Based on points per possession, Michigan had an average defensive game but they had several possessions where they were superb on defense. One of those was the opening possessions, as seen below. Watch how the on ball defenders move their feet to stay in front of their man, while the rest of the defense rotates relentlessly off the ball. John Beilein has historically had strong defenses and you can see why below.

Now let’s move on to the final possession. We will see some of the same characteristics of the above play, allowing the defense to be successful. The play gets going with the post entry to Green. Michigan uses Zack Novak to double on Green, allowing Austin Thornton to roam free on the perimeter. Michigan choose to take the ball out of the dangerous Green’s hands, neglecting Thornton.

Green makes a nice skip pass to the opposite wing, but Stu Douglass closes out nicely and doesn’t allow a jump shot. The ball then gets entered back into the post, this time on the opposite side to Derrick Nix.

Tim Hardaway, Jr. rotates from the right side over the paint over to Nix, to cut off his path to the rim. Michigan gets a bit lucky as Nix fumbles the ball but Hardaway was there to challenge Nix if he was able to get a shot off. Michigan now has a double team on the opposite post and the Spartans are wasting precious time.

After another kickout, Michigan closes out well again, forcing Keith Appling into a tough drive to the rim. Jordan Morgan steps up in help defense and blocks the shot of the smaller Appling. This is great recognition by Morgan, as he had to react quickly to the drive after being part of the double team on Nix in the post.

Michigan State recovers the blocked shot but Michigan is not doing playing defense. The offense is a bit rattled, which allows Michigan to ratchet up the pressure. The last nice thing they did on this possession was by Hardaway. After scrambling across the paint back to Thornton, he sees Brandon Wood dribbling toward him. He recognizes that he can step off Thornton and try to get a hand on the ball.

Hardaway does break up the drive by Wood but Wood is still able to get the ball to Green on the wing. Hardaway’s defense not only took away the drive by Wood, but forced a bad pass to Green, who could only juggle the ball before securing it. Now, there are now only four seconds left and Green has to rush his move to the basket.

With only four seconds left, Green has to hurry and is only able to make it to the free throw line before he has to put up a tough runner, which doesn’t drop. Michigan’s great team defense is on display here, as they stay in front of the ball, force the ball out of the best player’s hands and rotate beautifully to not allow any open jump shots.

The closeouts on this play will make Beilein smile when he watches the tape. Twice Michigan State kicked the ball to the perimeter and twice the Michigan defenders showed textbook closeouts, forcing the action toward the help defense. The help defense was up to the task, forcing two tough shots on this possession and locking down a big conference win.

Follow @TheMikanDrill

The play begins with TyQuane Goard (#32) cutting toward the corner, as he pretends that he is the first option for the set. As he comes around a screen by Kellog, he circles back around to set a screen for Kellog, who is the actual option for the set.

This is where the play gets a bit jumbled. As Goard circles back around to set the screen for Kellog, he and Kellog run into each other and slow the play down for  a second. However, Goard recovers to get a piece of Kellog’s defender which springs Kellog for an opening in the corner.

While Ohio does not execute this play purely, they do just well enough to open up space for Kellog in the corner. Goard does a nice job of selling himself as the first option before turning back to screen for Kellog. While the two Ohio players get tied up, this also ties up the Akron defense and the screen opens up additional space for Kellog.

With only one second left, this has to be a catch and shoot situation and Ohio has a nice play in their pocket to get a shot off. This was a nice play drawn up by the Bobcats and one they were able to run well enough to get a shot off just before the halftime buzzer.

Follow @TheMikanDrill

Coming out of a timeout, Marquette runs a set to get Jae Crowder a three point shot in the corner. Even though there are five seconds left on the shot clock, Crowder puts up a tough shot as he catches and shoots as he is turning after making the catch and he misses the shot.

Nasir Robinson has defensive responsibilities for Gardner but he is shaded toward Crowder as Crowder comes off the screen to the corner. Initially, it looks like Gardner is going to have a free run to the rim to grab any offensive rebound. Gardner is the 15th best offensive rebounder in the nation, as his offensive rebound rate is 16.1%.

While Gardner initially looks like the favorite to get the offensive rebound with Robinson shaded toward Crowder, Robinson does a nice job of getting back to Gardner and getting a body on him as the shot goes up. You can see below that Robinson is in good position to box out Gardner, as he is in front of Gardner when Crowder releases the shot.

Robinson makes a crucial mistake as the shot comes off the rim, as he fails to hold his box out on Gardner. As we saw above, Robinson was in position to keep Gardner off the glass but he failed to get enough of his body on Gardner. This allowed Gardner to move around to the left side of the rim to grab the offensive rebound.

While Gardner gets credit for fighting for the offensive rebound, Robinson is to blame for not finishing his boxout on Gardner. He did everything right but put his lower body into Gardner and fighting him off. After shading toward Crowder, he circled back to Gardner to get in front of him but he allowed Gardner too much room to manuever around him.

This baseline out of bounds play midway through the second half against Maryland demonstrates the increased ability to execute on the offensive end by the Deacs. This is a nicely designed play that the three primary players run well to get an open three point shot for Chase Fischer.

Ty Walker sets the screen for Fischer and starts by cutting to the corner to act like he is the intended target on the inbounds pass. This forces Ashton Pankey to overcommit to deny the pass, taking him out of position once Walker turns to set the screen for Fischer. Travis McKie makes the first cut, coming from the left elbow all the way around the perimeter who will then be followed by Fischer using the screen from Walker.

Walker sets a great screen for Fischer, who is great at using screens to get himself open. He rubs his man off Walker to get open in the corner as he follows the cut of McKie. With Pankey unable to hedge, Fischer is able to come off the screen freely. McKie’s role is to clear out the defense to open space for Fischer, as we will see below.

Look at McKie in the below frame. His role is to take the defender responsible for the inbounds man out of the play and not allow him to hedge out on Fischer. With his cut, McKie takes his man and Mychal Parker out of the play and opened the corner for Fischer.

This was a well designed and executed inbounds set by Wake Forest. Walker set his man up nicely before the screen to allow Fischer to use the screen without a second defender hounding him and McKie made an excellent cut to occupy two defenders and open up the corner for Fischer. Fischer is the best on the team in using screens and creating space for jump shots and he showed that in this play.

Follow @TheMikanDrill

The first play to illustrate is a Brandon Paul three point shot that came with 2:02 left and give Illinois the lead for good. Brandon Paul receives a backscreen at the elbow then runs baseline for a second screen from Meyers Leonard. Sam Thompson got caught in the backscreen, so he is several steps behind as Paul runs baseline.

Sullinger is defending Leonard and needs to do something on this baseline screen to help Thompson, especially with Paul having such a hot shooting night. Sullinger has to be wary of stepping too far out because Leonard will have a free path to the rim if he slips the screen and Thompson keeps fighting to get to Paul.

This play is not 100% on Sullinger but it shows his poor defensive tendencies. He has poor positioning to start, which forces Thompson to follow Paul around the screen of Leonard. Some slight shuffling on the screen allows Leonard to fully cut off Thompson from getting to Paul, giving him the space needed to shoot. Sullinger should be playing a step or two off Leonard, which would have allowed Thompson a better lane to get past the screen.

Also, Sullinger does a poor job of communicating the screen. Thompson sees it coming the whole way but it shows that Sullinger is not aware of everything that is going on around him. If he would have seen the screen coming, he could have taken a step away from Leonard, creating a lane for Thompson to by the screen and defend the shot. Again, this is not all on Sullinger but he didn’t do enough to help his teammate defend the screen.

This second play, where Sullinger fouled Paul on a drive to the rim, is mainly Sullinger’s fault. Sullinger starts by defending Leonard in the post and does an adequate job of denying him the ball. However, after the ball gets passed to Paul curling off a screen, he does a poor job of stepping off Leonard and providing help defense on Paul.

Look at where Sullinger several moments after Paul has received the ball and is in the process of making his move to the rim. Sullinger is still glued to Leonard as he has not reacted to the current action. This causes him to be late as he slides over to defend Paul, fouling him in the process.

This illustrates the way Sullinger reacts too slowly to action around him. While his strength allows him to be an average defender when guarding an offensive player in the post, he does not demonstrate the awareness or mobility to be a useful help defender. In this play, he had plenty of time to see Paul curling and rotate into the paint to do a better job of defending without fouling. Instead, he took too long to rotate and fouled Paul on the shot attempt.

These plays demonstrate much of what is wrong with Sullinger’s defense. He is poor on help defense, as he stays in the chest of his man, which causes him to be late on rotations or blocks his teammate from getting past screens. Ohio State still has the best defense (in terms of adjusted defense efficiency) but Sullinger hurts the defense more than he helps it.

Follow @TheMikanDrill

They play mainly zone defense and they show several different looks, including a 1-2-2 zone defense and a 2-3 zone, among other variations. One of the main reasons their defense has been so strong and a key to their current winning streak is their three point defense, as opponents are shooting only 30.9% against them. In their three opening losses, all three teams shot the ball above their current average from beyond the arc. In the 11 games since then, only three teams have shot better than their average from behind the three point line.

While some teams put their guards at the foul line and sit back in their zone defense, Georgia State extends the zone and forces the offense to initiate their sets from several feet beyond the three point line. With the guards pressuring the ball at the top of the key, the rest of the defenders often match up out of the zone and pack the paint.

Look at the guards pressuring the ball out past the three point line. This makes it difficult for the offense to get the ball to the weak spots in the zone, such as the high post or short corner and forces the wing players to move higher up the floor to create passing lanes for the ball handler.

By pushing the ball handler toward the half court line, this forces the wing players to take several steps away from the three point line to get into the passing lanes to create ball movement. If a wing player wants to catch and shoot, they will be several steps behind the three point line when they attempt the shot. While they are still close enough to potentially make the shot, this slight change throws some shooters off and causes their shot to come up short.

With the ball handler halfway between the three point line and half court due to the extended zone, you can see how the wing player, Bradford Burgess in this case, has to extend out to give the passer a lane to get him the ball. Burgess loves to catch and shoot and when he does off this pass, he is a couple steps behind where he would normally shoot. Again, this isn’t a major hindrance but this slight change can throw the shooter off, forcing him to miss his shot.

By extending the zone, Georgia State can make it difficult for the offense to initiate their offense as they make the first pass designed to penetrate the zone difficult. This causes the offense to settle for long jump shots, many of which are beyond their normal range. This is one of the main factors that the three point defense of Georgia State is so strong.

While part of the credit can be given to the defense for forcing tough three point shots, they don’t deserve all the accolades. The way their zones are designed leaves open spots on the floor and by extending the zone, it can be difficult to close out on shooters, especially on the wing or in the corner. Georgia State hopes to push the shooters back a few feet but when they don’t, the offense has a great look at the rim.

The Panthers often have only two players on the bottom of the zone making it the guards responsibilty to close out on shooters. This can be difficult when they extend the zone, as it too much of a distance for them to cover before the shooter can release his shot. What this leads to are open, makeable three point shots for the offense, but many of them have been missed so far this year. Georgia State has gotten somewhat lucky in this regard, as teams are missing very makeable shots against them during their winning streak.

By extending their guards at the top of the zone beyond the three point line, Georgia State makes it difficult for the offense to penetrate the zone with a pass to the high post which forces them to settle for long jump shots. While the defense forces some of these to be longer than normal, many of them are wide open as the guards cannot close out in time.

With teams shooting so many three pointers against them (37.9% of total field goals), the three point defense will be their key to success the rest of the season. So far, it has been good to them as they are riding an 11 game winning streak. If teams start to make their open shots, they could find themselves in trouble.

Follow @TheMikanDrill

They did not run ball screens much during the first half but it became a staple of the offense later in the game and it led to several positive possessions for the Spartans. Let’s look at how they exploited the defense of the Badgers.

Wisconsin chose not to hedge at all on these screens and straight switched on many of the pick and rolls. Their goal was to keep Michigan State’s guards, specifically Keith Appling, out of the lane. This didn’t work for several reasons, one being that Appling could blow by the big men of Wisconsin when he wanted to get to the rim and that he was knocking down jump shots when presented with that option.

Appling made great decisions coming off the pick and roll in this game, wisely choosing when he could take it to the rim and when the defense gave him room to pull up. First, let’s look at his ability to take the defense off the dribble. Look at how closely the defense is playing him in the first frame, off the pick and roll switch. There is little more than an arm’s length between Appling and the defender and Appling recognizes he can take him to the rim.

The defense tried to play Appling tight several times off the ball screen. When Appling saw this, he put his and broke the slower defender down on his way to the rim. While Wisconsin hoped this would prevent him from getting into the paint, the Badger defenders did not have the lateral quickness needed to stay in front of Appling.

When the defenders sagged off Appling and took away his driving lane, Appling pulled up and knocked down the open jump shots. With the threat of Appling driving, this put the defender on his heels and off-balance when they went to contest the shot, allowing Appling the space to elevate over the taller defender. Great decision making by Appling to recognize when to drive and when to pull up.

With Wisconsin switching the pick and roll, this left a small guard against the screener and Michigan State took advantage of this by sending their screener to crash the glass after setting the screen. They tried to hold the screen and let the ball handler a second to create before following in behind him to fight for the rebound. This led to either an offensive rebound and a putback or a foul as the smaller Badger struggled to box out the big man.

Finally, MSU also ran a nice variation of the pick and roll to take advantage of the switching defense. With the defense on the ball screen, the offense used the pick and roll to go right into a dribble handoff. Neither defender in the pick and roll could hedge in time and the variation catches the defender on the player receiving the handoff sleeping.

The defense is expecting the pick and roll to be the main action and is working on defending that set but Michigan State immediately goes into the dribble handoff and uses the ball handler to create a natural screener on the third defender, freeing up open space off the handoff.

With the defense looking for the pick and roll, the Spartans ran this handoff variation several times with success. This caught the defense off guard and there was nobody in position to defend the handoff.

There aren’t many kinks in the armor that is Wisconsin’s defense but they showed that they can struggle against a strong pick and roll team as their big men may be too slow to stop a dynamic guard. Credit has to go to Michigan State for executing the ball screens nicely and showing near flawless decision making on their way to a signature win early in conference play.

Follow @TheMikanDrill
//

After resetting the play, Northwestern enters the ball into Luka Mirkovic at the high post as Dave Sobolewski makes the pass. After making the entry pass to the high post, the passer usually cuts through the lane toward the opposite block before clearing out to the weak side corner. Sobolewski feigns this cut, which causes his defender to sag off him to take away a pass from Mirkovic.

However, instead of finishing his cut, Sobolewski suspends his cut and sets a screen for Drew Crawford, who will use this screen to curl to the top of the key.

Crawford’s defender, Matt Glover, is playing in his chest as he believes that Crawford is going to replace Sobolewski after the cut and Glover is attempting to prevent Crawford from getting a look at a three point shot. Meanwhile, Tim Frazier, Sobolewski’s defender, has sagged off him to take away any potential pass on the cut.

This means that Glover runs right into the screen, as Crawford comes right off the shoulder of Sobolewski and Frazier cannot switch out to Crawford, as he was already several steps below Sobolewski, defending what he thought was going to be a cut through the paint. The result is a wide open Crawford, as neither defender can recover.

The Princeton offense can get repetitive and this is a perfect example of how the offense can play the defense against itself. The two Penn State defenders on this play thought they knew what was coming after the high post entry. Northwestern ran a slight variation of the normal action, as the passer set a screen for the wing player, instead of them both just making cuts to get open.

The defense was not ready for this action and both defenders were caught assuming what their man was going to do, freeing Drew Crawford for a wide open three.

Follow @TheMikanDrill
// <![CDATA[
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs“);
// ]]>

The offense is dominated by guard penetration, led by Isaiah Canaan, who has an offensive rating of 125.5. Murray State runs few sets but relies on pick and rolls and dribble penetration to open up the floor. They space the floor with shooters who shoot 43.5% from beyond the arc (6th in the country). This allows their guards to find lanes for their dribble drives, which helps them shoot 51% on two point shots.

Here is a shot from a drive by Zay Jackson (the second clip in the video below). You can see one of the defenders scrambling out to Canaan, a dangerous three point shooter. With no help, Jackson is able to slice through the lane to the rim. Murray State also keeps a forward on the block, who opens up to the middle of the floor when his teammate drives to be available for the dump off pass.

The guards are strong enough on the ball that they can beat their defender easily, even without a ball screen. With three point shooters spacing the floor and a teammate on the baseline for support, they have space in the middle of the paint to get to the rim and finish.

As previously stated, Murray State is one of the best three point shooting teams in the country. This forces teams to choose whether to help on dribble penetration or stay in the chest of shooters. As seen in the frame above, if the defense prioritizes the shooter, the ball handler has the lane to the rim. However, if they help on the ball, shooters are left wide open.

Again, the offense features few screens other than ball screens and it is up to the guards to read the defense and either take the ball to the rim or kick out to shooters. In the below clips, the defense sags on the ball, leaving shooters open at the three point line. In this game against Eastern Illinois, the defense often helped on the ball which allowed Murray State to shoot 12-22 (54.5%) from the three point line.

The Racer offense is excellent, even though it is fairly simple. It relies on guard penetration, flanked by excellent three point shooters, both of which they have this season. The guards have the onus to read the defense and recognize whether they have the lane to the rim or if they have open three point shooters. As long as they continue to make the right decisions, they will continue to be a great offense.

Follow @TheMikanDrill

After controlling the opening tip, Matt Carlino enters the ball to Brandon Davies at the high post. Brock Zylstra then curls from the right wing to receive the handoff from Davies as Carlino clears out to the left wing. Meanwhile, Hartsock begins walking Jones down to the block,where he will seal him after Zylsta receives the handoff.

In the next frame, you can see the play begin to take shape and the space that BYU has created for Hartsock. Charles Abouo cuts down the baseline to take his defender out of help position, leaving the entire paint area open for Hartsock to isolate against Jones. Hartsock walks Jones down to the center of the paint, then pivots and seals Jones when the entry pass is ready to be made.

The last frame shows the space Hartsock has in the post. The help defense is slow to come and Hartsock works quickly to power the ball over Jones. Hartsock used his strength to seal Jones on his back and then his height advantage to finish the shot over Jones.

This is a fairly simple play but it took advantage of BYU’s frontcourt edge to isolate Hartsock against the smaller Jones. They cleared out all the other BYU players to give Hartsock the space needed to work in a one on one situation. BYU couldn’t get a win in their first WCC game but they started it with a nice possession for a score.

Follow @TheMikanDrill
//