The Villanova 1-2-2 Zone

As an aspiring coach, Jay Wright is someone I will always watch and emulate. His teams in the late 2010s were known for their unique offensive style, which led to two national titles. But I want to take some time to study their defensive changeup, the 1-2-2 zone.

The Point - "Dragon"

Let's start at the top, with what I will call "Dragon". Why? Because I think dragons are cool. More importantly, the dragon is the most important player in the zone. He has the main responsibility of wrangling the ball and determining when to trap the ball.

The first goal is to force the ball handler to dribble without allowing him to the middle of the floor. Forcing the dribble is about taking away the reversal pass by either cheating the pass or stunting. While doing this, the dragon has to stay slightly in front of the ball handler to take away any middle penetration.

If the dragon consistently achieves the first goal, we move to the second goal of trapping effectively. The best situation is the ball handler dribbling across half-court into the wing defender, allowing the dragon to close the trap.

If the guard slows down to avoid the trap, the dragon and wing can creep closer before trapping against a stationary or retreating ball handler.

The final situation is based on instincts. Anytime the offense is not ready can be a good time to trap. This situation is determined by the offense but also how close the point and wing are to each other.

Overall, the dragon the dragon has to force the dribble without giving up middle. Then he can be aggressive whenever the offense shows weakness (Pick-up their dribble, retreat dribble, reverse pivot, etc).

The Wings - "Force" and "Lance"

Again with the names that I cam up with. These are the players that support and play off of the dragon. The "lance" defender plays to the left of the dragon (lance-left) and the "force" plays on the right. These positions is less about reading and more about being solid positionally.

The first goal for the wings are not allowing easy passes to the middle or up the sideline. The wings start just behind the half-court line to allow the dribble across half-court and trap in an ideal situation. The ball side wing is looking to stunt at the ball handler and trap if the ball is stopped. While this is happening, the other wing has middle responsibility.

For the wing opposite to the ball, their middle positioning depends on where the ball is. If the ball hasn't crossed half-court, the wing can be above the middle man. If the ball crosses half-court, the wing should try to be below the middle man.

The second goal is applying pressure to the ball. This is where the wing needs to understand the same trapping principles as the dragon. If the ball handler is too comfortable and has stopped to survey the court, the wing can stunt to varying levels.

In this clip, Brunson stunts but Johnson still feels comfortable enough to dribble. So the next time Brunson fakes the stunt and actually commits to pressuring the ball.

The final goal is reaching the middle or sideline as fast as possible. To accomplish this, it hinges on effort from the players. But the goal can be helped by altering the hip angle from the wings.

Overall, the dragon the dragon has to force the dribble without giving up the middle. Then he can be aggressive whenever the offense shows weakness (Pick-up their dribble, retreat dribble, reverse pivot, etc).

Bigs - Free and Strong (Safeties)

I call the final two defenders free and strong, usually strong is referring the center or the big man that is at the bottom of the zone. These final guys don't have as much positionally responsibilities but have to change based on what the offense is doing.

Their first goal is to stop the offensive momentum. The back line should move as a tandem with the ball side big ready to help to the side line and the weak side big covering the rim. If there is a breakdown, the bigs have to be ready to rotate to the breakdown to stop it.

The second goal is to minimize offensive positioning. This means alternating the bigs positioning based on how the offensive players are trying to get open. For example, Georgetown uses this 2-guard front so the back line has to defend three players with two defenders.

The main idea with the second goal is to always have the bigs accomplishing the first goal while also guarding people instead of space. If teams leave nobody stretching the floor, the bigs can lift into more aggressive positioning.

What Happens If The Zone Breaks?

It is unrealistic to expect the zone to always work, so how do defenders get it out of the zone. This goes back to the importance of the bigs working together. For example, what happens if the ball gets passed up the sideline.

If the ball goes up the sideline, it is now the big and wing who have the responsibility to respond towards the ball. The weak big is rotating to matchup to the offensive player close to the rim. This triggers the weak wing to drop to cover any skip passes. The final piece is the point man dropping to middle of the floor.

Here's another example, what happens if the ball just gets reversed repeatedly. In this scenario, the wing is stepping up on the reversal to take the ball. The dragon drops to cover middle while the second wing matches up to the player on his side. With the dragon dropping to the high post, the bigs match to the corners.

Instead of the typical 2-guard alignment, some teams will go with a 3-guard front. In this scenario, the zone turns into a matchup from the start. There will be an offensive player in every defenders zone so the matchups are already defined.

There's also the option to fall into a 3-2 or 2-3 zone out of the 1-2-2. To drop into a different zone, player positioning has to be abundantly clear and a set trigger as well. I like to use any odd number for 1-2-2 back to man. On the opposite side, I use even numbers to represent 1-2-2 back to a go to zone.

Three Cardinal Sins

1. Jumping and hopping yourself out of position

2. Allowing the ball to the middle by pass or drive.

3. Incorrectly matching up when the zone is broken.

The Zone Works If...

The purpose of this zone isn't to force 20 turnovers a game or to force a certain type of shot. This zone works to stall offenses, taking valuable time off the shot clock, and hopefully forcing 1-2 turnovers a game.

If done correctly, the zone can also take away transition opportunities after made shots or free throws. Villanova used this zone early in their Championship game versus North Carolina to slow down the Tar Heels.

Overall, I think every team should formulate some way to stall opponents early offense and add another thing that the other team needs to scout. My preference is the 1-2-2 Villanova press!