How to Beat a 2-3 Zone Defense in Basketball

Video Transcript

"Coach Rudy here. I've won championships as both a player and a coach. Today I want to talk about how to break a two three zone. Couple of things we know as coaches, two three zone's a basic zone package. A lot of kids have been playing it since they were very young. It's got some simple principals and a couple of real weaknesses. The first one is it expose the middle. If you get into the middle you can have some real success there. The second one is if you can get in through the top of the zone and break down the zone you can also have some real success. So I've got the two players in red at the top and the three along the bottom, hence the two three zone. Now we as strategic coaches know that we have to dedicate resources in places where the defense is not. So we're probably going to run a one three one. One, one two three, one against the two three zone to open up those exposures. Why are we going to do that? We're familiar with a guy named Michael Jordan and a coach named Phillip Jackson. They created something called a triangle. What exactly is that? This is the triangle against the two three zone. The side with the guy on the bottom is designated as the side that the ball goes to. So for instance, if the ball goes to this side. Now you've got this guy. This guy slides here. Here is your triangle. So you got shot here, penetrate here, you got shot here, penetrate here, you got look here, you got set the screen here. This guy's in behind. You got this guy flying in behind. If you can get this guy to come here, then you got free throw or this guy here, so you can look here. This guy there. This guy put it in the basket. There's a lot of way to break that down. The primary, the primary reasons, there's a lot of ways to beat the two three zone. The two primary things to keep in mind, expose the middle, penetrate the top. That's how you beat the two three zone."