IU basketball relies on zone defense, ‘total team effort’ to beat No. 11 Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. – All 265 pounds of Oumar Ballo lumbered out to half court, jumping up and down as he met Malik Reneau just outside of the Breslin Center’s Spartan logo and leapt in the air to embrace a chest bump. As he walked into the tunnel, he blew kisses towards the Michigan State crowd.

In this season with this timing, Indiana basketball wasn’t supposed to do what it did. Not only did the Hoosiers knock off No. 11 MSU in a dramatic 71-67 win, but they also prevented Tom Izzo from surpassing Bob Knight’s Big Ten win record in the process.

“I didn’t think I needed to tell our guys that,” Mike Woodson said postgame. “We (were) just trying to get out of this slide and get a win. I thought we had a total team effort.”

Entering the game as 11-point underdogs, Indiana looked even more unlikely to pull off the upset after the first nine minutes.

The Spartans sliced and slashed their way to whatever they wanted around the rim, flying out to a 20-8 lead. Eight players accounted for those 20 points, and whether it be a layup, free throw or putback from an offensive rebound, MSU controlled all facets.

Conversely, the Hoosiers opened with a lackluster offensive game plan. A repeat of the Wisconsin game looked imminent, barring a major adjustment.

Then, it happened. Unlike most of the season, when IU would accept its fate and play the same style until it was driven into the ground, the adjustment was made – a 2-3 zone.

It was nothing grand, but it was the right move. Woodson tinkered with the zone against Michigan on Saturday to no avail, but it worked wonders against a Spartans team who entered the game an abysmal 29.3 percent from the 3-point line.

“This team really gets up and down the floor,” Woodson said. “We just felt like the only way to slow them down was to play some zone.”

It helped both sides, too. Luke Goode made a pair of transition triples. The inside-out offense started to blossom. MSU baskets became harder and harder to come by.

Cathedral product Xavier Booker canned a corner three to give Michigan State a 27-20 lead with 5:41 left in the frame, but it was all IU for the rest of the half. The Hoosiers closed with a 12-2 run in which Sparty struggled even to find shots to take, let alone make them.

The spark continued into the second half, but trouble lurked when Ballo picked up his third foul early. When he was subbed out, it made a difference in IU’s zone without its rim protector roaming the paint and the Spartans started to find cracks.

MSU tested the Hoosiers, chipping a deficit as high as nine points down to three points twice, but the Hoosiers remained steadfast. After Ballo came back in but quickly picked up his fourth foul and returned to the bench, the lead shrank to two with 6:17 to play.

Indiana needed something, someone, or else another collapse reminiscent of the Maryland loss loomed. So, Reneau went to work.

With all of Michigan State’s bigs sans Booker in foul trouble, Reneau did as he pleased in the paint. Jump hook, bully ball, spin move – it didn’t matter. In a sub-three-minute stretch, he scored nine of Indiana’s 11 points to bump the lead back to nine.

“I was getting frustrated with myself early on, but Coach came up to me and told me, just go straight to the rim and that’s what I started doing,” Reneau said. “The second half, I was doing that, and everything was working for me.”

With the Spartans unable to regain the lead, Izzo decided to play chess, using up his fouls to give and forcing a shaky Hoosiers team to the free-throw line.

After a few IU misses and MSU baskets, a back-and-forth commenced. In the final 30 seconds, Woodson elected to foul when up three or four points to prevent any triples despite the Spartans’ woeful abilities from deep.

It created an affair that felt as long as a Christopher Nolan movie. In the final 1:15, the two teams attempted 21 free throws. Down 69-67 with five seconds left, Spartan guard Tre Holloman intentionally missed, but IU corralled the rebound and Anthony Leal sealed the game with two makes.

“They’ve had a tough go at it, but I can’t let them quit, man,” Woodson said. “We’ve just got to keep working and keep pushing each other and see where it leads us.”

Reneau and Ballo notched double-doubles and Luke Goode and Myles Rice each chipped in 10 points. The Hoosiers didn’t produce the prettiest numbers, but they, more importantly, made Michigan State’s even uglier – 38.2 percent shooting from the field and 17.4 percent from deep on 23 attempts.

So, what now? Can IU keep its momentum rolling? Is the zone defense the answer for the season’s remainder?

Those can’t be answered yet, and at this point, all Woodson has promised is to keep his team believing in something and to put in the work. With three straight home games next, can the Hoosiers use Tuesday’s win as a springboard to a strong finish?

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

Category: Media

Filed to: Michigan State Spartans