackson-Davis rolling off the pick, Juwan Gary leaves Race Thompson in the weak-side corner and moves under the basket. But Galloway ends up going left and rejecting the pick which draws Derrick Walker off Jackson-Davis to try and stop the ball. This allows Galloway to toss the pass to Jackson-Davis and he now has Gary one-on-one in the paint.
Meanwhile, Thompson is cutting baseline and Emmanuel Bandoumel is caught between the cutting Thompson and Johnson on the right wing. Jackson-Davis opts to pass to Thompson and he scores for two at the rim.
Like Rutgers, Nebraska left Thompson completely to bring extra attention to Jackson-Davis in ball-screen action. But Indiana made the opponent pay this time around.
Off a sideline out-of-bounds play, Jackson-Davis sets a side ball screen for Johnson on the right wing. Johnson throws him a pocket pass and Jackson-Davis drives to the paint. From there, Nebraska swarms him with all five defenders in or near the paint. With Keisei Tominaga completely selling out and moving to Jackson-Davis, he leaves Miller Kopp wide open in the left corner.
Jackson-Davis makes the pass and Kopp splashes it home for three points.
While this was Kopp’s only make of the game from distance, it’s a gift to give the 48.7 percent 3-point shooter this much space.
On our final play, Thompson is double-fronted on the right low block as Jackson-Davis and Galloway play the two-man game on the left side. This gives Bates plenty of space on the weak-side perimeter. Once Galloway passes to Jackson-Davis, Gary leaves Thompson to double-team Jackson-Davis.
Bates has moved from the right corner to the right wing. Jackson-Davis finds him on the skip pass out of the double-team and Bates connects on the triple.
It’s simple enough work here from Indiana, but these were the shots the Hoosiers missed against Rutgers.
Filed to: Nebraska Cornhuskers, Trayce Jackson-Davis