See what some of today's college coaches say about the zone defense

By Ray Glier

Man-to-man defense is the red meat of college basketball, with players held accountable on every possession. They crouch – sometimes so low they can slap their palms on the floor – as if defending against a threat more dangerous than an opponent with a basketball. Meanwhile, the zone has traditionally been regarded as a white-flag defense – a capitulation, an admission that the opponent is too athletic to be stopped with a man-to-man.

For those who ridicule the zone as a defense for teams unfit for the rigors of man-to-man, Jamelle McMillan, a junior guard from Arizona State, invites them to find a safe spot to shoot from against the Sun Devils’ 2-3 matchup zone. “I know guys on every team in the Pac and they hate it, they absolutely hate playing against our zone,” McMillan says, referring to the Pacific-10 Conference. The Sun Devils, even with the loss of two NBA draft picks from last season’s team, finished the season strong. And they continue to carve an identity with their aggressive 2-3, keeping teams away from the basket while still managing to contest outside shots. “I know what people say about zone defense,” McMillan says, “but our zone can be difficult to deal with.”

Few coaches in the college game side with McMillan and Arizona State Coach Herb Sendek and trust a zone as their primary defense. But plenty of them use it as a changeup to man-to-man. The zone defense had a huge impact on the most recent NCAA Tournament. West Virginia went to a 1-3-1 defense and shut down Kentucky, which at the time was one of the favorites to win the national championship. The Wildcats made just 4 of 32 3-point attempts against West Virginia, while the zone walled off the middle from the drives of UK phenom John Wall.

One of Kentucky’s two losses in the regular season was when undermanned South Carolina, instead of being spread out by the Wildcats’ talent, kept its players’ heels inside the 3-point arc and covered the perimeter with a zone. And Minnesota used a zone to cripple favored Wisconsin in a 68-52 victory. “Twenty years ago, there was that mind-set, I’m not a zone guy,” Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey says. “Somebody said that to me the other day and I said, ‘I’m a whateverworks guy in this league. You’ve got to put your manhood away and figure out a way, especially in league games, to steal wins, and I think more and more guys are playing zone defenses.’”

Coach Bruce Pearl of Tennessee, whose Volunteers beat Kentucky with the help of a zone, says: “Against a 2-3 zone, there are three or four, five things most teams do. There are 100 things people do against man. There aren’t as many good zone attacks.” Against Tennessee, the Wildcats made only 2 of 22 3-point attempts, dropping from 72nd nationally to tied for 153rd with a percentage of 34.7.

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