Flip wrote:BasketballMind wrote:What is everyone's opinion on this? Personally, I'm 100% against it at all in Junior High. It allows you to train bad defenders to think they're good defenders. It also allows average-to-good defenders, become lazy. They believe they're good at defense because it worked in 7th and 8th grade.
Do JH kids actually know who the good defenders are? and does it matter Johnny thinks he's good at defense, but he's actually average?
Any basketball coach could teach a 2-3 zone in 15 minutes at one practice. If that's your base defense, it will give most teams fits.
Really? Coaching HS kids to play zone for the first time doesn't go that easy for me. Can't imagine what it's like when they're 12 years old. Region 2 started to allow any defense 3-4 years ago at the JH level. Honestly, I can't think of 2 teams that have ran zone in that time frame.
Some of the good teams will figure it out because they may have a few talented players that can do it on their own. But when your 8th grade 2-3 zone is successful, most of the time it isn't because you're running it like Syracuse. It's because at that age, it's more important to develop individual skills, basic offensive strategy, showing them what good man-to-man defense looks like, and to get them on the floor and let them learn.
I read this stuff all the time on Twitter, but has there ever been a HS kid that you thought was underdeveloped because they played zone in JH? I prefer my JH teams to play man, but I think it is exaggerated how much it hurts development if they're playing zone.
To your points:
1. Yes, some kids do know what being good at defense means because they're disciplined enough to get to the right position in help, not gamble for a steal and get burned backdoor, and they closeout/boxout well. In my opinion, it's not something they're going to develop if they sit in a 2-3 zone that isn't active. Most JH teams don't have enough kids that understand the game well enough to play a good zone defense. I played plenty of 2-3 zone in high school, so I'm not anti-zone defense. But in JH it feels like a lazy man/woman's defense because you can allow them to be pretty stationary in it and be successful. If a 7th grade team doesn't have shooters, they're probably screwed from the opening tip.
2. What I meant was, you could teach a JH team the basic lay-out of a 2-3 zone in a short amount of time. I don't mean a good 2-3 where there are actual defensive rotations and specific wrinkles to it based on your team. I mean a plain Jane, white bread, rec league 2-3 zone where the two guys on the top and three on the bottom don't move too far from their starting position. It's something that doesn't teach those kids anything about playing good zone defense, and they won't be any good at playing man defense against good players if that's all they do in JH.
3. I don't have a specific example of it, but if your JH team plays the type of zone I've been describing here, not because it's a reflection of your varsity, but because you use it as a white flag of not being able to stop anyone, it will 100% affect them in high school. We'll never know about those teams because they won't be making any noise around the state.
Again, I'm not against zone defense. Played plenty of it in my life, but JH teams don't have enough time to install a man and zone offense, learn to play man and zone defense, nor the personnel serious enough about basketball to buy-in.
It's harder to prepare for, because with the amount of turnover in coaching at the Junior High level, there's really no way to prepare for when you might see it. You could play 10 games in a row against teams that play straight man and only press if the games on the line late, and they need the ball back. Then you run into a coach you haven't seen before, and he sits in a 2-3 zone the entire game because he's not willing to make them play straight up. It's one thing when you play against "Coach ______" who everyone knows plays a 2-3 zone, or 1-3-1 halfcourt trap, or something that you can at least prepare for. There's no scouting in JH basketball, you just kinda assume most people play man and when they don't, a 12-14 year old brain isn't ready to process and adjust that quickly.
To me, it hinders their development more than helps it, and that's ultimately what JH basketball is about. I'm not crazy about pressing at that level either, but it at least makes sense because the kids have to be active and fly around the court to the ball. I personally think learning how to play half-court offense and defense is more helpful to their development in 7th and 8th grade over taking a group that is faster than everyone, slapping on a press, and shooting lay-ups against bad teams.