Mike Woodson’s Inspired Switch To Zone Defense Against Michigan State Pays Off For Indiana
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Zone defense and Indiana – two things that typically don’t mix.
Bob Knight was famous for his aversion to zone defense. Mike Woodson, who played for Knight, also rarely plays zone.
However, it’s useful to zig sometimes when you’re expected to zag, and that’s just what the Hoosiers did on Tuesday. Indiana’s 2-3 zone defense was a major reason the Hoosiers ended their five-game losing streak and earned a 71-67 victory over No. 11 Michigan State at Breslin Center.
The zone threw Michigan State off their game. A middling outside shooting team, the Spartans only pieced together three makes in a row once in the game as they shot 38.2% from the field and made only 4 of 23 from 3-point range.
Woodson said Indiana played zone against Michigan Saturday. While the Wolverines won that game 70-67, the Hoosiers held them to 10 of 27 shooting after halftime.
“We played it against Michigan in the second half and held them to 21 points,” said Woodson, who noted that the Spartans like to get out in transition to generate offense. “We just felt like the only way to slow them down was to play zone, and the zone was effective and we came out of here with a win.”
The zone worked well when Oumar Ballo patrolled the lane. Michigan State’s bigs were never an offensive factor as early foul trouble for Jaxon Kohler, Syzmon Zapala and Carson Cooper never put the Spartans in a position to be able to attack the zone at the rim.
The only success Michigan State had in attacking the zone was to put Frankie Fidler in the middle of it for mid-range shots. He made 3 of 5 from the field for 12 points, but his effectiveness slowed as the game got into winning time.
Apart from that, the zone worked beautifully. Only five Spartans attempted 3-point shots, and no one made more than one-third of their attempts.
“We missed some incredible, I thought, open 3s, but that’s the way the game goes. That’s why got to win games defensively. The 3s don’t always come,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
Izzo noted that the Spartans haven’t seen much zone and that Indiana caught them off-guard as the Hoosiers have rarely played it this season.
“We haven’t run into much zone, but when you do, your shooters have to make shots. Could they have got it inside? They did a good job of taking that away,” Izzo said.
Woodson said Indiana’s hard work on the zone paid off.
“We were working on it the last few days. Coming out of the Michigan game, we thought we could use it. I thought tonight we did a helluva job in running it,” Woodson said.
The ultimate irony is that it was a zone defense that kept Bob Knight in a tie with Izzo for first place in Big Ten victories with 353 each.
Woodson smiled when this was pointed out to him. He gave long-time NBA assistant coach Jim Todd credit for opening his mind to playing zone. Todd was an assistant for Woodson both in Atlanta and with the New York Knicks.
“Me and Jim Todd, one of my consultants, we kid a lot about zone because he was a zone guy when I was in the NBA. I won a playoff series, down one and having to win a game on the road to come home and close it out in seven,” said Woodson, speaking of a 2010 playoff series between Atlanta and Milwaukee when Woodson coached the Hawks.
“(Todd) convinced me to play a 2-3 zone and we ended up winning that game. I couldn’t thank him enough. I’ve got great coaches who work for me that truly help me with the 2-3 zone. We worked on it the last few days and it paid off for us tonight,” Woodson said.
