Film Session: Saint Francis

  • 11/05/2022 8:13 am in

In Indiana’s blowout win against Saint Francis on Thursday night, the Hoosiers outscored the Cougars 28-4 in fast-break points.

On several of those scores, it was Indiana’s bigs bringing the ball up the court and making decisions. When asked about it after the game, Mike Woodson quickly pointed out this is nothing new for him.

“I started this in Atlanta coaching the Hawks and when I coached the Knicks, I got away from the conventional way of, well the big gets it off the board, he gives it to the guard, he brings it up,”  Woodson said. “We got a number of guys — we work on it in ballhandling drills —  that I feel good about guys making plays in the open court and being able to push and initiate our break.”

We’ll take a look at four such plays involving Indiana’s bigs getting things going in transition in the latest edition of Film Session:

Early in the first half with Indiana up just three, Race Thompson grabs the rebound and starts moving up the middle of the court. But he quickly sees Jalen Hood-Schifino heading up the left side and whips the pass ahead. From there, the 6-foot-5 freshmen has to beat Saint Francis’ 5-foot-8 guard Antwaan Cushingberry 1-on-1 which he does with a behind-the-back move for the score.

Good recognition from Thompson here not to do too much himself and instead move it ahead to Hood-Schifino.

With Indiana pulling away near the end of the first half, this time it’s Trayce Jackson-Davis grabbing the board and bringing it up the middle of the court. By the time he reaches half court, he sees he’s got a 2-on-1 situation with Xavier Johnson against Cushingberry. From here, it’s a give-and-go from Johnson back to Jackson-Davis, who slams it home to put Indiana up 21.

The Hoosiers won’t always be facing this big of a size discrepancy in transition, but nice work here from Jackson-Davis regardless.

With time winding down in the first half, Thompson helps over on the ball and picks up the steal. Thompson then confidently brings the ball up the court himself and Indiana again finds itself with a 2-on-1 against Cushingberry. He keeps it himself, making a nifty move in the lane to scoop and score the bucket.

From the steal to the dribbling to the score, Thompson certainly looks like a player comfortable pushing the pace in transition.

Early in the second half, Thompson grabs the rebounds and brings the ball up again. This time with the Cougars’ defense sending two to Jackson-Davis in the paint, they lose the ball and Thompson sees an opening to keep going, so he takes it to the hole.

Thompson got fouled on the shot, but missed both free throws. A nice read from him here regardless, though.

Filed to: , ,