Theories on Zone Defense
I love discussing defensive strategies with coaches because each coach has such varying and strong opinions on the matter. I’m a believer that coaches believe in strategies and styles and then try to find players that fit those styles. It isn’t easy to do where recruiting isn’t involved. What I mean is that Jim Boeheim is going to run a 2-3 zone because it works for him. He goes after kids who are able to play good zone defense. He wants athletic wings with long arms who can get out and contest shots while still being able to get in and rebound the ball. He wants quick guards who can react to passes quickly and stop dribble penetration out front.
High school coaches typically don’t hand pick kids so this makes it tougher. Coaches have to react and use what is given them and that isn’t always easy. I played for some very good high school coaches and college coaches for that matter so i got to learn a lot of defensive philosophies in the process. Here are a few of my zone favorites:
2-3 Zone: Great zone where rebounding is a teams primary weakness. If you have a team with some height but not a lot of quickness then this zone isn’t bad at all. Smaller teams use their quickness in a man to man in an attempt to spread the floor to make it easier to drive against bigger players. It also makes it easier to rebound. The 2-3 is simple in it’s concept and the easiest to teach of the zones because most offenses have sets that match the 2-3 zone so it is the closest to a matchup zone out there.
3-2 zone: I actually like the 3-2 with a long athletic player out front. He makes it tough to reverse the ball and keeps the ball to one side. You are susceptible in the corners and if the offense has some athletic wings they can find some gaps in the zone, but the zone works because it extends the offense out further away and actually makes it tougher on shooters.
1-3-1 zone: This zone is proving to be very successful for Michigan this season as they’ve upset UCLA and DUKE so far. Michigan does it by putting their most athletic big man on the baseline where he can cover a lot of ground and they rely on having a point defender that has to be aggressive and push the offense to a side. A 1-3-1 is good when all the pieces work together but can be beat on the baseline and the blocks. In both games that Michigan upset Duke and UCLA they really made it difficult on them by getting on them for each shot and making each penetration difficult.
thoughts?
