Indiana might have played more zone defense on Tuesday evening in East Lansing than Bob Knight coached teams utilized in all games combined throughout his entire career.
And ironically, it was that IU zone that kept Michigan State’s Tom Izzo from passing the legendary former Hoosiers head coach as the all-time leader in Big Ten wins.
Indiana struggled out of the gate against the Spartans, falling behind 20-8. But a switch midway through the first half to a 2-3 zone with some extended pressure at times stymied the 11-point home favorite.
IU coach Mike Woodson, who played for Knight, says Indiana’s effectiveness playing zone on Saturday against Michigan helped spawn the idea to use it again against the Spartans. He said his team practiced the zone extensively in preparation for their road trip to face No. 11 MSU.
It worked. Michigan State shot just 38.2% from the field, including a miserable 4-of-23 from long range in a 71-67 Hoosiers win at Breslin Center.
“The zone helped us tonight. That was the key factor in winning this ball game,” Woodson said. “This team (Michigan State) really gets up and down the floor, you take bad shots, even when you make shots, they’re running right back at you. So we just felt like the only way to slow them down was to play some zone, and it was effective.”
Woodson has gone to a zone prior to the past week. He made a late game switch to the scheme against Louisville last season and it helped the Hoosiers rally for a win.
And he said he once won an NBA Playoff series utilizing a zone too.
“Me and Jim Todd, one of my consultants, we kid a lot about zone because he was a zone guy when I was in the NBA, and I won a playoff series, down one game and had to win a game on the road and come home and close it out in seven,” Woodson said. “He convinced me to play a 2-3 zone and we ended up winning that game and I couldn’t thank him enough.”
Izzo said after the game he had only seen Indiana play insignificant minutes of zone throughout the season. He was not pleased with how his team executed after the change was made.
“I was not okay with how we did it (attacked the zone), but I’ll give them some credit, they played it pretty well,” Izzo said. “To attack it well you have to make some shots.”
Izzo tied Knight’s Big Ten record of 353 conference wins with an 86-74 comeback victory over Oregon on Saturday. For IU, this was only a temporary reprieve when it comes to protecting the record of their former coach.
Indiana didn’t let Knight’s mark fall on their watch, but Izzo will have plenty more opportunities. It’s just a matter of time.
“Tom Izzo is a hell of a coach,” Woodson said. “Great coach. He’s done it for a lot of years and won a lot of games. To be mentioned with Bob Knight, that means Tom Izzo is pretty god damn special. Really special.”
Special? Yes. But he didn’t have any answers for — of all things — Indiana’s zone on this night.
Woodson was one of the late Knight’s favorite players, and Izzo an opposing coach he had a lot of respect for.
Somewhere Knight was probably smiling at the whole scene.
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