Film study: Here are all 27 Northwestern three-point attempts against Indiana

Northwestern broke Indiana with a barrage of three-point makes on Wednesday evening in connection with their 79-70 win over the Hoosiers.

The Wildcats made 13-of-27 for the game from three, and 9-of-14 in the second half. It was the most threes IU had given up in a game this season (previous high 11), and the most Northwestern had made (previous high nine).

Here are all 27 threes Northwestern took in the game, categorized by how they were created. We look at all 27, because it’s the open shooters that are the concern here, not the result.

Obviously there is some overlap in some categories (e.g. drive and kick, over helping), so bear with me. Northwestern threw a lot of different looks at IU. The overarching themes would be attempting to take advantage of Indiana help principles, and attempting to create confusion/space due to switches and screens.

DOWN SCREENS

The most common way Northwestern got open threes was via down screens. These screens were at times combined with a drive to the basket where the IU defender was already drawn off his man to help create more separation for the shooter. Reading a switch assignment during a help assignment increases the chances of a mistake.

ROLL AND REPLACE

This is a simple action Northwestern ran twice. Both times Nick Martinelli made an open three. Watch Matthew Nicholson set a high ball screen, roll towards the basket and set another pick on his way down to free up Martinelli for a pop to the arc. Indiana’s defenders are focused on their help principles and lose track of the shooter.

LOSING TRACK OF THEIR MAN

There were times when Indiana’s defenders simply seemed to lose track of their man momentarily — just enough time to create open space.

Northwestern’s shooters also did a good job of relocating when a defenders head was turned, and reading how a defender chose to fight through a screen — and cutting/flaring the opposite direction.

GIVING TOO MUCH SPACE

At times Indiana’s defenders were simply giving shooters too much space, creating a opportunities that didn’t take much work by Northwestern to get a shot off. Obviously the amount of space IU chooses to allow should vary depending on the shooter.

GHOST SCREEN

Northwestern utilized some ghost screens, or fake screens, to create confusion for Indiana. The idea here is to get the two defenders in the action to read the situation differently (i.e. one reads switch while one doesn’t).

DOUBLE TEAMS ON DRIVING GUARDS

Indiana didn’t want to get beat in the paint by drives by Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli. In these two examples you can see Oumar Ballo coming to double those drives. That puts the IU defense in rotation and leads to open shooters.

DRIVE AND KICK

Many teams have had success against IU by simply driving the ball, drawing the help defense, and then kicking out to a shooter.

UNDER THE BALL SCREEN

Here Myles Rice goes under a high ball screen against a red hot Jalen Leach for a three that puts the game away. Rice has got to stay tight on Leach and go over the screen to take this shot away.

A FEW MORE

This dribble hand off leads to an easy look for a red hot Ty Berry. It’s probably an illegal screen, but Indiana has to be way more intentional about getting out to Berry.