How the Utes broke through Washington’s unique zone defense

SALT LAKE CITY — For a good chunk of Thursday’s game, Washington’s unique zone defense stymied Utah’s offense. 

The Huskies’ zone featured four players around the 3-point line and a big man anchoring the center of the free-throw lane. The Huskies pressured the 3-point line and their length made it hard for Utah to do much of anything from deep as Washington shifted from side to side along the perimeter.

“It was tough. Their zone is difficult to go at at first. My teammates found me in space where I could hit some shots and I was just lucky enough for them to go in.” — Utah’s Riley Battin

“It was really hard scoring against the zone. Our guys stayed in the fight. That’s hard to score against,” Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak said. 

Utah shot a dismal 12.5% from 3-point range as nothing was falling from outside.

“That zone is something else. You can prepare for it all you want in practice, but we don’t have the length that they do and they’re really good at it, and Coach Hopkins does a great job getting them extended. Their wings are big and long and their guards are long. It’s hard to score against it,” Utah guard Rylan Jones said. 

At halftime, Utah had scored 24 points and was only in the game because of its defense, which wasn’t a surprise for Krystkowiak.

“I’ve probably watched them play eight games here in the last week and I told our guys that there’s plenty of those games that are 24-26 at halftime and it’s a grandly, ugly kind of deal with the length,” he said.

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In that first half, with four Huskies around the 3-point line, a Utah player was usually open in the post. Utah tried to counteract the zone by passing the ball to one of its forwards, who was usually open just past the free-throw line, but sometimes they would just kick it back out to a player along the 3-point line, where Utah was struggling, instead of taking an open shot. 

“I thought we made a lot of nice plays maybe the first three quarters of the game and we just weren’t hitting open shots. Guys get hesitant. … It’s as good a zone as there is in the country to play against,” Krystkowiak said.

One Ute big man that did find success against the zone was Riley Battin, who finished with a team-high 17 points. 

“It was tough. Their zone is difficult to go at at first. My teammates found me in space where I could hit some shots and I was just lucky enough for them to go in,” Battin said.

Utah got back into the game and found success against the zone in driving to the basket and then kicking it out or taking it all the way to the rim.

The play that sparked the Utes’ eventual comeback was Jones getting fouled in the paint and a technical foul on Jaden McDaniels, which gave the Utes four straight points and cut the Washington lead to just three. 

“We just felt that they were super extended and we could get some driving lanes and it opened up. They had seven fouls quick and we just kept attacking,” Jones said.

Utah kept attacking the Huskies’ zone by driving and Washington kept fouling the Utes, opening the door for the eventual win. Utah didn’t make a field goal from 3:59 on, instead making all of its next 12 points from the free-throw line.

“We just hung in there, added a couple pick-and-roll options at the top and I thought our guys, more than anything, they saw a couple balls go in and they saw that the game was a little bit more reachable in terms of the outcome and we got a little bit of confidence and managed to make enough plays,” Krystkowiak said. “I’d be lying if I said we had an answer for their zone.”

The other key to beating the zone was limiting turnovers. After turning it over seven times in the first half, Utah limited its giveaways to just three in the second half. Jones said that it took a while to get used to the zone, but when they figured it out, they were able to calm the turnovers down.