This is a nuanced article about the use of zone D in college basketball, discussing the pros and cons. I once asked Sendek about using the zone and he felt he’d rather concentrate on maximizing his man D. I am more for having another “pitch” in the repertoire to keep the opponent off balance.
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Great article. Funny enough, I saw the headline and thought about the Three Man Weave guys making a similar point on a podcast months back. Turns out one of them is the author here.
I like the nuance of the article. Playing zone once in a while can lead to some incremental advantages that matter over the course of a game or a season: force your opponent to prep for a scheme, foil an offensive play called on timeout, make the opponent burn a possession or even a timeout by surprising them with a different look, etc.
But the article also shows that Sendek isn’t crazy to want to triple down on perfecting M2M. That’s what his doppelganger in Moraga does who, if the stats in the article are correct, did not play a single zone possession all season.
I wouldn’t advocate for a strategy of trying to be Randy Bennett, though, so I’m in favor of a little zone.
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