If the men's basketball team is to have any hope of beating No. 20 Syracuse and sweeping the three-game BCA Invitational this weekend, it will have to begin this season in the zone.
But Orange coach Jim Boeheim will be in a zone of his own - the same one he's been in for 30 years.
Over the last three decades, the Hall of Fame coach has forged and reforged his reputation many times over. But one thing has remained the same since the day he took the reins of the upstate New York program - Boeheim is the mastermind of the 2-3 zone.
Year in and year out, Boeheim's teams have played a brand of the zone defense that has become synonymous with the man and his program. The aggressive, stifling style was aptly put on display during the Orange's national championship run in 2003; but ask the likes of former Georgetown coach John Thompson, or Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, and they'll tell you that Boeheim has been up to his old tricks for decades in the Big East.
And Miller, who played and coached under Calhoun at UConn, is no stranger to the reputation that Boeheim and his teams have built with the zone defense.
"It's their bread and butter, so it's something they are going to play a majority of the time," Miller said. "They're long and rangy - they have terrific athletes, so they take up a lot of space. They play that 2-3 zone aggressively on the wing, and they trap out of it, so they have a lot of different looks that they present."
This aggressive mentality is perhaps the defining characteristic of the Syracuse 2-3. Boeheim's players are rarely content to sit back in their zone. Instead, they play an in-your-face game and collapse with ferocity if any entry pass is made.
Last year, somewhat of an off-year for the defense in terms of personnel, the Orange still forced its opponents into 15.9 turnovers a game. And this season can only be considered an upgrade, with the departed Gerry McNamara - for all his big-game prowess, never a stalwart defender - giving way to speedy guard Josh Wright and athletic freshman Paul Harris off the bench. The two, along with sophomore Eric Devendorf, will complement an all-senior back line consisting of bruisers Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins in addition to the rangy Demetris Nichols.
"It's difficult to prepare for and difficult to play against," Miller said. "This early in the season, I think most coaches have spent most of their time putting together their man-to-man offense, so, especially early in the year, it's more difficult to attack."
But for all this, Boeheim's 2-3 zone is by no means impregnable; the key is quick ball movement, something Penn has shown itself capable of in the past. Syracuse's trapping mentality is also its Achilles' heel, since it ensures that there will almost always be an open man - the trick is finding him before coughing up the ball.
Teams that have had success against the Orange and its 2-3 in the past are the ones that have attacked the zone's soft spot, around the foul line and just behind the top two defenders. An entry pass to a big man - say, a Mark Zoller or a Steve Danley - in that general area causes the zone to collapse and the center to come out, leaving room for a baseline backdoor cutter or an open shooter.
"I have to be able to find open players," said Danley, who led the team in assists with 3.0 per game. "And then I have to screen for our shooters. I think if I do that, then we'll be okay."
But a key component to any zone offense is the three-pointer. Teams that have trouble shooting from outside are most often left hanging their heads.
Last season's Quakers squad was a perfect illustration of this fact. Without a go-to shooter, Penn struggled all year with the three, as its 32-percent clip from beyond the arc would indicate.
After Penn dominated the Ivies its first time through the schedule, with an average margin of victory of 23.1 points and a 7-0 record, opponents caught wind of that. Faced primarily with zones for the remainder of the season, the Red and Blue went 5-2 and saw its margin of victory slip to five points a game.
So it is no surprise that Miller, as one of his first orders of business, has made an effort to shore up the Quakers' outside shooting game. He has put an extra emphasis on shooting, not just for Penn's guards but even for big men like Zoller and Danley. And, according to Danley, the team will feel the positive effects when it comes to its zone offense.
"Clearly, anytime you play a zone, it's the shooting that's going to get them out of it," Danley said. "In that sense, the extra work, the extra critiques, the extra form shooting is going to help. We know that, and the guys are shooting the ball pretty well, so I'm not too worried about" Syracuse's zone.
