Zone Defenses in 2025

[ZigZag]

Hey everyone, I am wondering if anybody out there is having success running zone defenses in this years version of the game? In 2024 I usually ran a high intensity 1-2-2 to great effect. My teams nearly always outperformed their talent level running this; my low level squads usually had the best scoring defense in their conference and my high level squads were routinely top 10 in the nation. In 2025 I'm having a completely different experience - year 1 with South Carolina St. I was ranked dead last in the nation in scoring defense. My team had crappy defenders and weren't that proficient so I figured it would improve. I managed a stellar recruiting class and in year 2 all my starters were rated 4-5 in defense as opposed to the 1s and 2s I was starting in year 1, but I still ended up being a bottom 10 defense. Oh well, my guys were not all that proficient so I figured year 3 would be better. However, year 3 with my guys starting to have decent proficiency we are still one of the worst teams in defensive efficiency - currently ranked 309th in the nation and giving up 84.4 PPG.

I am basically just wondering if anybody has had success running zones this year, because I read that the game engine has changed and I'm wondering if zones are more situational now or if anyone is still successful with running them as their primary D?

[NCAAhoops]

While I rarely play zone, I'll guess teams are hitting a lot of 3's against the zone now as the game engine was updated to reflect what is happening in college today. I did some research last year that show teams were playing much less zone currently than just a few years ago. The reason is so many players now can shoot and make 3's over the zone defense teams got away from it. If your not seeing 3's being the issue then I'm not sure and haven't seen any research on zone play in DDSCB2025.
I will say I do like the 1-2-2 zone but you need to have a good inside defender on one of those 2 inside spots, and if so it use to work pretty well against the 3 in DDSCB but haven't tried in 25 yet. I don't have the right players and have to use 2-3.

[PointGuard]

Wasn't aware that 1-2-2 zone was so effective with earlier versions of DDSCB. But if it was consistently making it possible for a team to excel beyond their talent level, in my opinion it's good that has been eliminated within DDSCB2025.

[ZigZag]

Thanks for the responses guys, I agree with what both of you are saying. It does seem like teams are shooting more threes against my team and also hitting a higher percentage of them against my zone this year. I also think that’s a good thing because the 1-2-2 definitely seemed OP last year. I did figure out something else that I think was happening - my SF (who one of my highest rated players and also my best defender) was an absolute low percentage chucker on offense. My PG was also a bit of a chucker but not quite as bad. I also was hitting the offensive glass hard and I think the low FG% I was putting up was leading to loads of fast breaks for the opposition. I took the SF completely out of the rotation and cut back the PGs minutes and my defensive numbers improved a ton.I cut the defensive intensity a bit too to limit free throws for the opposition. By the end of the year our D was ranked in the low 200s which seemed much closer to our actual talent level