The Zone and being Zoned

[Gabjon]

This is a post that a wrote on Wednesday but never posted largely because I felt the board was too negative at the time, but I think it still applies I hope it can foster a good conversation.

First the zone. The center position is the key to the whole thing. We have been playing our wings up (high on the base line) for years. Really since 2010 as I recall it and since then we had a Senior AO, followed by a senior Ricky, followed by a Sophomore Fab. These guys all played the center position in the zone very well and ALLOWED our forwards to play high and aggressively defending the 3pt line and going for steals. Rak is nowhere near aggressive enough to cover the ground needed to be covered on a play in and play out basis. Baye is not strong enough and doesn’t seem any stronger as a junior than he was as freshmen. (strength and conditioning coach?) Wiry guys can still be strong but Baye is not wiry strong and he should be by now. Teams have been attacking the back line of the zone by playing 2 bigs like Marquette or by playing one big one step outside the along the baseline and firing a pass to him before the defense can react. The issue with the 2 bigs is one of them has to be guards by our forwards. James a senior is not strong enough and is another player that doesn’t seem like he have gotten stronger in his time on the hill. (strength and conditioning coach?) This leaves really only CJ as being able to do everything we need our back line defenders to do.

Being Zoned! Against man to man we were up roughly 10pts in the first half of both the Georgetown and the Marquette games. Both teams went zone and we lost both games. So why are we so bad against zones? (feel free to make your own joke here) To me it is more than we just don’t shoot well, it’s the fact that we don’t have a quick guard that can penetrate zones. MCW can use his length and long stride to beat a man (i.e. man to man) but against a zone it is better to have shorter quicker steps to respond to the collapsing defenders also MCW is not strong with the ball and has had it taking away from him in recent games at an alarming rate. (strength and conditioning coach?) Triche's size is also used against him vs a zone, where he can overpower a man in man to man defense he has a hard time getting into the lane vs a zone. The reason that I bring these issues up is we have no one to break down a zone, therefore all of our scoring has to come out of set plays. Our sets work when we get the ball to CJ for his midrange game or when James is hitting 3pts. That is it! James needs to fake the ball in drive it more similar to that runner he hit vs Georgetown, which I believe is the last time he drove the ball. But the issue is with the guards and my biggest gripe is that we only have THREE guards on the team! Trevor who I believe is improving is not going to get in the lane and create havoc probably in his entire career, but that was not what he was recruited for. He was recruited as a shooter a zone buster and he is not that yet. So what's the next option? There isn't one! This is on JB a 6ft nothing guard is the easiest player to find and mid-majors are littered with very good guards who are maybe an inch or two too short to play at a major D1 school. Especially since it was not clear (by all counts) that Cooney would be ready for major minutes. You have to have a back up plan!

 

[themorey]

Good insight. I'll add that MCW doesn't seem to be able to keep smaller, quicker guards from penetrating our zone, which forces the interior to collapse and opens up the 3pt line.

 

[Nicknack]

A lot of good points. Although, I do believe that A LOT of it does in fact have to do with our poor shooting. Triche has been absent, for the most part, the last three games and guess what? We struggle mightily when he is off. When he finds his stroke again, we will look like a different team. Some may say that it's the zone that is causing his poor shooting, I for one, do not. Just look at the shots he is missing that normally he makes regardless of the D.

Just take yesterday for instance. We had a lot of great looks but guys were missing. If you don't make most of those wide open looks, you will struggle regardless of the defense. I STILL like our chances and thank the basketball gods that we have Depaul next as a tune up to Gtown. I believe in two weeks we will be thinking about our team much differently than some do now. I look for a win against Gtown and a strong showing in the BET.

 

[Gabjon]

I agree that shooting well is a cure all, but if you think of all the teams that have attacked our zone well over the years most of them had guard that can penetrate the zone. Regardless of the defense when you are missing shots you have to start driving the ball. I think once we get to the NCAAs and away from conference teams we will see more man and excel again. The funny thing is JB IS the reason so many BE teams play zone every if its not there primary defense.

 

[SWC75]

The key to attacking a zone has always been to get the ball to the top of the key to a guy who can score from there or passing it inside or back out. It's not about raining threes on teams. I think we have three guys who can do this: CJ, Jerami and James. We've experimented with using them that way but I think we need to go full bore with it and not wait for Brandon to feel better or James to hit a 30 footer.

 

[CaliCuse]

A lot of good points. Although, I do believe that A LOT of it does in fact have to do with our poor shooting. Triche has been absent, for the most part, the last three games and guess what? We struggle mightily when he is off. When he finds his stroke again, we will look like a different team. Some may say that it's the zone that is causing his poor shooting, I for one, do not. Just look at the shots he is missing that normally he makes regardless of the D.

Just take yesterday for instance. We had a lot of great looks but guys were missing. If you don't make most of those wide open looks, you will struggle regardless of the defense. I STILL like our chances and thank the basketball gods that we have Depaul next as a tune up to Gtown. I believe in two weeks we will be thinking about our team much differently than some do now. I look for a win against Gtown and a strong showing in the BET.

Did I miss the mention of DC?As in the part of him being of no help in any facet of the game or team?You know the 5* player we had to get from the local school?

 

[Gabjon]

The key to attacking a zone has always been to get the ball to the top of the key to a guy who can score from there or passing it inside or back out. It's not about raining threes on teams. I think we have three guys who can do this: CJ, Jerami and James. We've experimented with using them that way but I think we need to go full bore with it and not wait for Brandon to feel better or James to hit a 30 footer.

That is one to attack a zone but the only way and it is very hard to do it every time down court. CJ took 20 shots yesterday we are not going to be able to hit the middle of the zone by the pass every time down court. If it was that easy our zone or any wouldn't be very good. Dribble penetration is the easiest way to get the ball in the middle zone our guards aren't or can't do this on a regular basis.

 

[Townie72]

I agree that shooting well is a cure all, but if you think of all the teams that have attacked our zone well over the years most of them had guard that can penetrate the zone. Regardless of the defense when you are missing shots you have to start driving the ball. I think once we get to the NCAAs and away from conference teams we will see more man and excel again. The funny thing is JB IS the reason so many BE teams play zone every if its not there primary defense.

Lots of good stuff in both your posts on this.

But your constant references to Strength and Conditioning coach in the first post?

Do you really expect anyone to believe or to accept that JB and his staff have paid insufficient to attention to this or that they are unaware of these deficiencies?

You look at Keita and say , "Could use more muscle. Must be a strength and conditioning coaching problem?" Is that how it works.

 

[Gabjon]

Lots of good stuff in both your posts on this.

But your constant references to Strength and Conditioning coach in the first post?

Do you really expect anyone to believe or to accept that JB and his staff have paid insufficient to attention to this or that they are unaware of these deficiencies?

You look at Keita and say , "Could use more muscle. Must be a strength and conditioning coaching problem?" Is that how it works.

Strength and conditioning is a results based business. If guys aren't getting stronger than something is not working. Triche was a rock physically as 10th grader in HS. CJ is stronger, Rak looks stronger the rest of the guys not so much...those aren't great results!

 

[Townie72]

Strength and conditioning is a results based business. If guys aren't getting stronger than something is not working. Triche was a rock physically as 10th grader in HS. CJ is stronger, Rak looks stronger the rest of the guys not so much...those aren't great results!

So what's your point?

 

[Madbiker]

Good insight. I'll add that MCW doesn't seem to be able to keep smaller, quicker guards from penetrating our zone, which forces the interior to collapse and opens up the 3pt line.

Yep. MCW and BT have been beaten off the dribble way too often by smaller and quicker guards all year who get into the lane and cause havoc. What a difference from Dion last year who was almost never beaten off the bounce and chocked off penetration. Even Scoop was better than what we are seeing this year. Almost nobody has remarked on this. Our shot blocking has helped make up for this somewhat.

 

[Gabjon]

So what's your point?

That we have 3 guys in our rotation that should be physically stronger than what they are. (Baye, James, and MCW)

 

[Nicknack]

That we have 3 guys in our rotation that should be physically stronger than what they are. (Baye, James, and MCW)

Yeah, that could very well be true. However, EVERY team in the nation has players you could point to and say the same. There are a myriad of reasons for this, one has to do with personal dedication and commitment rather than a failure of the team or coaching staff.