Virginia faced several defenses at Virginia Tech on Saturday, including some zone defense. With Duke playing some zone in recent games too, it’s something the Cavaliers may see this weekend and beyond.
Zones can be difficult to face for the simple fact that opposing teams don’t usually practice for them on a day-to-day basis. Some are good because they are disguised well and offensive players may have a hard time identifying the defense. The others are good because they are thorough and sharp and teams and coaches (like Jim Boeheim at Syracuse or John Chaney when he was at Temple) have experience defending in that fashion.
A well run zone has man-to-man principles and vice versa to some extent – Virginia’s Pack-Line man defense features zone concepts for example. A zone defender has the obligation to guard a man in their designated territory. The biggest keys to make the zone a successful defense are high levels of communication and activity, but first and foremost you need DISCIPLINE! If players over-rotate or try to cover too much, it opens up holes in the zone. That’s why offenses want to move the ball into overlapping coverage areas so the defense has to communicate and make decisions on coverage.
At Virginia Tech on Saturday, the Hokies threw a lot of defenses at Virginia including zones like the 2-3 and 3-2 and hybrid looks like a triangle-and-two. I see rotating defenses like that as a “Jack of all trades and masters of none” approach. Personally, I believe a ton of variation in defenses is a sign of weakness. When a team plays a ton of defenses, they are trying to hide something. Players with high basketball IQs aren’t fooled by this and great coaches like Tony Bennett understand the same. Variations of defenses only confuse high IQ players momentarily. No matter what defense you’re up against as a floor general or coach, you identify and attack. I remember Wake Forest tried a triangle-and-two on us one year. J.R. Reynolds had 40 and I had 24. It’s too easy to discombobulate junk defenses. Hence the term “junk” I think.
Looking back to my Virginia career, I don’t believe any team’s zone defense gave us too many issues in the half court. J.R. Reynolds, Adrian Joseph, and I torched zones when teams would try it. But I do remember that Clemson’s zone press my senior year was staunch. The Tigers understood that the key was to wear me down breaking the full court zone press in the first half and then they dismantled us in the second.
The best way to attack a zone defense is to not even play against the zone at all. Transition off a bad shot or off of turnovers render the zone useless. But it’s impossible to do this for 40 minutes and that definitely won’t be UVa’s game plan. Otherwise, if you can get the ball into the middle of the zone, especially the high post area against the 2-3 zone, the chances of successfully defeating the zone on that possession are very high. If you have a player who can pass, shoot, and attack in that position, your percentages of success are even higher.
Getting the zone to collapse is the key in the half court so that’s why getting it in the middle works so well. Moving the ball and moving bodies in attempts to confuse the zone defenders helps soften the zone up and creates holes where you get chances to dump the ball in the middle of the zone or behind the zone in the dunker positions on the baseline, which are the most vulnerable spots. If the zone is collapsed and the ball is kicked back out to spot-up shooters, that could be devastating as well.
Picking the guards playing the top of the zone with ball screens can be confusing to the defense too because just like pick-and-roll in man-to-man defense, it gives the offense a one man advantage and leaves the defense playing from behind. Against a zone, when you screen a guard, the whole zone must shift and at times a big has to step up to take the guard off the dribble. This can cause a mismatch and mass confusion.
The Hoos have all the tools to dismantle Duke if the Blue Devils go to a zone. They’ve shown a great deal of patience and maturity throughout this young season and Coach Bennett has these kids playing with a sense of urgency for 40 minutes. Getting the ball to Mike Tobey and/or Anthony Gill at the high post to play high-low looks will be key. Justin Anderson or Malcolm Brogdon catching the ball in the high post is an even better threat. Ball screens to get London Perrantes and Malcolm Brogdon into the teeth of the defense will also make the zone collapse and UVa usually has three or four capable 3-point threats on the floor at all times.
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Great article $$! I think another example of what you sited would be last year’s game versus Syracuse. Brodgon was able to get into the teeth of the zone at the top of the key all day and make jump shots and they essentially fell apart in the second half because they never adjusted sufficiently. We certainly will see it again on Saturday from Duke since VPI appeared to be somewhat successful against us with it and perhaps K was even using at ND last night to prepare for our game Sat (and also maybe because it was best chance to stop ND’s #1 offense). Either way, seeing zone against VPI and in the ND/Duke game should bode well for our preparation headed to this epic showdown. GO HOOS!!