Over the past 10 years, whave consistently been one of the top teams in the country at defending the 3 according to KenPom. It's not the zone, it's this year's zone.
Agreed, this year's zone is problematic. But, it's kinda like if the entire math class fails the quiz...
Stats, without specific context, are pretty much meaningless.
• Where did we finish in 3pt defense the last two years, when we were 10th in the ACC?
• Our 3pt defense was 28% before the BC game, yet we all agree we can't beat our way out of a wet paper bag.
• BC's 3pt defense was equal to ours before the BC game, yet they play mostly(?) m2m, with recruits far 'inferior' to ours.
• If the 3pt defense is indicative of quality 3pt defense, why does some scrub on a DII team always go off for a career best against us?
• What percentage of that percentage is racked up against our out-of-conference, at home cupcake schedule?
• If a team shoots 1 for 4 from 3, but can get layups at will because we have a skinny D-less freshman forward playing center, how valid is that 25% 3pt defense 'statistic?'
• Don't we have more talent than 90% of our opponents? Wouldn't you think they'd be able to defend—in any system—at 'top 25' levels?
• If you decide you're married to the zone, don't you have to account for the fact that if you recruit a McD player, he may not be here for 4 years? And that, if freshmen don't often play the zone well, there are going to be gaps in efficiency when a freshman is in the game? And if you have multiple freshmen/new players, there are going to be exponentially bigger gaps in efficiency? And if you play forwards at Center, there are going to be even bigger gaps in efficiency? This year is like the election—a perfect storm of FUBAR.
• "You can make statistics say
anything" — Alfred Einstein!