Adrian Autry had to abandon the Syracuse 2-3 zone
It is the end of an era. It was always bound to look and feel different. The very concept of a Syracuse men's basketball team that did not feature Jim Boeheim stalking the sidelines is hard to conceive for most fans. After 47 seasons as the Orange head coach, he announced his retirement. Boehiem built SU into the powerhouse it was in the 80s, 90s and 00s. He was the face of the school in many ways for nearly five decades.
All of that can be true, and at the same time, his successor had no choice but to immediately abandon one of the staples of the program. Something Boeheim had made synonymous with Orange basketball: The 2-3 Zone.
On Wednesday, at ACC Media day, new Syracuse Head Coach Adrian Autry announced that the team would no longer employ the longtime defensive strategy. That was put on display in Syracuse's exhibition game against Daemen on Friday evening.
The philosophy worked for a very long time. It made Syracuse a difficult team to plan for. Not many schools exclusively ran one defensive scheme, particularly one that featured no man-to-man action. It threw a wrench into just about any offense. The Orange's ability to clog the paint and disrupt passing lanes was unmatched.
However, in recent years, the 2-3 Zone became stale, outdated and inefficient. The game has changed too much for that style of play to still work.
During the 2022-2023 men's basketball season, no team allowed more 3-point attempts than Syracuse. I'm not exaggerating. Of the 363 men's Division I programs, SU ranked dead last in opponents' 3-point attempts per game. This was not an aberration either. It marked the fourth straight season that the Orange finished in the bottom 10 in that category.
Last year specifically, opposing teams were heaving up nearly 30 shots from beyond the arc per game. They converted 10.3 of them on average, making the Orange one of just four teams in the entire country to allow 10 made 3s per game. The others: VMI, Portland and San Diego. Not exactly the company you want to keep as a Power 5 former blueblood.
The 2-3 Zone was made for an era where teams crashed the boards, worked in the paint and regularly took 2-point jumpers. In the age of pace and space, it has become obsolete. It forced opponents to shoot over long defenders from the outside, something most offenses could not do prior to about 2012. At least, not at a consistent, reliable rate.
Go back to the 2002-03 season. Coincidentally, it is the year the Orange won their lone national championship and the furthest back ESPN's men's basketball team stats go on their website.
There were six teams in the country who attempted at least 25 3-point shots per game. This past season, there were 44. The game has drastically shifted to a version that prioritizes creating and knocking down opportunities from behind the arc. The 2-3 Zone was not built for that.
Boeheim had tinkered with the approach in recent years, but rarely moved away from the general principle. Seeing him move away from it completely would have been jarring. With a fresh start under Autry, this is the perfect chance to try new ideas.
There will be growing pains, which Autry alluded to on Wednesday, but this is the right move. In truth, it was long overdue and it was inevitable.
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