I know this has been discussed a lot on the boards...but Rupp DIII is a perfect example of how zone defenses are basically worthless. I just lost in the sweet 16 to a press team that has nobody above a B+ IQ in the category, yet they are one of the elite defenses in the world (not a knock against that team, they are very well coached)

Looking deeper, only one of the Elite 8 teams plays a zone.

Is it common opinion that zone should be done away with? I've never switched defenses before -- is it pretty difficult to do?

Correction: the team I lost to was a M2M team, and they actually had nobody above a B rating...

YOPu must be doing it under another screen name, because its not the only team associated with this name. . .

The only team on my screen name is Occidental in Rupp...that is the team I referenced above.

I have hated the zone and this season is a perfect example. I have speed, athleticism, Defense skills and "A+" IQ at guard and yet teams light me up from 3 point land even with a + defense or 3-2. i am gravitating to a Press / zone so that I can at least get one or two steals a game.

It's not a common opinion. There are many very successful zone teams, particularly in DII and DIII.

I'm not sure why you would lose a Sweet 16 game by five to a very good team/coach and your conclusion would be that you can't win with zone. You lost that game because of to's, not hugely surprising considering you don't have a pg on your team and the sg that players there is in the 50's for pa/bh.

For the season your team played strong defense, particularly considering the tough schedule.

I posted mine before your correction.

WHewn I looked at the other team and it seemed that you were saying it was pressing when it wasn't.

Your post actually came first, but I was doing research and actually posted after you and moved on.

I have been pretty successful using zone defenses. I actually practice zone and man to man defenses. I then incorporate whatever defense would best suit me against each opponent.

One advantage of the zone. I can probably count on one hand the number of players I'll have foul out on my team this year.

I like having zone availiable. If nothing else, specifically to be able to play a three - two in late situations where someone will be trying to shoot threes to catch up. And conversely a two - three in late game situations where you are behind and people try to pound it in and get to the line. Being able to do a zone essentially gives you two defensive options for the price of one.

Quote: Originally Posted By dalter on 8/17/2009
It's not a common opinion. There are many very successful zone teams, particularly in DII and DIII.

I'm not sure why you would lose a Sweet 16 game by five to a very good team/coach and your conclusion would be that you can't win with zone. You lost that game because of to's, not hugely surprising considering you don't have a pg on your team and the sg that players there is in the 50's for pa/bh.

For the season your team played strong defense, particularly considering the tough schedule.

Agree 100%. You did not lose that game because you played zone. You can win in this game playing any O and/or any D.

Quote: Originally Posted By dalter on 8/17/2009
It's not a common opinion. There are many very successful zone teams, particularly in DII and DIII.

I'm not sure why you would lose a Sweet 16 game by five to a very good team/coach and your conclusion would be that you can't win with zone. You lost that game because of to's, not hugely surprising considering you don't have a pg on your team and the sg that players there is in the 50's for pa/bh.

For the season your team played strong defense, particularly considering the tough schedule.

I by no means meant to imply that the reason I lost in this situation was because of my defense -- I lost to a better team. It was meant a big-picture example of the overall ineffectiveness of the zone defense this year in Rupp DIII.

Based on all the other examples and experiences shared in this thread by myself and other coaches I would say that your claims of the zone being ineffective anymore has been proven to be fruitless.

There must be some pretty mediocre coaches in DIII Rupp, becase the 2-3 zone kicks *** when used properly.

I don't understand why people are turning this into a reason to criticize...all I intended to point out was that 7 of the 8 Elite Eight teams in the world run either press or man, and several of them run it very successfully with fairly low IQ's.

Not meant to make excuses for why I lost or to criticize anybody else...just something I thought was interesting and wanted others opinion on the matter.

Forgive me for wanting some simple thoughts...

Quote: Originally posted by ewieberg on 8/17/2009I don't understand why people are turning this into a reason to criticize...all I intended to point out was that 7 of the 8 Elite Eight teams in the world run either press or man, and several of them run it very successfully with fairly low IQ's.Not meant to make excuses for why I lost or to criticize anybody else...just something I thought was interesting and wanted others opinion on the matter.Forgive me for wanting some simple thoughts...

i don't think people are being critical really... just telling you why you lost. ok maybe one of the posts was but in general people were giving serious answers.

on the original question, what people has said is pretty spot on. you can win with any defense, and thats true for almost anything in the place of defense, because there are so many factors in this game and the advantage/disadvantage of the top few options for each is usually very small in comparison to the whole.

with that in mind, zone fills a certain role in my opinion. you can play players for so much longer than the press it is somewhat amazing. so you get more out of your upperclassmen, and don't have to be as deep, etc. so low level d1 seems to be ideally suited for the zone.

on the other hand, i think for deep teams with consistently very high quality players, the zone might put you as a disadvantage. if you could have 10 players as good as your best, it seems the press would obviously be better, it has to be for there to be a tradeoff between the press and the zone. and because the zone has a massive fatigue advantage, the press would have to be a lot better, for it to be a reasonably fair tradeoff. so, at some point, as the gap between your players grows, zone becomes the better option. i think even with balanced classes, you can be deep enough consistently to make the press the better option.