Archie Miller’s Indiana team fought tooth and nail against #16 Ohio State, but were a last-second three-pointer away from securing the victory.
Within the game, Indiana gave Ohio State multiple different looks at half court sets that tried to isolate Ohio State’s weaknesses. These sets are highlighted in the video below, along with their play diagrams and what the Hoosiers were hoping to accomplish with each set.
Diagonal – Down
In this play, Indiana is hoping to isolate Juwan Morgan in the post off of a diagonal screen. However, if that’s not there, they get the ball back in a guard’s hands and give the guard room to operate coming off of a ball screen. This was Indiana’s most popular set they ran against the Buckeyes.
Flex – Diagonal – Down
This play hopes to accomplish exactly what diagonal – down accomplishes, it just starts with a simple flex action to mask that the Hoosiers want to isolate their big in the post.
Flex – Post Iso
This is yet another play where IU looks to isolate a guy in the post. They do this by running a simple flex action, then having their downscreener seal their man on the block.
Cross – Down
This play is exactly the same as diagonal – down that we talked about above, the only difference is that the screen for the big man is set on the opposite block, not the opposite elbow.
Backscreen – Backscreen
Once again, this is a play that finishes with a screen to get a post isolated on the block. This is a great counter play to the ‘Flex – Diagonal – Down’ because it looks like the Hoosiers are about to get into a flex action with backscreen, down screen. But instead of IU setting a downscreen for Morgan to pop to the top, he receives a backscreen (cross screen) from the guy he just set one for to get isolated in the post.
Double DHO
This is a great play to get an isolation for somebody to attack the rim. It takes awhile to set up, but it ends with Robert Johnson curling off of 3 screens to get a clearout drive to the basket. Johnson got a good look at the basket, but it ended with his shot being blocked.
Zipper – Post Iso
Wouldn’t you know it – another play isolating an IU big in the post. This play looks very similar to diagonal – down, but it’s a fresh look off of a zipper cut to get Morgan a clean look in the post.
Rub Iso
This is a play IU went to twice down the stretch and got tremendous looks. The first one, Robert Johnson missed a point-blank look that would have won the game in regulation. The 2nd time, Johnson got fouled and made two free throws to send the game into double overtime.
Single Double – Double
IU ran this play to get Al Durham a clean look going to the basket. It takes a while to develop, but Durham’s man has to chase him all over the court as he gets hit with screen after screen.
Elbow Iso
IU saw a matchup that they liked with Juwan Morgan and exploited it by isolating him on the elbow. Morgan was able to take his man to the basket and gave IU a one point lead in double overtime.
BLOB – Flex
As you can see, Archie Miller likes to run flex as a part of his half court sets, and as showcased with this play, he uses it as a baseline out of bounds play, too.
BLOB – Curl
This was a great baseline out of bounds play that IU ran in the 2nd half to get a wide open three-pointer for Robert Johnson. By executing two curl cuts back-to-back, the OSU defense got confused and it left Robert Johnson wide open in the corner.
BLOB – Elbow Iso
This play is very similar to the half court set that the Hoosiers ran for Juwan Morgan in the closing seconds of the game. Instead, this time it was ran as a baseline out of bounds play for Justin Smith with 2 minutes left in double overtime. Smith scored and gave the Hoosiers the lead by 1.
These are all of the half court sets that IU ran against Ohio State. As you can see, Archie Miller exploited mismatches with his versatile post players by forcing Ohio State’s bigs to guard them all over the floor. Also, as you can see, Archie isn’t afraid to keep running the same set if he thinks he can get something positive out of it.
