Zone Offense play
Zone Offense: High Post and Middle vs 3-2
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 13 steps
About this play
Attacking the 3-2 (and its 1-2-2 cousin) where it is weakest: the middle. From Coach's Clipboard's 3-2 and 1-2-2 zone offenses and HoopTactics: two guards up against the three-man front, the best shooter in the ball-side corner, and the posts in the gaps above the two low defenders. With the ball at the top, the weak post flashes into the open middle of the lane; the catch gives the high post a shot or a drop to the other post at the block. If the ball goes to the corner instead, the ball-side low defender must come out, and the post behind him takes the vacated block. Why the middle: with three defenders up and two low, nobody in a 1-2-2 owns the lane between the rover and the blocks, and when the ball is on top that space is empty; HoopTactics and Coach's Clipboard both point at it first. The read is the ball-side low defender leaving the block for the corner. The counter is for the zone that slides the middle defender over to the ball-side block: the ball-side post meets him at the lane line with a screen and keeps him pinned on the outside while the far post cuts behind for the entry; when it is the other low defender who comes across instead, the ball-side post screens him on the way and, with the pinned man unable to turn, is the open player himself. Common mistakes: the flash going to the free-throw line where the rover lives instead of the middle of the lane, the corner shooter lifting out of the corner, and the posts standing on the blocks in front of the low defenders. Everything here is from Coach's Clipboard's 3-2 and 1-2-2 zone offenses and HoopTactics' notes on the 1-2-2's open middle; Coach Calls Timeout's video on dominating the middle will take you deeper.
