Tenn-Martin +35.5 at tOSU (ov/un 140.5) Mon 8:30 ET, BTN

[Fremont Buckeye]

There really aren't that many college teams that do play a zone defense on a high-level and still have a good won/loss record from year to year except maybe for Syracuse.

True, but if I may stick to the original point/scenario here, which was if Ohio State played a team with a PF that could shoot the ball and pull a shot blocker like Sully or Dallas out of the lane then a zone would be a good idea to negate that PFs long range shooting ability. Never said that the zone had to be used the entire game or for even long strecthes like in previous years.

Most college teams go to a zone defense out of necessity such as when they are in foul trouble or the other team is just a lot quicker than your team. There are quite a few more liabilities to playing a zone defense then a man to man and we have seen that in past years.

Bingo. Never said a zone was the end all be all. I prefer man-to-man defense, but a zone in certain situations can be good from time to time.

It is my belief that to play good zone defense you have to practice it and in order to play good man to man defense you have to practice it. You have to choose one or the other in order to be good at that one. Just because a player has a high basketball IQ does not mean that he can play in a zone defense. You have to play zone defense as a team and if you take one player out of the mix that will destroy your zone defense.

Exaclty, and 4 of the 5 starters have played in thet zone system for 3 years so it has been practiced and more than likely is still practiced. I doubt Thad totally gave up on praticing zone all together. They may practice it significantly less now that they have the players to play man-to-man defense.

I know just because you have a player with high basketball IQ that does not mean he can play zone defense, but my guess is that particualr player I am referring to has played it before, and could pick op Thad's zone pronciples rather quickly based on what I have seen from that particualr player already. True not every player could do that.

they could, but a zone is very weak if it's not properly employed, and it doesn't limit fouls merely due to its use. also, we have yet to see the current team play a zone. matta knows the frontcourt is thin. if they have been practicing the zone, we likely would have seen it already.

Why would he have seen it already?? Have you seen the scores of the games so far, when has there been a need to play a zone. Just because they haven't played zone so far (against mostly lesser competition) does not mean they do not practice it.

Quick question for you. Do you think Thad makes the offense practice against a zone defense, if so do you think Thad is not teaching his players how to play the zone properly?

Also I'm pretty sure Thad practices end of game scenarios, but we have not seen them yet, that must mean they do not practice them.

 

[LitlBuck]

Tennessee-Martin lost to Tennessee last night by 6 points and we beat them by 60. SEC SEC:tongue2: