Yes. It is a very good strategy and surprising that it's not used more widely in college. I coached middle school basketball and we would switched to/from man/zone interchangeably routinely in games. Best time to switch is when the ball is in the corner, especially if the opponent is dumb enough to take his/her dribble up. Aggressively switching from zone to man, when the ball is in the corner/wing, cuts down on passing angles and you are effectively tightly guarding only half of the floor. Plus, if the switch is made aggressively, your team feeds off of it and it often creates stress and chaos for the opponent, especially late in the shot clock. Switching from zone to man on inbounds plays should be pretty routine.
But, but I thought you could only play man after Cal said Gooooo and Ruuuuunn.
1 posession against Tennessee 2 years ago I believe was the last time.
The team will need to remember and work on when the opponent sets up a man just outside the lane behind the backboard, just inside the out-of-bounds line to "sneak" open from underneath on the zip pass. Gonzaga did it, but their guy was to slow to catch-and-shoot. Smart opponents will be watching film and keep the underneath "sleeper" man in their attack.
Wouldn’t surprise me to see a 2-3 at some point as well, which would help with that dunker spot drop off pass.
Good points ... plus, the more you show, the more opponents have to prepare for and be thinking about.
You make a very good point, but the key is to have multiple varieties of zone ... but they have to be practiced thoroughly to be effective. I assume Pope and the Cats are regularly practicing what I hope is a portfolio of zone defense schemes ...
Both Kermit Davis of Ole Miss and Andy Kennedy at UAB played a 1-3-1 and changed it to a 2-3 zone after the first pass to a corner. Pitino played a lot of zone at Louisville and went man to man later in the shot clock.
