There’s a huge Big Ten matchup Tuesday night when Michigan State travels to Indiana. The Spartans are trying to play their way into a #1 seed for the NCAA Tournament, and a win at IU could help solidify that. The last time these teams met MSU jumped all over Indiana, winning 80-65 at the Breslin Center. That was a 66 possession game, meaning Michigan State scored 1.21 points per possession. They converted 60% of their 2s.
Seeing Michigan State putting up excellent offensive numbers isn’t anything unusual, especially this season. In terms of efficiency Michigan State has the 14th best offense in the nation, averaging a strength adjusted 1.15 per possession. In Big Ten play they have the 2nd best offense (behind Indiana). This is the best offensive team Tom Izzo has had since 2007-08 (Drew Neitzel’s senior season).
For this video review I’m looking at three different variations that Michigan State runs out of one set. Look for it in their game with Indiana. It’s become one of Izzo’s most called plays this season, and he usually tries to get something at the rim out of this look.
It starts with the ball up top. In this case it’s Keith Appling (circled) while the rest of the team is in a line-stack (blue line) with four players stretched across the court at roughly the level of the free throw line.
The play begins with Appling dribbling right and passing the ball off to Branden Dawson (circled). Opposite that action Russell Byrd sets a screen so that Brandon Wood can pop to the ball (arrows).
Now that Wood has the ball up top (circled) Adreian Payne (blue arrow) sets a screen. Note that Michigan’s Jordan Morgan (red arrow) is the player that Wood is reading. In this case Morgan needs to be up closer to Payne’s hip so that he can hedge and slow down Wood long enough to the defender to catch up. But he’s not….
…and so this happens. Here’s the video:
Our second variation begins with the exact same setup that got us to the 3rd image in the above sequence. Again, Branden Dawson has pushed the ball to Brandon Wood, only this time Draymond Green is the one coming to set a screen for him. But on his way to the screen, he picks Branden Dawson’s man (blue arrow). And not to pick on Jordan Morgan, but again he’s out of position. But that is what makes this play so beautiful. It’s simple. It’s got several options. And if Michigan State reads everything right it’s almost impossible to stop. In this case Jordan Morgan needs to step to his left so that Branden Dawson doesn’t have a clean run to the rim.
He doesn’t. Here’s the video:
Against Minnesota, we’re looking at the exact same setup: Appling to Dawson to Wood. Now Wood is reading the freshman Elliot Eliason (red arrow) who is a step higher and to the right than Jordan Morgan was in first look above. This means that when he turns the corner Eliason won’t be rushing at him as hard as Morgan had to to get into position, and so won’t be as easy to go right by.
This is an easy fix though, as Wood just goes wider on his drive and forces Eliason to guard him and Derrick Nix (#25) at the same time. If Keith Appling’s man sells out to help on the drive, then it’s a simple kick out to Appling who will then skip the ball to Draymond Green and a 40% 3-pt shooter will be getting an open look. Pick your poision.
Here’s what Minnesota chose:
