Defensive three seconds has all the ability to ruin defense without any of the ability to make players accountable defensively and teach good defensive fundamentals.

Here is the BA document on zones (PDF).

And good call about full court traps, technically they are a zone but are they called for it.

Any defence played in the half court which does not incorporate normal man to man defensive principles shall be considered to be a zone. For this purpose, trapping defences which rotate back to man to man defensive principles are acceptable.

It is important to remember that the "no zone" rule applies only in the half court and zone presses and trapping defences are allowed, if they fall back to man to man principles in the quarter court.

The rule is only concerned with playing man to man principles in the quarter court (effectively the three point line). Teams can play any defence they want in the full court.

When it was first brought in u/14s club championships it was

1) basically no zone in the 1/4 court,
2) any "trapping" zone set up above the top of the key circle ( there was one then) are allowable.

Its good to bear in mind that a really well drilled switching man-to-man like those preached about and provided by bobby knight in his early college career ( first 20 years) will work like a zone in the 1/4 court.

Originally once the defense was set at 5-on-5 in the half court, any double team before the player received the ball in the key way below the foul line was called a zone.


the difficulty was that BA was really poor at communicating the actual interpretations to all the states and regions, and many little fiefdoms made their own interpretations , this was well before the internet was common , and was decades before U-Tube.

It seems it has not really improved. I well remember the occasional 'what !?" during the rules sessions with officials before the u14 club championships.

I would like to think its better now, but its clear the its not well taught in the coaches clinic etc.

It was brought in the first 1-2 year after the ACT won the u/14 girls clubs using a 2-1-2 , 1/4 court zone for 100% of every defensive play face during the entire tournament hosted in Canberra. Can't remember the exact year.

A quick skim of the guidelines provided above makes it quite clear that:
1.w sa

A quick skim of the guidelines provided above seems to make it clear that:
1. 'Zone busting' is not a referee issue.
2. The 'no zone' principle comes into play only in the 'end third' - effectively inside the three-point line.

This combined with the concerns raised in the opening post suggests the starting point might need to be to find out whether or not the guidelines are being followed in full in the comp in question.

If they are it would seem the refs need to focus on the rules of the game and that a pressing defence of any type outside the three point line is fine as long as it converts to man-to-man in/around the key.

"but drawing players away from the basket because they have to run behind the line of the ball away from play ? (enforced by ref)"

Any ref enforcing this doesn't know anything about basketball, let alone zones