Kentucky and Duke, arguably the bluest of college basketball’s blue-blood programs, are playing noticeably more zone defense this season. That suggests that zone defense has gained greater acceptance as a strategy. It seems that playing zone defense might even be … trendy?
Don’t say that to Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, who for years has seemed like a lone voice in the basketball wilderness promoting zone defense. His teams are synonymous with zone defense. Even with the more widespread use of zone defenses this season, he’s not ready to accept the idea that his coaching colleagues have relaxed their allegiance to man-to-man.