EAST LANSING, Mich. — Desperate times call for desperate measures?
Indiana basketball relied on a zone defense they’ve rarely used for a prolonged period of time during the Mike Woodson era in a 71-67 upset win over No. 11 Michigan State on Tuesday night.
The Hoosiers (15-10; 6-8 Big Ten) settled into the defensive strategy midway through the first half to turn the tables against the Spartans at the Breslin Center after trailing by as many as 12 points. They took the lead right before halftime and maintained the advantage until the final buzzer.
It was a celebratory moment for an IU team that’s had a cloud hanging over it for much of the last month.
“They’ve had a tough go of it,” Woodson said. “I can’t let them quit, we just got to keep working and keep pushing each other and see where it leads us.”
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Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson puts Hoosiers in the zone
Last week, Woodson announced he was stepping down at the end of the season.
He’s tried to keep his focus on the court to help the Hoosiers reverse a slump — they came to East Lansing having lost five straight games and seven of their last eight — that’s made them a long shot to reach the NCAA Tournament.
They had also lost 11 in a row to ranked teams going back to the 2022-23 season.
Woodson huddled with his staff and they decided to spend the days leading up the game refining their 2-3 zone in hopes of slowing down a Michigan State team that likes to run, but struggles shooting the ball from 3-point range.
Indiana dabbled with the zone in the second half against Michigan. The other most recent example of the Hoosiers relying on a zone look was in a 74-66 win over Louisville in the 2023 Empire Classic.
It was reminiscent of the decision Woodson made when he was coach of the Atlanta Hawks in 2010 and facing a decisive Game 7 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
The Hawks held Milwaukee to 74 points on 32.6% shooting and 4 of 19 on 3s.
“Me and Jim Todd, one of my consultants, we kid a lot about zone, he was a zone guy when I was in the NBA,” Woodson said. “…He convinced me to play a 2-3 zone, and we ended up winning that game. I got great coaches that work for me, that truly help with the 2-3 zone. We worked on it the last few days, it paid off for us tonight.”
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Indiana basketball gets ‘desperate’ against Tom Izzo’s Spartans
Woodson’s decision on Tuesday night to rely on zone defense prevented Izzo from breaking Bob Knight’s all-time Big Ten wins record. Knight, who was Woodson’s mentor, rarely used a zone defense.
“They played the hell of it,” Woodson said.
Michigan State shot 38.2% and was just 4 of 23 from 3-point range with eight turnovers in the second half. The Spartans had lengthy scoreless droughts while their leading scorers, Jaden Akins and Jase Richardson, shot a combined 20% (3 of 15) from beyond the arc.
“This team really gets up and down the floor,” Woodson said. “When you take bad shots, they are running and you can make shots, and they are running right back at you. We felt like the only way to slow them down was to play some zone and the zone was effective.”
Izzo was certainly impressed.
The longtime MSU coach referred to Indiana as a “desperate” team multiple times after the game. He said he was out-coached by Woodson — Woodson has a 3-2 record in head-to-head matchups against Izzo — and applauded IU’s effort considering “they’ve gone through hell” in recent weeks.
“We have enough talent on this team and I just got to do a better job these last six or seven games in getting these guys to believe in one another,” Woodson said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball: Mike Woodson uses zone defense to upset Michigan State
