Terps used zone defense to stifle Hoosiers in Tuesday's win

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In the Terrapin men’s basketball team’s first four games, its pressing defense caused havoc and led to transition offense that produced blow-out victories against over-matched, small-conference opponents.

But knowing when to abandon the pressure defense was one of the keys to the Terps’ fifth win of the season.

Against an Indiana squad bent on playing fast Tuesday night, the Terps, faced with a growing first-half deficit, dropped into a zone defense. The cold-shooting Hoosiers never adjusted, allowing the Terps to escape Assembly Hall with an 80-68 win.

“Our press didn’t exist,” coach Gary Williams said. “They did a great job of attacking our press. We had to get out of it.”

The Terps (5-2) showed the zone, which they used well late last season as they surged into the NCAA Tournament, can offer an effective change of pace from the relentless style Williams prefers to employ.

The Hoosiers hit just 7-of-26 three-point attempts and managed just 18 points in the paint — the Terps had 38 — en route to shooting 33 percent overall for the night. Meanwhile, the Terps, who had used the zone with limited success a few times this season, looked comfortable slowing down the Hoosier offense, despite allowing 20 offensive rebounds in the game.

“It’s something that can throw their offense off a little bit — something to shake things up,” forward Landon Milbourne said.

Williams often talks about how he had to learn to teach zone defense relatively late in his basketball development because when he was a Terp player, his coach, Bud Millikan, only played man-to-man defense. Tuesday, he characterized the move to the zone defense, which first came with the Terps down by seven late in the first half, as a “gamble a little bit.”

But the change of approach worked to perfection. The young Hoosiers were befuddled, often settling for outside jumpers instead of trying to attack the Terp frontcourt with Milbourne in foul trouble.

“It’s always nice to have when you’re struggling covering the guys man-to-man, and we can go zone and slow them down,” said guard Eric Hayes, who added that the Terps would need to look at the tape to see what Indiana did to have success against the press.

The Terps still plan to attack teams with a heavy dose of defensive pressure, and they need to rebound better out of the zone for it to be effective against better teams. But Williams, who said his team has been working hard on the zone, knows his team will be more dangerous with several defensive looks in its arsenal.

But as the Terps earned their first road win of the season Tuesday, the impetus for the move was more desperation than calculated genius.

“Nothing was working,” Williams acknowledged.

edetweiler@umdbk.com