I found this video about zone defense interesting given our reliance on it over the last few years. Jay Bilas describes its merit, and why Syracuse plays zone so well.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketbal...ne-defense

"they are long and athletic along the base line, 6'8" with 7 foot wing spans. That forces you to go over the top."

Obviously that is personnel that we can't match.

This year Murry has really been throwing in multiple defenses, especially against Mercer (he mentioned the 2-3, the 1-3-1 with different personnel in the key top and bottom positions, a sort of triangle and 2, man-to-man and more, switching every couple times down the floor) to try to confuse the other team. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that didn't leave US a little confused at times. I wonder if switching defenses doesn't make it harder to focus on the hot guy (Bud Thomas of Mercer, Josh Williams of Lipscomb) since responsibilities change so rapidly. We've really had trouble allowing guys to go off for 30 against us and beating us almost singlehanded. That shouldn't happen.