Breaking down the zone

With it being finals week RMU gets the week off, which means no game previews and scouting an opponent for a little.

For those who watched Saturday’s game (and judging by the attendance, it wasn’t many), you noticed RMU implemented a 2-3 zone on defense against a potent Toledo offense. While no one really knows if this is going to become a more prominent part of the defense going forward, it was interesting to see RMU switch things up. There was some good, bad, and ugly, and I’m going to show you some of it. Sorry for some blurry images but this is the best I can do. I’d like to think you’ll just appreciate the effort.

EXAMPLE 1

Great job at the beginning of the game! You can see this is the standard two guards (Myers-Pate and Karvel) at the top and three bigger men down low (Lucky, Mike McFadden, and Jeremiah Worthem). Image one shows good on ball pressure at the wing by Karvel with some help from Worthem. Not crazy how he left his guy in the corner there, but there’s enough ball pressure that it wouldn’t have made a difference. Also notice: there’s no Rocket set up in the high post.

Image two shows Toledo swinging it over to the far left side (ball handler circled). There’s good pursue by Lucky.

Image three is the golden part. The Toledo guard drives to the paint but RMU’s rotations are beautiful. McFadden slides off his man who temporarily went to the high post and plants himself just outside the paint with his hands straight up, forcing a contested jumper. Karvel slids to take Mike’s man… also good

EXAMPLE 2

You can see Toledo working a big man in the high post. Kavon Stewart and Lucky Jones approach the ball handler but also notice McFadden in the pain pointing to the corner… because there’s a man there.

The ball is in the high post now and that man in the corner is cutting to the basket. With McFadden defending the ball handler no one is there to pick the corner cutter up. That should be Lucky but he took a poor angle and was too beat to take the cutter. This results in, predictably, an easy layup.

EXAMPLE 3

RMU got toasted on ball screens in the second half. Toledo ran the same play the first three possessions of the second half and got five points, with the only miss coming off an open look from three. Take a look at picture one: Anthony Myers-Pate goes above a ball screen here. It results in an easy mid-range J.

Picture two: Same ball handler and concept. High ball screen that Myers-Pate goes under, which results in a wide open three. Look at the space!

Toole said postgame he gave his guards the option to go over or under the screens “and we guessed wrong every time.” He wasn’t lying. I know RMU doesn’t have a lot of experience in the zone, but look at the two images again and where the screener is positioned. In image two, the big man is completely inside the three point line and Ant chose to go under. Big mistake. I expect someone as experienced as Ant to know better. 

EXAMPLE FOUR

Inbounds plays killed RMU. They gave up a few corner three’s and layups at the rim.

Picture one: This is a good example of defending the inbounds play. Earlier in the game, we had the far corner guy guarding the inbound by himself and often found himself so occupied guarding the ass he forgot about the corner. Nice adjustment by the coaching staff to have the big man defend the inbound giving the corner guy a chance to actually defend. Here, Toledo was looking for another corner three from underneath the basket but Jeremiah Worthem is in really good position AND got help from Anthony Myers-Pate. Rotations were solid everywhere.

Picture two: This is bad. Again from underneath the basket but this time Toledo sets up a play to get to the basket. Mike McFadden is being occupied by a big man underneath while another man cuts to the basket. As you can see, the clearly outsized Karvel Anderson has to take a cutter to the basket. What has to happen at this point is Jeremiah Worthem, who is guarding no one but very intensely pointing, should slide in and help Karvel front the bigger offensive player. 

There are obviously different forms and exceptions to everything but these were the basics. I hope you weren’t too insulted by looking at the circles and lines, they were only there for your help.

I think the zone went better than I thought it would. I reviewed every single defensive possession (74) and very rarely found myself disgusted, which I’m sure would be different compared to some other games this year. At the very least, the zone usually slowed Toledo down and worked the shot clock. It also helped keep Mike McFadden out of trouble. RMU got in the most trouble giving up second chance opportunities and off of transition opportunities. There were bad stretches (like the second’s half first seven possessions) but overall they did, in my opinion, a good job against one of the best offensive teams in basketball. 

--Chris Cappella
--@C_Cappella