To run out to deal with specific matchups. Syracuse's zone is unique because a zone is typically played when you have smaller players who are worse athletes that can't guard M2M. The Orange normally have NBA-level size and athleticism at every position which makes them really hard to beat usually. This year is different, they have the size but not the athletes to make the zone hard to beat, which is why entry passes to Mutts were easy and why he was uncontested in the high post.

An added benefit of a 2-3 is you expend way less energy guarding space than chasing people around so you don't need nearly the same amount of depth. We played a version of matchup zone when Robinson got hurt in 2019 because we didn't have the depth to weather foul trouble. UVa's pack line is very much like a zone only with M2M ball pressure which you'll see tonight.

We could play zone if we practiced it, but our rebounding would suffer pretty badly. It actually would help us a lot with the slow footspeed of Storm, zone's prevent dribble penetration. The thing is we actually have really good man defenders on the wing in Cattoor, Mutts, Alleyne, and DNG.