Zone Defense

[BroadwayVa]

Excuse me for replying to a bit of my own post, but I just had to check this matter out and sleep well.

I watched UConn (#2 seed) play PSU (#1) in Hartford to qualify for Final Four. Huskies played 2-3 zone after every score and m2m after every nonproductive possession.

The Lady Lions were confused (13 points in 1st half). So were Dan Patrick and Ann Meyers -- it wasn't until late in the first half that Ann said something about Geno "mixing up his defenses," but no mention of the pattern.

When the 21 point lead shrank to 9, Geno went to m2m. Maria was overmatched by Mazzante so she dropped a few on MC.

Barbara Turner and Diana scored 50 or so, while Strother and Conlon drew a bagel.

Before the game, Neil Fortner and Stacy Dales picked PSU. After the game Dales was remorseful and predicted UConn to win the NC (which they did).

A final comment. This was the game in which Diana made that highlight reel no-look tip pass to Jessica Moore.

Barbara Turner---The BT express---was one undersized post who gave Uconn (most days) 150 per cent. The game (her last) against Duke in Bridgeport stays in my brain for one where a Uconn type kid took on the giant (Dukes Center Bales??) and except for exhaustion and dehydration--almost did it. Ooops there goes another rubber tree plant!!!
After the Penn game --predicted as a win for Penn--BT thanked the announcers for picking Penn, it became the motivation for Uconn.

 

[BroadwayVa]

If things get too deep just remember you asked for the help and fell free to slow me down. I tend to get really really Geekish about this kind of stuff because I have had some pretty good coaches along the way including Geno & Kathy Rush.
The Basics
Zone differs from man to man because each player is assigned primarily responsibility for an area of the court vs a specific offensive player.

The alignment is where the numbers come into play and starts as the offensive player would see the players on the floor. In a 3-2 zone the offensive player will see 3 defender aligned roughly in line with each other and then 2 defenders in a second line closer to the basket.


The variety of zone defenses include 1-2-2: 2-3: 2-1-2:3-2: or 1-3-1: Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantages of all zone defense is the tendency to give up offensive rebounds because players are more concerned about their area not their man. Who every came up with the 1-3-1 zone was one sick person & had way too much time on their hands. But for Geeks like me if you see a team execute a 1-3-1 zone correctly it is a thing of beauty and the opposing coach is surely cursing under his breath if not out loud. The other disadvantages of zone is that it is harder to teach because of the rotations. Rotations determine where a player goes and is determined by where the ball is.

In part II we can talk about match up zone if you like.[/QUOTE

Geno produced and sold a very good "fundamental basketball" tape showing just about everything anyone would want to know about basic BB