Iowa State's No-Middle Defense
How the Cyclones defend the post better than (just about) anyone in the country.
Welcome back to another edition of The Starting Five. To read last week’s version, you can click/tap here.
The game of the night in college basketball is a top 10 battle between Iowa State and Houston. It’s a rematch from January 9th when Iowa State defeated Houston by four.
Statistically, the Cyclones and the Cougars play a similar brand of defense. They both:
Play very aggressive styles that rely on turning opponents over and taking them out of their comfort zones
Allow a high volume of three-point attempts
Even have the same weaknesses: Fouling and (to a lesser extent) defensive rebounding
If you have been following this newsletter or my YouTube channel this season, you are already familiar with Houston’s defensive scheme.
Iowa State guards ball screens with a fairly similar level of aggression. But perhaps the biggest difference between TJ Otzelberger’s scheme and Kelvin Sampson’s scheme is how they guard the post.
Houston post traps “big-to-big” — meaning the other big man not guarding the post-up comes over to double team.
On the other hand, Iowa State forces the ball to the baseline when it goes into the post (no-middle) and brings help with the lowest defender.
Here’s an example from Iowa State’s game on Saturday against Texas Tech where #12 Robert Jones is aggressively sending the ball baseline.
This is a rare instance where Iowa State’s help defense is late. You can see that #3 Tamin Lipsey is looking at #10 Keshon Gilbert and pointing — indicating that Gilbert needs to get in help position by moving towards the ball.
Because Jones is so aggressive in pushing the ball handler baseline, that low man defender must be there early in order to prevent a potential easy basket.
Sometimes, the Cyclones wait until the post player puts the ball on the floor to go and trap. Against Hunter Dickinson and Kansas, however, Iowa State double teamed on the flight of the pass.
Here’s the first possession of the game against KU. Watch how the low man #22 Milan Momcilovic immediately doubles Dickinson.
Dickinson is a very good passer out of double teams, but on this play he gets swallowed up by ISU’s aggressive trap.