Jim Boeheim's 2-3 Zone Defense Credited For Team USA's Win Over Spain

Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim's famous 2-3 zone is being credited with helping Team USA notch a narrow victory over Spain in an exhibition game on Sunday.

In Team USA's playbook, the 2-3 zone is code-named "Orange" in honor of Boeheim, who is an assistant coach for the team.

Leading by a point with less than 17 seconds to go in the game, Team USA caught Spain off guard by coming out of a timeout in the 2-3 zone. Kevin Durant blocked 3-point attempts from Ricky Rubio and Rudy Fernandez to seal the 86-85 USA win.

"In the timeout, Jim Boeheim said 'Let's go orange.' We call it 'Orange' out of respect for Jim. He said he doesn't have any buildings named after him in Syracuse, so we named the zone after him. And I agreed with him, but it was his suggestion," Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN.

“The good thing internationally is that they can’t take a timeout once they saw the zone,” Boeheim told the NY Times. “In college, they could have just called a timeout.”

Team USA is headed to Athens next, where they will play the Greek national team on Wednesday

(Read More Below)

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2010/08/coach_boeheims_orange_strategy.html