NCAA Basketball: Are zone defenses dying in the sport?

Zone defenses have their place in the sport and they used to be widely used in NCAA Basketball.  Over the last handful of seasons, the zone usage has been dropping drastically.

Zone Defenses are one of NCAA Basketball’s hot buttons. They are a hot button with coaches and fans around the country.  Every coach has their own philosophy and ways of trying to win games.  The reality is that many of the coaches around the country do not run a zone and they do not run a zone for several reasons.  Personnel and coaching philosophies make up a big portion of reasons why coaches don’t run zone defenses.

Basketball is ever-changing especially with the way the game is being played currently.  Teams value points scored and going fast, and it isn’t as trendy as it once was to play defense at a high level.  Obviously, that doesn’t apply to every team, usually to win a championship teams must play both sides of the ball at a high level.

Even in this day in age, a great zone defense can perplex and befuddle even the best offensive minds.  So then why do more coaches not run one? Why is that not the standard defense used by most of the division one coaches?  I researched this topic a lot.  I had to elicit the help of some of the analytical wizards and I was also able to get the opinions of coaches from many levels.

I was able to get some opinions from a few college coaches, as well as high school and AAU coaches for their takes on the debate. The goal is to get a better understanding of the minds who know the game the best and why they do what they do regarding defensive philosophy.