IU basketball film study: Myles Rice’s ability to beat drop coverage

Indiana guard Myles Rice played a starring role in Indiana’s 87-71 win over South Carolina on Saturday.

The redshirt sophomore point guard posted 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting, and he added four rebounds and three assists.

South Carolina was intent on limiting Rice’s effectiveness by keeping him out of the paint and forcing him to shoot pull-up jump shots. The method utilized by the Gamecocks was a ball screen defensive tactic known as drop coverage.

First, what is drop coverage? It’s when the help defenders on ball screens don’t extend out to the perimeter to take away jump shots, and instead focus on eliminating the dribble drive. Think Jalen Hood-Schifino at Purdue in 2023 shooting floaters over Zach Edey.

WHY USE DROP COVERAGE AGAINST RICE?

Let’s set the stage with what opposing coaches are seeing from Rice as they watch film to prepare for Indiana.

The best comparable opponent South Carolina had available to prepare for Indiana was their exhibition at Tennessee in October. In that game Rice created all kinds of problems for the Vols by getting into the paint.

In what turned out to be the biggest play of the game, Oumar Ballo set a high ball screen for Rice more than 30 feet from the basket, creating great spacing for Indiana.

If you watch Ballo’s man, Felix Okpara, he extends beyond the arc to help on Rice, and that opens the lane and invites Rice to get downhill. This is probably the greatest strength of Rice’s game, and he makes Tennessee pay with this decisive assist. If Okpara had dropped down to the free throw line, perhaps Rice would have been compelled to shoot a pull-up jumper.

RICE BEATING DROP COVERAGE AGAINST SOUTH CAROLINA

Rice only shot 27.5% from three a year ago, so until he proves otherwise on a consistent basis, the book on him will generally be to make him beat you with jump shots, whether from the mid-range or from three.

Notice the difference in the help defense here vs. the Tennessee game above. Rice immediately reads it and doesn’t hesitate to make the proper basketball play. Because the screen was set a few feet beyond the arc, Rice was able to comfortably pull-up from three.

In these next two examples the ball screen action is initiated closer to the 3-point arc, resulting in long twos.

Indiana would likely prefer to start their offense further away from the basket so Rice and others can shoot threes rather than long twos.

But on Saturday, it really didn’t matter where Rice was pulling-up from. He was on fire:

A reliable floater is critical in order to be effective against drop coverage.

The announcer says he thinks this might have been a pass, but if you train your eyes on Rice it’s pretty clear it was a shot all the way. But the roll by Ballo certainly helps clear even more space for Rice.

Again, watch the help defense, which is in retreat mode the whole time:

REJECTING THE SCREEN

Another tool in Rice’s arsenal against drop coverage is to reject (not utilize) the ball screen and instead go away from the drop defender, who can’t really help without picking off his own man.

Here Rice makes that decision so fast that both his man and Ballo’s man are too slow to react, and the next line of defense has no chance against Rice’s top-end speed. He gets to the foul line where Rice is a career 82% free throw shooter.

SOMETHING ELSE — RICE OFF THE BALL

Indiana is not exclusively putting the ball in Rice’s hands to initiate the offense. They are clearly comfortable with Kanaan Carlyle and Trey Galloway in that role, even when Rice is on the floor. And that makes the offense more fluid since IU doesn’t always have to get the ball in the hands of one player.

Twice in the game Rice made threes playing off the ball. Both times he relocated to open space as his man ball-watched. Here Carlyle faced the same drop coverage but realized Rice’s man had helped on him, leaving Rice wide open.

So far on the season, Rice is shooting 4-of-7 from three (57.1%). He doesn’t have to be a high-volume shooter for IU, but if he can add the occasional off-ball three like this, it only makes the Hoosiers more dangerous: