Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 4584152, member: 405"] Our zone is not a match-up zone, strictly speaking. We are more about rotations and our players are asked to cover much more space on the floor than John Cheney or Jerry Tarkanian used to ask their players to do in their zones. Their zones were more "match-up" - the single player is not tasked with guarding half (or more of) the court. They switched as guys moved in and out of their personal zones to defend. Boeheim's innovation with the 2-3 was to move the forwards higher up to take away the wing jumper, after the 3 point shot had been mainstreamed into the game. Our zone is really a 2-2-1, with the forwards high, not defending the baseline or the corner jumper. This is outstanding at preventing the 3 point shot, without good ball movement to collapse the zone and then kick out to the opposite wing. Over time, people figured out the entry pass to the foul line. We used to be able to simply pinch the guards to stop that pass, but that left the guards with too much ground to cover to get back out on the shooters if the ball went in and then out. The other weakness of the way we play the zone with our forwards high, is that the baseline is open almost all the time. This is really our weak spot, because we have 1 guy, the center, who has to challenge the foul line entry pass, also defend the low block, AND cover corner jumpers that the forwards would ordinarily cover in a traditional 2-3. The way we play also leaves the center defending a lot of 2-on-1's if there is a successful entry pass to the post, and it also leaves us vulnerable to the alley-oop from guys running the baseline behind the defenders. When you watch other teams play the 2-3 zone (Miami in the NBA, or Baylor the other night vs. Texas), the forwards are lower, in more traditional spots. This defends the corner jumper and minimizes the rebounding deficit because your forwards are in position to catch rebounds from corner shots that hit rim and bounce to the opposite side. 2/3 of all rebounds of corner shots go to the opposite side, and our forwards are NEVER in that position. However, the traditional 2-3 zone leaves 2 guards to cover 3 shooting locations at the 3 point line - top of the key, and both wings. That's why the "original" way to beat the 2-3 zone was the skip pass to the opposite side. But with our forwards high, and by using lanky guys to man the perimeter of the zone, we took that away. Then Pitt figured out the foul line entry pass to collapse the zone, and the kick out or the dump-down to a back-door cutter, and that became the way to attack us. So, with the traditional 2-3 zone, you can focus on defending better along the bottom, rebound better while giving up a few more open 3's, or (like SU) you can sell out to stop the 3 point shot, but you open up the entire bottom of your defense. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?