Why did we go away from the zone?

[NotAnAlum]

It was discussed on the board before the game that this would be a good game to play a lot of zone. In the first half it really looked like the zone was working.  STJ is a team that prefers to drive rather than shoot from the outside and the zone seemed to be taking them out of what the wanted to do.  Then late in the first half we shifted out of it and STJ closed the gap and lead at half.  I wasn't able to watch a lot of the 2nd half but it sure didn't seem like we played much zone and Ponds just ate up whoever was guarding him by taking it to the basket.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Went to it middle of the second half . We turned them over two straight times n then never played it again.
Actually if i recall we played it one more time out of a time out and got another turnover n then disnt play it again

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

We switched to zone in the beginning of the second half. It worked for a little bit and then SJU scored on 4 or 5 consecutive possessions against it and Marquette adjusted. There were a few possessions of it here and there the rest of the half.

[MarquetteDano]

Did the math. I believe we played zone 9 possessions.  They scored 8 points from it.  For us that is great.

[vogue65]

Did the math. I believe we played zone 9 possessions.  They scored 8 points from it.  For us that is great.

Don't confuse us with the facts.  Against a "professional" player we use a professional defense.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Interestingly enough, Northwestern (and Chris Collins) have been showing a lot more zone looks in recent B1G play.  While I'm sure it eats away at the Coach K disciples, coaches need to do what they must in order for their teams to win games. 

I have really liked our 1-2-2 zone press looks on occasion to slow down offenses.

[denverMU]

This is why, and I have tried very hard not to go here, but this loss is ALL on Wojo.  STJ did not score well against the zone but we just kept going back to it.  It was so hard to watch us playing man to man knowing Ponds was going to score. 

[GGGG]

Guys, if the stats are correct, that they scored 8 points in 9 possessions against the zone...that really isn't all that good and I doubt it is statistically significantly different than what they did versus man.  IMO they seemed to be ripping it up as much as they did the man defense.

[MarquetteDano]

Guys, if the stats are correct, that they scored 8 points in 9 possessions against the zone...that really isn't all that good and I doubt it is statistically significantly different than what they did versus man.  IMO they seemed to be ripping it up as much as they did the man defense.

I was going to simply take those zone possessions away from the total to get our man defense but that isn't fair due to turnovers and the awful transition defense we play.

My guess is the zone PPP defense was a little better than our man but,  you are right,  it was not way better.  I think we could have played a few more defensive possessions with it but if we played it the entire game with Heldt sitting down it would have been just as bad as the man.  Froling does not seem to play zone defense very well at this juncture.

I will say it again that we really missed Theo today.  That zone with him in the paint could have been even more effective.