Ohio State Zone Basketball Play

Ohio State Zone Offense

Coaches don't always need great basketball players to run great basketball plays. Ohio State designed this basketball play to take advantage of the great players they had in 2007. The departure of Mike Conley and Greg Oden, both first round draft picks, put OSU in a rebuilding year. They failed to make the NCAA tournament in 2008 after finishing as runners up the previous year. Ohio State used this play often with Conley and Oden. We sometimes overlook the play and only see the players. Last year we watched as oden caught the ball down low and dunked time after time. We also saw Conley cut through the lane on a give and go and score layups in every game he played for Ohio State.

This year there was no Oden or Conley but for one game in the NIT OSU fans got to see plenty of low post scoring thanks to a great zone basketball play used by the Buckeyes. The California Golden Bears tried to defend Ohio State with a 2-1-2 zone for most of their NIT matchup. At one point in the second half OSU scored on three trips in a row using the play we'll be showing you below in our animation. The play is very simple and could be used by most teams including youth basketball teams. The play uses a "sneaky little backscreen" to get easy low post scores. Press the play button in the box below to begin animation. You can ask questions or leave comments below the play section.