How To Beat Indiana

" Indiana kills you with the three-point shot," says an assistant whose team lost to the Hoosiers in the NCAAs. "[Guards] Tom Coverdale, Dane Fife and Kyle Hornsby are all unbelievable streak shooters. All three will try threes in any situation—in transition, off screens, on a kick-out. Plus, [forward] Jared Jeffries is a lot of trouble in the paint, but you can't double him because he's an excellent passer and he'll find the open guy for a clean look. Don't have a guard fully double down on Jeffries. What you have to do is play him strong in the post with one defender, and then, when the ball goes in to him, have a guard take a quick slap at the ball, then close back out on the shooter. If you do it this way, Jeffries might throw up 30 on you, but the perimeter guys won't be shooting open threes.

"If Coverdale can't play, that's a huge difference, because [backup point guard Donald] Perry is athletic, but he's not a good shooter. That gives you a lot more options defensively.

"Defensively the Hoosiers play very solid, man-to-man defense. They get over screens and take away the catch-and-shoot, as they did to [ Kent State's Trevor] Huffman. But they have a couple of weaknesses. First, they're not real quick; you can break them down with dribble penetration. Second, their basic post defense is not very good. If you have a good low-post player, Jeffries and Jeff Newton will try to block his shot, but they're not very physical inside."