[IUFR] Digging Into IU's Early-Season Offensive Playbook

Coach Adragna dives into the sets Indiana has run through their first five games.

Indiana’s offense has been up and down through their first five contests of the 2023-24 season. Currently, the Hoosiers are ranked just 97th overall in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric — slotted right between Utah State and Lipscomb.

For reference, they were up to 28th in the country last season after finishing a lowly 95th in Mike Woodson’s first season.

The numbers aren’t all that surprising, given that the Hoosiers have four new starters in the lineup and ten new players total. Not only are the players trying to feel each other out, Mike Woodson is trying to feel out his roster to see what works and what doesn’t.

In today’s film room, I dive into every set the Hoosiers have run this season and what they’re trying to accomplish with each one.

[Editor’s note: The first four sets are unlocked for everyone. The rest will be for paid subscribers only.]

Mgbako On the Move

High Post Stagger

It’s no secret that Mackenzie Mgbako has struggled to get it going early in the year. It appears Mgbako is most comfortable coming off of screens and making decisions from there. As you’ll see in the video below, Woodson likes to run this stagger action for Mgbako.

Miscellaneous Staggers

While Mike Woodson has run the stagger screen off of the left wing more than any other set for Mgbako, he’s run some other similar actions to free him loose, as you can see below.

Down Screen & Post

Strong-Side Down Screen

If Indiana feels like they’ve got a mismatch in the post, they like this simple action, which is a single down screen on the strong side and spacing the rest of the offense.

Double Down Screen

Much like the above video, this is also utilized when Indiana has a matchup in the post that Coach Woodson likes.

With the double down screen, the down screen takes place on both sides of the ball.

It seems like a simple action (it is), but the defense has to make decisions on how they want to guard it and Indiana can play off of it in numerous ways.

Now let’s get into some middle ball screens, high-post actions, baseline out of bounds plays, and much more.