Houston’s opponents have also found some success by slipping the screen early or having the screener cut his roll to the basket short so the ball handler can get rid of the ball before the trap gets there, and Wong is capable of making those all day. At 6-foot-4, he has the height to see over those double-teams and make skip passes to open shooters. Having Isaiah Wong on your team is a pretty good answer to aggressive pick-and-roll coverages. And it’s a tactic Miami, a team that runs a lot of ball screens for its talented backcourt, will have to reckon with on Friday if it’s going to stand a chance. It’s been a tremendously successful strategy this season, as Houston ranks third in pick-and-roll defense, per Synergy. For example, if a team runs pick-and-roll, the screener’s defender will almost always hedge it aggressively, aiming to get the ball handler to retreat toward half court and pick up his dribble. Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars attack specific areas of opposing offenses in an effort to throw off their timing and force contested jumpers late in the shot clock. Can Miami’s backcourt handle Houston’s pressure defense?

If he doesn’t come up with an effective one, Gonzaga will cut UCLA’s tourney run short for a second time in three seasons. But even if zone isn’t the answer, Cronin certainly needs a new approach to slow down Timme. It would allow UCLA to get bodies around Timme when he’s down near the rim and to cut off his drives with quicker defenders on the perimeter. Cronin’s team has played a decent amount of zone defense this year, and that might be a useful tool in this game.

Games like defense zone 3