Denial Emporia State s Point Zone By Matt Corkery Women s Associate Head Basketball Coach, Emporia State University The Point Zone is an effective half-court defense that is relatively simple to teach while offering the benefits of more complicated match-up zone defenses. I think it is important to mention right off the bat that we are not a zone team at Emporia State. We like to press and play pressure man to man defense in the half-court. We feel like the Point Zone is a good change of pace that fits our personnel. We have a tall shot blocker at the center position who really makes this zone work for us. I believe you must be big at that spot for this zone to be effective. Most of the information provided in this article is based on the Point Zone run by former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. The Three P s of the Point Zone In teaching this zone to our players we begin with the Three P s : Point, Partner, and Paint. You should begin teaching this zone by using only four defensive players, 1-4. We will talk about the 5 s responsibilities later. Guard the basketball using man to man principles. At Emporia State this means influencing the ball to the sideline when it is above free throw line extended or to the baseline if it is below free throw line extended. We pick up the basketball or Point the ball on the three point line and not beyond. We don t want to extend the defense too far and create gaps that the offense may be able to take advantage of, but we still want to take away three point opportunities. When a defensive player is guarding the ball, we make them call Point loud enough for all of their teammates to hear. When the point is called, the defense adjusts accordingly. The four defensive players work together using the partner system (Diagram 1). The partner rule is this; when my partner points the ball, I m in the paint, or protecting the basket. You must start with the Three P s in teaching the Point Zone. T-Principle The T-Principle is the next step in teaching the zone. This principle Diagram 2. X3 & X2 are wingmen for X1 (T-Principle) Diagram 1. X1 & X4 are partners X2 & X3 are partners involves the proper spacing of the Wingmen in relationship to the basketball. When the point is called by the player guarding the basketball, the player to her right and the player to her left are her wingmen (2). X2 and X3 are wingmen for X1, X4 and X1 are wingmen for X3, and so on (3). Proper spacing for a wingman is at a 45-degree angle off the ball and approximately 12 feet from your teammate. Wingmen play in an open stance and see the ball at all times. Players must develop a feel for the proper spacing in relationship to the basketball. The Wingman Rule is this; I have the next pass in my direction, unless it is over my head (skip pass). Most of the mistakes our players make in this zone
come from being too concerned with where an offensive player is rather than putting themselves in the proper spacing according to the position of the ball. Be more concerned about your POSITION than PLAYERS! If you are in the proper position defensively by following the Partner Rule and the T-Principle, you don t have to be concerned with the spacing of the offense. X1 through X4 follow the same rules and are interchangeable. The Center Teaching the center position is very, very simple. They have one rule, stay on the line between the ball and the basket. As simple as it sounds, you would be surprised how many players mess this up! The center often times becomes too concerned with offensive players posting up. The center should face the ball with her hands up at all times. She is never in a deny or cover-out position. She protects the lane with her hands. We want her moving on an arc about 6 feet from the basket (4). If there is an offensive player in front of her, we want her to move them away from the basket with one point of contact (forearm). Your center must have an enforcer mentality. The paint belongs to her and she is going to protect it by playing physical and blocking shots. We want our center to step up and challenge every dribble penetration into the lane. We do not seal on penetration and give up the pitch out three point shot, rather we force the penetrator to score over our center. We believe the mid-range game of most players is a weakness and just about everybody we face can hit the three consistently. We do not want to give up any penetrate and pitch or inside out threes against our zone. Betty Help Betty baseline and Sally sideline are the two most reliable defensive players you have on your squad. They will never let you down! When the basketball is near the corner against the Point Zone we call it a low point. In this situation X4 gets her help from Betty baseline and not a teammate. Betty is our wingman so X2 can stay at the basket (5). Another point to make in reference to this diagram is the positioning of X3. When the ball is in the corner, X3 should be on a direct line between the ball and the elbow and X1 is anticipating the skip pass. When there is a high point on the wing, a wingman should fill on the baseline (6). If there is enough spacing for an Diagram 3. X1 & X 4 are wingmen for X3 Diagram 4. X5 between ball & baseline offensive player to be in the corner or the short corner, then X4 should fill the baseline wingman spot and X2 covers the basket. Remember, X1 through X4 are interchangeable. Any of them could end up pointing the basketball on any spot on the floor.
Diagram 5. "Low" Point - X2 stays at basket Diagram 6. High Point - X4 fills baseline Jump the Dribble Entry In coaching the Point Zone you need to develop a philosophy of how you want to guard the dribble entry or dribble drag. This type of dribble is a non-penetrating dribble used in place of a pass. You can do two things in the Point versus this type of dribble. One is to stay on the basketball and rotate your entire zone accordingly and the second is to exchange the dribbler with a wingman, which is what we do at Emporia State. We jump the dribble entry in a very aggressive fashion (7). As X3 sees the dribble coming at her she attacks it in a run and jump fashion. She closes out the dribbler with her hands up and forces the ball handler to stop or at least bounce the dribble outside toward the Diagram 7. Exchange Point sideline. If the ball is at the top, this exchange should occur about lane on Jump on dribble entry line extended. X3 is now pointing the basketball and the zone adjusts accordingly. X1 recovers to a wingman position for X3. Trap Baseline Penetration As mentioned earlier, you should guard the basketball using man to man principles. We want to keep penetration out of the middle of the floor and force it to the sideline or baseline. If the ball is on a high point on the wing and the dribbler attacks the baseline, we trap the dribbler with our wingman (8). If we have a low point then we use Betty to help us trap on the baseline, not a teammate. Skip Passes Diagram 8. Trap Baseline Penetration I believe the Point Zone does a great job guarding the skip pass. The Wingman Rule is to take the next pass in my direction unless it is over my head. So if that pass is over my head, that s a skip pass and it is not my responsibility! Weakside defenders take the skip pass and should be anticipating them. We often have players pick off skips and turn them into layups. A good point to Diagram 9. Skip Pass mention here (no pun intended) is that all of the teaching points you use to coach your zone defenses
apply to the Point Zone. Things like keeping your hands up at all times, moving when the ball is in the air, communicating with your teammates and playing through scramble situations are some examples. As we all know, simply playing hard makes up for a multitude of errors. Post Entries When the ball goes inside against our zone, we like that matchup. We play the low post and high post 1 on 1 with no double teams. X1 through X4 need to learn how to position themselves when the ball goes inside. On a high post entry, X5 steps up to challenge, X4 and X3 tighten up on the blocks and X2 and X1 drop to ball level and anticipate the pass out. The number one mistake players make on the post entry is to turn their back on the pitch out man. When the ball is entered to the low or high post, players should keep an open stance and get butt to baseline and be ready for the pass back out (11). We do not want to give up any inside out three s! 2 Guard vs. 1 Guard Front If you decide to run the Point Zone one decision you need to make is the initial set for the defense. You can run it from a 2-3 or a 1-3-1 initial alignment. Dean Smith ran the point from a 2 guard front because he wanted initial protection on the blocks when the ball was at the top. At Emporia State we like the 1-3-1 set unless the ball is out of bounds under the basket, then we go 2-3. No matter which you choose, as soon as the first point is called the defense is the same. Another important question is how to properly use your personnel. X1 is typically your smallest guard and someone who can put pressure on the basketball. X2 also needs to be able to put good pressure on the ball. X3 needs to be a very good rebounder and a smart player. X4 needs to be a smart player who can cover lots of real estate. X5 needs to be BIG and have the ability to block shots and control the boards. Our initial alignment is also dictated by our transition offense. We want to keep players close to their lanes so we can get out quickly and run the break. Rebounding I wish I could tell you that the Point was different than any other zone in America in that it was actually GOOD for rebounding. It s not. It s just like any other zone defense in that rebounding can be a weakness. One positive is that you keep your center close to the basket at all times, but if teams flood the backside board there can be some problems! In setting up your block out assignments, consider that perimeter shots will come from three spots; corner (12), wing (13) and top (14). These diagrams show the assignments we teach our players at Emporia State. However in rebounding, there is nothing more important than aggressive players who pursue the basketball! The Last Point Diagram 10. High Post Entry Tighten on Blocks Diagram 11. X4 opens up Butt to Baseline Diagram 12. Corner Shot Diagram 13. Wing Shot
The Point Zone we run at Emporia State is entirely our own. We have taken the principles of Dean Smith, Roy Williams and other great coaches and tweaked them to fit our philosophy and personnel. One of the great things about this zone is its adaptability. You can make it more aggressive or less aggressive, add trapping situations, add post doubles, even turn it into a junk defense i.e. the Point and One. The possibilities are endless with a little imagination. There are other details that I don t have time to cover in this article that are important to running the Point effectively. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the defense. Good luck to you and your team this upcoming season. About the author Matt Corkey Matt Corkery is in his third season as the Associate Head Women s Basketball Coach at Emporia State University. The Lady Hornet program has been ranked as high as #2 in the nation in Division II this season. For more information on this subject, contact Coach Corkery at Corkerym@esumail.emporia.edu