LOS ANGELES — UCLA forward T.J. Leaf had caught the pass at the high post, in the middle of USC’s 2-3 zone defense, and looked toward the basket.
As Chimezie Metu inched toward him, Leaf hesitated, looking out of sorts, and shuffled his feet without first dribbling. A whistle blew. Traveling.
The sequence during the first half of the Trojans’ 84-76 upset of UCLA last week caught the attention of analyst Steve Lavin during the Fox Sports 1 telecast.
“This zone defense is an active zone,” Lavin said. “The aggressiveness, the length, the foot speed of USC, they can extend it out to the 3-point line or they can collapse like a Venus flytrap or an accordion.”
It worked against UCLA, throwing off its players. The Bruins committed 17 turnovers. Only once in 22 games have they finished with more.
As USC has played 15 consecutive games without its talented forward Bennie Boatwright because of a knee injury, a span where it has survived by going 11-4, it has turned to a variety of remedies. Among them has been using a four-guard lineup, and with that comes a zone defense.
“Sometimes when you’re short-handed, you gotta use a zone because you can’t guard certain areas,” assistant coach Jason Hart. “When you’re small, you can’t guards bigs. It’s just another defense that gives us something to do when we’re small or when we see a matchup we don’t like.”
The implementation has been gradual under fourth-year coach Andy Enfield.
USC first really relied on a zone defense last season. Facing Colorado in a Pac-12 game in February, the deneme bonusu Trojans trailed, Betboo 60-45, in the second half. They need something to change the pace.
A zone defense helped key a 20-5 run, knotting the game at 65 apiece. USC eventually won, 79-72.
Against UCLA last week, the Trojans used it for an extend portion of the first half, turning an 8-0 early deficit into a 50-38 halftime lead.
This season, Enfield said USC has used a zone defense almost one-third of the time.
Hart and associate head coach Tony Bland have helped introduce it. The two assistants played at Syracuse under Jim Boeheim, the Hall of Fame coach regarded for his 2-3 matchup zone defense.
Arizona assistant Book Richardson told the Arizona Daily Star before the teams met in mid-January that USC’s zone had “some Syracuse principles” in it.
Those include two main tenets.
For defenders, it means pressuring the offensive player in your zone.
“If there’s a man in front of you,” Bland said, “it’s man-to-man principles.”
The second, perhaps the most important, involves closing out on shooters. Even as a team sits back in its zone, crowding the key, it must hurry out to the perimeter before a shot goes up.
“We want teams to take out-of-rhythm 3s,” USC guard Jordan McLaughlin said. “We don’t want them catching the ball and teeing it up.”
When Bland played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Syracuse, that served as the point of emphasis for Boeheim.
“Coach Boeheim would go crazy if you let someone get an open 3. You’d hear it immediately. You’ll be on the bench like this,” he said, snapping his fingers.
The reliance on the zone helped upend UCLA, which remains first in the nation in offensive efficiency on KenPom.com, led by freshman point guard Lonzo Ball.
Washington, which hosts the Trojans on Wednesday night, is not as prolific, but does feature Markelle Fultz, a freshman point guard who leads the Pac-12 in scoring.
On defense, USC will need the right combination.
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