For any zone gurus out there... I'm trying out Zone at a D3 school for the first time and have been recruiting guys to allow me to switch between 3-2 and 2-3. Most of my roster looks great, but despite my best efforts, I think I'm falling short when it comes to getting a high quality Center than can rebound and defend in a 2-3.

Which 1-2 of the guys below would be best suited to play Center in 2-3, and are they good enough to where I should be playing 2-3 zone defense or should I stick to 3-2 and adjust defensive positioning where appropriate?

Player A - 54 Ath / 39 Spd / 99 Reb / 40 Def / 96 Blk
Player B - 60 Ath / 37 Spd / 69 Reb / 83 Def / 83 Blk
Player C - 58 Ath / 40 Spd / 94 Reb / 56 Def / 74 Blk
Player D - 67 Ath / 15 Spd / 78 Reb / 69 Def / 99 Blk

Some of these are projected ratings for potential recruits and some are on my roster already.

My eyes told me player D was the best option but as a double check I ran the numbers through cubcub's weighting tables for defense and rebounding and it agreed that D was noticeably better. The other three were very close empirically. It rated them A, B, C which surprised me a bit. Obviously B is the best defender of those three but A gets credit as the best rebounder.

	D score	Reb Score	Overall
Player A	61.53	83.7	71.82321429
Player B	76.56	65.94	71.62928571
Player C	61.9	81.76	71.12071429
Player D	76.84	74.26	75.64214286

my system tends to agree:

Player	Total D	F DEF	REB
A	69.1%	57%	83%
B	68.6%	71%	66%
C	67.7%	56%	82%
D	74.0%	74%	74%

My eye test says D as well. ATH, BLK, and DEF are what really matter. SPD is only a 'nice to have' in my book.

If you go to a 3-2 (and ignoring Offense considerations), I'd shift D to the PF and use one of the rebounders at the C.

Thanks guys - this helps. I will start D like you said, when I'm playing 2-3, and use A to back him up.

When I go to 3-2, I think I will bench A altogether, because I've got two other PFs that are really good, so I have options on how to construct that lineup. I'll likely play 3-2 much more often than I play 2-3, based on the rest of my roster.