Film Session: Michigan

  • Feb 13, 2023 in

After a slow start on Saturday evening, Jalen Hood-Schifino came alive, finishing the game with 21 points (8-of-15) and five assists. In particular, the freshman’s play in high ball-screen action became a thorn in Michigan’s side. As he continued to make the right reads, the Wolverines threw different coverages and defenders at him. But the Indiana staff, Montverde product and his teammates were able to suss it out, throwing counters that kept the high ball-screen action successful, even in a low-scoring affair.

We’ll take a rather detailed look at the cat-and-mouse game between Hood-Schifino and Michigan’s defense in the latest edition of Film Session:

As Indiana mounted a mini-run at the end of the first half, Hood-Schifino scored from the mid-range on back-to-back possessions to cut Michigan’s lead from nine to five.

Against Hunter Dickinson’s drop coverage, Hood-Schifino first hit a deep 2:

With Dickinson again in drop coverage, Hood-Schifino got into the paint and hit more of a runner this time around:

After he hit those back-to-back buckets, Hood-Schifino again goes against Dickinson’s drop coverage, this time heading left. But wary of IU’s point guard rising up yet again, Dickinson jumps uphill to dissuade the shot. Hood-Schifino makes him pay, throwing a crisp pocket pass to Trayce Jackson-Davis who dunks it home.

Good stuff from IU’s freshman here to play Dickinson’s aggressiveness against him.

On Indiana’s first possession of the second half, the Wolverines now try going under Jackson-Davis’ screen to stop Hood-Schifino in the mid-range, as we see Jett Howard do here. But IU’s point guard simply used the opportunity to stop short of the drive and pull up to shoot a 3-pointer, which he drills.

Nice work by Hood-Schifino to counter Howard going under the screen.

As the second half progressed, Michigan switched things up and had Dickinson hard hedge on this high ball screen instead of playing drop coverage. But it allowed Hood-Schifino to feed Jackson-Davis, who scored over the weak-side help defense while getting fouled in the process:

The Wolverines found a little success slowing Hood-Schifino down with Dug McDaniel on him. Here, McDaniel gets up into Hood-Schifino and then goes over the high ball screen to blow up the initial action. This possession still ends with a decent look as Trey Galloway finds Jackson-Davis on the roll off another ball screen, but his shot doesn’t fall.

But not much later in the game, Hood-Schifino counters McDaniel’s quickness of going over the screen. Hood-Schifino rejects the screen this time around, which allows him to get a step left on McDaniel, who is anticipating him going right and using the screen. From there, Hood-Schifino keeps McDaniel behind him and it helps him score a layup at the rim.

Good counter from Hood-Schifino here to get all the way to the cup.

And then the Hoosiers decided if McDaniel could get over the ball screen pretty well, why not set two? Here Jackson-Davis and Malik Reneau set staggered screens for Hood-Schifino, which allows him to get to the mid-range against Dickinson’s drop coverage for another mid-range jumper.

Some of the best defense against Indiana’s ball screens in the second half came from Tarris Reed’s hard hedging. Reed is more mobile than Dickinson and he could hedge and recover on this one to blow it up. But Indiana still scored on this possession with Tamar Bates finding a back-cutting Jackson-Davis for a score.

Reed was able to do it again a few minutes later and this time the possession ended with a Jackson-Davis miss in the post.

But with the game hanging in the balance late, it was Dickinson again dropping, a coverage Hood-Schifino played well against for much of the contest. It allowed him to get near the basket and he was fouled on the shot here, where he hit both free throws to put Indiana up for good.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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