Step One: Commit to small ball lineup
This team right now is guard-centric. Â If you look at the current projected roster:
No. Name               POS  HT    WT   CLASS HOMETOWN
0 Bitumba Baruti         G    6-6   210  SO    Lubumbashi, Congo
1 David Crisp             G    6-0   185  JR     Tacoma, WA
2 Dan Kingma            G    5-10  155  SR    Mill Creek, WA
4 Matisse Thybulle        F    6-5   190  JR    Issaquah, WA
5 Quin Barnard            G    6-0   175  SO    Bellevue, WA
–  Jaylen Nowell          SG    6-4    175  SO   Seattle WA
–  Nate Pryor             PG    6-1    165  FR   Seattle WA
–  Michael Carter III       SG    6-6    170  FR   Seattle WA
15 Noah Dickerson        F     6-8    225  JR    Atlanta, GA
22 Dominic Green         F     6-6    185  JR    Renton, WA
23 Carlos Johnson         G    6-4    235  SO   Centralia, IL
24 Devenir Duruisseau    F    6-8    240  JR    Palmdale, CA
32 Greg Bowman         F    6-5    200  SR   Mountlake Terrace, WA
33 Sam Timmins          F    6-10   275  SO   Dunedin, New Zealand
You find eight back court and seven front court players.
2-3 Zone Defense
Mike Hopkins arrived from the University of Syracuse, a school that thrived on the 2-3 zone defense. The 2-3 zone is a defense that amplifies the speed of guards in a tight formation like a pentagon. Each defender positions in a lane between offensive players.
This type of defense should work well with the teams current roster, as it will rely upon the team speed to react to the ball. Â As the video highlights, this defense manages to negate many offensive sets the Huskies will likely face in 2017-2018.