The team never went to a zone defense all of last season.  The coach says that it's important to teach one thing very well, yet also recognizes the value of showing a zone in certain situations.  John Feinstein says GW will be playing zone 100% of the time this season.  The Hatchet mentions no such thing.

It's official:  Zone-Gate is worthy of its own thread.

First, I'll echo the thoughts of 2twooed.  A zone defense does fly in the face of making opponents play at a faster, less comfortable pace.  If we are serious about adding 4-6 possessions per game, that means that the other team's possessions must also increase.  Either force a turnover or get them to shoot quickly.  Neither of these goals spell out ZONE.

Next, it is not at all contradictory to complain about never playing zone one year to always playing one the next year.  Again, 2twooed hit the nail on the head.  While our players are hardly ever among the most skilled or athletic, they are often among the brightest.  Use this intelligence to your advantage by playing multiple defenses within the same game.  The problem isn't man or zone as much as it is the word always.  Always means being predictable.  We need to make things more challenging for our opponents.

But you say, Syracuse always plays zone.  And Duke almost always plays zone.  True, but they are also landing players whose athleticism and skill sets allow them to master the zone.  While GW certainly has the ability to improve, it's just not going to reach a point where their defense turns into easy offense on an even semi-consistent basis.  That said, please spare me the argument that players can't be taught to play both effective man and zone defenses.  If my high school team could do it, I'm pretty sure any college team can too.

Often, your opponent should dictate if and when to use a zone.  Practically all of us agree (I'm assuming) that it was a good tactic to attempt against Navy based on their outside shooting from a year ago, but that we should have switched to man once Navy caught fire in the first half.  While the Middies cooled off in the second half as we contested more three point shots, they took advantage of backdoor cuts and a high post player who was consistently making wide open shots from just inside the foul line.  Like the many times last year when the cries went out for switching to a zone, Wednesday's game begged for a change to man-to-man defense.  The telling statistic was Navy's 26 assists on 31 baskets.  You needn't be Naismith to understand that your defense just isn't working when you're surrendering these numbers.

To be clear, this team should be playing zone at times.  When an opponent is struggling to score from the outside.  To prevent a key (GW) player from getting into foul trouble.  When an athletic team is running us off the court.  And, for no other reason to change up a defensive look a few times per game.  However, playing a zone 100% all season would be as big a mistake as never playing a zone last season.  It's not as if we have nothing but 4 star players who are long and lean.  There are too many deficiencies, from height to skills, to expect this group of players to become zone defense specialists.

Final point which is off the subject. In the GW/Navy game thread, we have already heard  from the poster who I'm sure you can guess provide some criticism at posters for "over-reacting" to this one loss.  Here is what he wrote:

have a little perspective, we've lost 240K Americans, losing a game by a few points is hardly worth 75% of the over-reaction


Anyone else sickened by this poster's decision to inject this horrific pandemic into the discussion, as if to say that no matter your thoughts about this loss, just remember the hardship that many families are going through right now.

Newsflash #1....I doubt there's a single person on this board who isn't aware of what our country is going through, or who needs to be reminded about what the unspeakable numbers are.

Newsflash #2...Those who come to this board are looking for an escape.  Ideally, we'd be celebrating wins together but as is often the case, we do spend time here picking apart losses.  This has never meant that we know the team better than the coach or that we could do a better job.  It also does not mean that we don't support the team.  We want success for them very badly.  It's the nature of the beast that is a sports message board.

Newsflash #3...Combining these two points, nobody here should ever be made to feel bad, or small, about expressing their views about the program we all support.  Holding up the pandemic in our faces as a reason not to offer constructive criticism is insulting. Everyone here understands that this team could go winless and yet we as individuals would likely have things substantially better than so many in this country.  And certainly, nobody here needs to be reminded of this.


Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.