Kansas State looks to solve zone woes against North Dakota

The easiest way to defeat a zone defense is to make three-pointers. Kansas State basketball coach Bruce Weber understands this, and so do his players. But until the Wildcats prove they can shoot better than 29.3 percent from the outside, they will need to learn a new method.

And quickly.

“We have got to become more effective,” Weber said, “especially as we get into our league.”

K-State has encountered zone defenses in seemingly all of its games, and that is unlikely to change after Texas A&M held the Wildcats to 68 points last week and Colorado State held them to 61 on Saturday. After a hot scoring start to the season, K-State has failed to score 70 points in five of its past seven games.

Teams are daring the Wildcats to beat them from the outside, and the Wildcats have been unable to take advantage. That led to a loss at Texas A&M and closer-than-expected victories over Colorado State, Coppin State and South Carolina State.

K-State made 22 of 51 shots against the Rams, including 2 of 13 from three-point range. Colorado State made things exceptionally difficult inside by retreating on the majority of its own shots, rarely sending anyone to rebound. The Wildcats had to score in half-court sets all game.

“We were taking good threes that were all wide open,” top K-State scorer Justin Edwards said. “We just have to knock them down. Luckily we played defense and did not let them hit their threes because if they did it would have been a different outcome. Even though we missed shots, we played defense and stopped them, which is helpful for us.”

Still, Weber seemed frustrated after the Colorado State game on Saturday.

“In the second half, we missed wide open shots,” he said. “You have got to get some of those to go down to spread out a defense. They just said, ‘We are packing it in. We aren’t letting you get to the hoop.’ We have to make those plays.”

They aren’t all three-pointers. Weber asks his team to practice against zone defense in practice, and part of that is moving the ball around to exploit defensive holes.

They did that at times against Colorado State, but neglected to make the extra pass or showed hesitance to take the open shot. That resulted in charging fouls and empty possessions.

Weber says you can beat a zone with “easy basketball,” K-State simply needs to execute at a higher level. It will likely get another chance on Tuesday against North Dakota.

“We have to find some continuity on offense where I do not have to call everything,” Weber said. “We have to just play basketball. We have to get movement, cutting, ball screens. We keep trying to score off of the first action. We have to get a little bit more patient. We have to let the defense breakdown and then take advantage of it.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Kansas State looks to solve zone woes against North Dakota."