Film Session: Iowa
Editor’s note: Ryan is out on paternity leave. Zion Brown will be writing Film Session in his absence.
On Tuesday, Iowa came to Assembly Hall and earned a wire-to-wire win over Indiana. The Hawkeyes won 90-68 for their fourth straight win over the Hoosiers. In this film session, we’ll look at what Iowa did to throw Indiana’s defense off.
Indiana’s defense hasn’t been perfect this year, and the team often relies on Trayce Jackson-Davis to clean plays up on the backside. Jackson-Davis averages 2.8 blocks per game this season, which ranks atop the Big Ten and seventh nationally.
The Hawkeyes limited Jackson-Davis’ rim protection all night, as he had the team’s only block on the evening. Here’s how Iowa created easy opportunities inside against IU.
Iowa frequently ran simultaneous actions throughout the game. On our first play, Tony Perkins brings Malik Reneau into a pick-and-roll action. On the other side of the floor, Payton Sandfort is setting a pindown for Kris Murray, who was guarded by Race Thompson, the only other big man on the floor.
Perkins managed to get the switch on Reneau and while Trey Galloway was fighting for positioning, Miller Kopp got back cut by Patrick McCaffery.
The Hawkeyes love to push in transition to create opportunities. On their next offensive possession, Iowa goes quickly and finds Filip Rebraca in the mid-post. As Thompson is once again worried about Murray on the weakside, Galloway gets back cut by Perkins who scores with no resistance.
Later in the half, Iowa took Rebraca out and essentially made the 6-foot-8 Murray its center. Indiana responded by also going small and placing Kopp at the power forward position. Jackson-Davis was defending Connor McCaffery, who takes 71.1 percent of his field goals from downtown.
Iowa found Murray in the mid-post and Perkins back-cut Jalen Hood-Schifino this time. All Jackson-Davis could do was watch from the foul line.
These small-ball lineups triggered a sequence of high-paced action. Jackson-Davis came down and exposed Iowa’s lack of size, but the Hawkeyes ran the floor quickly again.
As Jackson-Davis was guarding Murray, the trailer on the play, Perkins took Hood-Schifino to school again. No one was home for the Hoosiers.
Jackson-Davis got a dunk on the next play, but Iowa looked to push again. Jackson-Davis was occupied with Connor McCaffery again, meaning Perkins could blow by Hood-Schifino after rejecting a drag screen.
In the second half, Murray got his isolation game going. Murray grabbed a board and brought the ball up himself. After fighting for an offensive rebound, Jackson-Davis was well behind the play, and Murray put Kopp under the hoop for the deuce.
Mike Woodson called a timeout after that play, but nothing changed. Iowa lined up in a horns set and tossed Murray the rock at the left elbow. The Hawkeyes pretended to set staggered pindowns on the weakside. While Jackson-Davis was preparing to help on the screening action, Murray took Kopp to the rack again.
The game had basically ended at this point. The mix of poor off-ball awareness from Indiana combined with Iowa’s crisp offensive flow gave the Hawkeyes a 90-point night.
Filed to: Iowa Hawkeyes