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[QUOTE="Fly Rodder, post: 4131601, member: 2133"]
Without getting to deep into things, I looked at the overall averages (which controls for different defenses) for three point shooting in D1 (i'd like to narrow it down to P5 conference games, but I don't have the time to manually separate them) and generally the number of shots taken per game and shooting percentage hasn't really changed over the last 10-15 seasons.  However, that doesn't mean there aren't more capable shooters on the floor or that the really good shooters are better.  Or the good teams are more capable of breaking the zone.

Personally, I've felt the zone defense can be elite with less than perfect defenders (and still can), but the problem is that it needs specific types of players the ones with the NBA size and good basketball skills are in short supply and generally end up at Kentucky, Duke, KU, Arizona, etc and not at SU.  Boeheim has to balance either tall lanky players with NBA bodies who aren't great basketball players (e.g., Chukwu, Frank Howard, etc.) or you get guys with basketball skill but don't meet the physical requirements for the zone (e.g., JG3).   There's a reason most of 350 teams in D1 play man and not zone because they're not restricted to a type of player.  Maybe, I don't know.  just a thought.  But it's not because the zone can't work in the P5.

Kihei Clark, for example, is a good man defender, but he's 5'10" with lifts in his shoes and wouldn't be as good in the zone as someone who's 6'4 or 6'5". [SIZE=1](this year maybe not)[/SIZE]
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