MORGANTOWN — The 2-3 zone defense is no less foreign to Kobe Johnson as Nike shoes or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Yet a smile stretches across his face when you mention the zone and West Virginia men’s basketball.
“It does feel different,” he admits.
Why? Well because the last time the Mountaineers relied on a 2-3 zone, Johnson probably wasn’t even born yet.
Former head coach Bob Huggins wasn’t against playing zone, yet he strongly opposed the 2-3, calling it a “lazy” and a “church league” defense.
That covered the last 16 years. Before that, John Beilein made the 1-3-1 zone popular during his five years at the school.
“It’s definitely different than picking up full court,” Johnson continued. “It does give you a little rest for your legs a little bit.”
Which brings us to Josh Eilert and his reasons for getting the Mountaineers to play more 2-3 zone this season.
Truth be told, Eilert would probably shy away from the defense, too, under different circumstances. Except WVU’s circumstances when it comes to the overall depth of its roster is dire.
“We have limited numbers to work with,” Eilert said in stating the obvious. “Most kids have played a 2-3 zone, so it’s not like it’s crazy or unnatural. We’ve kept it simple.
“Hopefully we can keep getting better at it and improve. It’s probably something we’ll have to use, especially while we’re in these times with the short bench.”
To this point, WVU’s 2-3 has had mixed results. Eilert went to it in last week’s loss against Monmouth and saw his team couldn’t rebound the ball out of it.
In the opening game, Eilert said there was some miscommunication on a couple of possessions and some players were in zone, while others were playing man-to-man.
In Tuesday’s 70-57 win against Jacksonville State, Eilert said the zone worked as well as it has all season. The Gamecocks were held to just 34% (21 of 61) shooting.
“There were a couple of guys we were worried about shooting us out of it,” Eilert said. “For the most part, there were several kids out there not even looking at the rim, so we were mindful of who to guard and who to back off of. They executed it well.”
There is a story behind it all, and it comes from WVU center Jesse Edwards.
No other coach in the history of college hoops made a living off using the 2-3 zone like Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and Edwards spent the first four years of his career playing for Boeheim.
“Jesse was a staple at Syracuse for, like, 100 years,” WVU forward Quinn Slazinski joked. “He’s teaching us the zone. We look to him, ‘Hey, Jesse, what should we do here when they catch it?’ He’s doing a great job being a leader. Having Jesse Edwards here has been a great help.”
The nature of the zone is to keep players from going all-out and running everywhere on defense, so under those terms, it is a somewhat lazy defense.
If lazy continues to work, though, Eilert will keep going to it to keep his rotation of eight players as fresh as possible.
“When those guys are gassed out there and chasing and trying to take things away, it takes a toll on you on the offensive end,” he said. “The fact we saved some legs on the defensive end really helped this team.
“It could be a staple. We’ll see. Nothing is off the table when you’re trying to win games.”
