A couple of great things that Coach Knight mentioned in the clip. Your perimeter defenders must work to close all the gaps. A lot of teams that I see play zone, basically play a packed in soft zone, they allow the offense to do what they want. Good teams will eventually work the ball around enough to get a good shot. Instead, your zone defense must attack the ball with pressure and close out quickly on the perimeter, force the action which will result in turnovers. Lastly, you must have good weak side support on either side of the zone.
Coach Bobby Knight isn't known for his zone defenses, therefore he doesn't have a video on it, but if you want to know more about the Syracuse Zone, you can always check out Jim Boeheim's DVD on the 2-3 matchup zone. Coach Boeheim is the longtime head coach of Syracuse University.
The 2-3 zone is often also played statically. I see a lot of high school and middle school teams play a 2-3 by alignment, but that's it. They don't shift and "bump" the way Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone. One can quickly say, well I don't have a front court of players who average out to 6'7 to 7 footers. But I have played the Syracuse zone with middle school kids and opposing coaches don't understand that we do trap the short corners and that you can fast break out of a 2-3 zone. Buy the Jim Boeheim 2-3 zone tape/dvd from Championship Productions. It will be one of the best tapes/dvds you'll buy.
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