The defensive system

[NineOneSeven]

Syracuse is the 2-3 zone. Everyone knows it. It's won Jim, and SU, many games over the years. Every now and then (usually with a loss), people suggest playing man defense. It's usually shot down pretty vehemently- on this board by posters, and also by Jim in pressers (we can't play man).

The strategy is, quite often, weather the storm. Teams get hot, and you Play the percentages. This has worked plenty of times. However, usually the teams we are fielding are adequate, if not elite, at zone defense. There are outliers in sports. Teams get hot against you and you can't overreact- you play the percentages and things usually regress to the mean. Maybe you lose a game here or there (which we have over the years), but the defense will help you win games more than it will hurt you. Call it heart, call it coaching, call it personnel- whatever you want (it's a combination of all of them)- this recipe has worked a lot for us. But what happens when those outliers are no longer outliers?

We always hear that we don't play man because we can't- we are somehow, actually worse at man than zone. Even when we are getting dismantled in zone, somehow man would be worse. Which leads me to my point- it makes sense why we would be bad at man. Our coach has coached primarily zone defense for almost the entirety of his tenure here, especially the last half. The players, therefore, practice mainly zone. So it would then make sense that your team would be bad at it, correct? Playing a defense you don't ever practice- how could you be good at it? So what does that say about our actual, practiced defense then? The zone has been dismantled by St Johns, and a team that went 0-18 in ACC play last season. There's a misconception that man defense is just "stay with your man". Not at all. The rotations required in good man defense are arguably more complicated than in zone. I just can't overlook this statement- D1 players who have played ball many years, "cannot" play zone or man defense. The two most common defenses in the sport.

We have a lot of issues out there right now. It's not just coaching, it's not just the system, it's not just the players. It's everything. And it's really bad.

This hasn't even touched on the lack of consistent offensive execution (a problem for years, which we have hashed a lot so far this season). I'm pretty lost. Jim is lost. The players are lost. Mariah Carey is still lost. Everyone is lost.

 

[OrangeDW]

The way the game has gone and continues to go, it would seem that a 2-3 zone defense that largely depends on opponents missing 3's is a poor strategy going forward.

Most teams seem to have at least 3-4 guys who can really shoot the 3 now, and that's probably only going to increase with time.

 

[NineOneSeven]

The way the game has gone and continues to go, it would seem that a 2-3 zone defense that largely depends on opponents missing 3's is a poor strategy going forward.

Most teams seem to have at least 3-4 guys who can really shoot the 3 now, and that's probably only going to increase with time.

Great point.

This is the direction the NBA has also been going. It comes down to analytics. The Houston Rockets' entire offensive philosophy is based on inside scores, free throws, and three pointers. In the NBA, there are often five players who can make a 3. Brook Lopez is averaging 2 threes a game after averaging 0 (zero!) his entire career. Marc Gasol is shooting 41% from 3 and has already made more this year than his entire career.

Now, some would say that the fact teams are shooting more threes, that would benefit us. I disagree. More shooters on the floor. More strategy to get shooters open. Add in our current defense? Wow. I would LOVE to be a shooter and face us right now. Practice shots.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

The way the game has gone and continues to go, it would seem that a 2-3 zone defense that largely depends on opponents missing 3's is a poor strategy going forward.

Most teams seem to have at least 3-4 guys who can really shoot the 3 now, and that's probably only going to increase with time.

And more teams are taking advantage of our not being able to defend the pass into the high post. BC had 28 assists on 36 made baskets. 17 assists were in the first half. We had 12 assists total. It's not fun dissecting the stats.

 

[orangecuse]

I for one will never believe that the caliber of athletes that we recruit, whom have been playing highly competitive man to man their entire lives before coming to SU just can't play a whiff of it. Miraculously, these same players that we don't get that end up going to other P5 schools seem to be able to play it at their respectively school just fine.

Additionally, playing man to man D is not as cumbersome or complex as playing our particular zone. Furthermore, playing solid m2m D is primarily the mental mindset, toughness, grit, heart, effort, etc. to play it. There's really never a good excuse not to play good defense based upon the aforementioned, unless, you're simply over matched physically and athletically. SU, being an alleged 'elite' program with the type of recruits we typically get are very seldom over matched athletically.

 

[NineOneSeven]

I for one will never believe that the caliber of athletes that we recruit, whom have been playing highly competitive man to man their entire lives before coming to SU just can't play a whiff of it. Miraculously, these same players that we don't get that end up going to other P5 schools seem to be able to play it at their respectively school just fine.

Additionally, playing man to man D is not as cumbersome or complex as playing our particular zone. Furthermore, playing solid m2m D is primarily the mental mindset, toughness, grit, heart, effort, etc. to play it. There's really never a good excuse not to play good defense based upon the aforementioned, unless, you're simply over matched physically and athletically. SU, being an alleged 'elite' program with the type of recruits we typically get are very seldom over matched athletically.

A lot of it is heart, for sure. Much more in man to man imo. We are a mess out there

 

[Czar]

Yeah, the rise of the 3 ball is the death of the 2-3. It used to be fine giving teams that shot once upon a time when even shooting 33% made you consider someone good at shooting the 3. Now players are coached through life about the 3 and college teams can trot out 3-4 guys who can shoot at that clip, and any decent team will have one guy that can shoot above 40, not to mention players are way better at hitting open 3's than they used to be.

The 2-3 is either dead or dying.