Back in the Zone

We heard through the grapevine today that our next opponent might change things up and try a zone against us.  We haven't seen a zone defense since before Christmas, I think because the CCIW is one of those macho old-school "we'll play man to man or die trying" kind of leagues. 

I can't complain about any coach sticking to a man to man philosophy... that was me for 25 years and there's nothing wrong with believing in your own system!  But I haven't encountered many coaches in the last eight years who didn't make some fairly significant adjustments when they played us, so switching to a zone is no surprise.  I'm just glad we had a "heads up" because it's been so long since we've seen that game plan that I wasn't sure we'd even remember what to do.

Ironically,I had our zone attack fresh on my mind because last night, just for fun, I pulled out an old Olivet DVD from 2010 (showing you what a sad social life I have from November to March).  In that particular game we faced an opponent that ran a 2-3 the entire game, and had one of our better shooting performances (20-54 from the arc, winning 120-84), so as Michelle and I were planning for today's practice, that game was a good refresher about the keys to attacking a zone :

1. Run the floor hard and try to create a shot before the defense is set
2. Move the ball quickly before the defense can recover. Make them react to you
3. Remember that we aren't trying to be patient here.  We are trying to get out of the situation quickly by...
4. Getting the best passer/decision maker in the middle of the zone, pass her the ball when she gets open, and then have her immediatlely score, kick out for a three, or hit the post behind the zone for a layup.
5. Oh, yeah... REBOUND!

Maybe the coach is spying on my blog and will change things up, but my guess is that our secret is safe with you guys!