2-3 Zone

[SaintLouBrave22]

I did not see this posted in any of the threads, but was wondering what everyone else thought about the 2-3 zone we played tonight...

I honestly thought we did better in the zone than when we switched to the man-to-man and feel like we should play zone more often because of some of our players poor defensive skills and because it'll keep our players from getting cheap fouls they usually obtain in the man D...

I can name a particular block of the game where we were down by 6-8 in the 1st half and Dodie had to go to the bench and we were in serious foul trouble. We switched to the zone and went on a run, while stopping them as well in the 2-3. Then we switched back to man before the half ended and proceeded to give up 2 layups and about a 6-footer before we then cut it to 2 points to end the half...

Seems like maybe we should've stayed in the zone?

Then again it helps when Will is out there as he challenges the post and he challenges, adjusts, and blocks shots...


Thoughts?

[BradleyBrave]

With the right personnel I think our zone can be very effective if the effort is there. I wouldn't mind mixing in a little more 1-3-1 every once in a while as a change-of-pace. I don't think it should be our primary defense, but we're long enough and athletic enough to play a good zone.

[SaintLouBrave22]

With the right personnel I think our zone can be very effective if the effort is there. I wouldn't mind mixing in a little more 1-3-1 every once in a while as a change-of-pace. I don't think it should be our primary defense, but we're long enough and athletic enough to play a good zone.

At this point, I really think we have too many wasted defensive possessions and worthless fouls to play man

[thefish7]

I also think BU looks better in the 2-3 than man right now. We'll have to be careful though, a team that is shooting well will put us right into man. In previous years it seemed like Bradley played something of a matchup 2-3 a lot, and I'd like to see that on this team.

On another note, it was really interesting listening to Coach Versace talk about how to play a 1-3-1 zone (notably the part where we rarely did what he was suggesting).

[chitown fanatic]

On the flipside, does anyone on the BU staff want to devise a plan to actually utilize our interior players against the zone instead of weaving and chucking 3's which we make at an astonishlingly bad 23% clip?

[SFP]

The problem with the 1-3-1 zone is that you need a TW like guy at the point and 2 more TW's in the wings. DD and CR can play those wing positions we now can have WE play the rim but we are now exposed in the middle.

The only way we can play a 1-3-1 is if we have a lineup with DD playing the 1 because SM, DN and EM just do not have the necessary defensive skills to defend at the wings.

BTW....Why can't we stop all those baseline moves! We are getting killed with players driving down the baseline and getting layups or having our bigs sliding over to late and picking up a foul. It should be as easy as over playing the baseline and letting them go towards the middle where the help should be or making them go to their weak hand.

[SaintLouBrave22]

The problem with the 1-3-1 zone is that you need a TW like guy at the point and 2 more TW's in the wings. DD and CR can play those wing positions we now can have WE play the rim but we are now exposed in the middle.

The only way we can play a 1-3-1 is if we have a lineup with DD playing the 1 because SM, DN and EM just do not have the necessary defensive skills to defend at the wings.

BTW....Why can't we stop all those baseline moves! We are getting killed with players driving down the baseline and getting layups or having our bigs sliding over to late and picking up a foul. It should be as easy as over playing the baseline and letting them go towards the middle where the help should be or making them go to their weak hand.

Completely agree w/ everything you just said...

BTW...if anyone is curious, Syracuse played a 2-3 Matchup Zone on Richmond w/ trapping principles...

They held them to 33% from 3 making them take 24 shots from there, which is too many for their team and they also outrebounded them by 10....

We just can't let them get to the line...that much I know.

[real fan]

The 2-3 zone has worked a lot better then the 1-3-1 so far; I like changing back and forth from a man to a zone just to keep the other team confused.