All Scotty Pippen Jr. could do was shake his head.

The SEC’s leading scorer, frustrated, walked back on defense as the official nearest him continued to make the traveling signal.

Meanwhile on South Carolina’s sideline, the Gamecocks were celebrating in the middle of another dominant run thanks to a zone defense paying dividends so far this year.

“I thought the zone changed how they were playing offensively,” Frank Martin said. “I don’t have the stat in front of me and could be mistaken but most of their turnovers came against our zone, which allowed us to run. It allowed us to be aggressive in the open court.”

The first time South Carolina tasted success with the zone came in early December in another comeback victory against Florida State, but really the zone started months before.

It was when associate head coach Chuck Martin approached Frank with a different type of zone compared to the typical 2-3 or 3-2 seen at the college level.

Instead of waiting back and allowing an opponent to dictate what things do offensively the Gamecocks pressure the ball and attack and trap, disrupting the flow of whoever has the ball.

“Chuck convinced me in the preseason to play the zone the way we’re playing it, which I like. It’s an aggressive zone. I don’t like passive zones where you sit back and let them determine pace of play and aggression,” Frank Martin said. “I struggle coaching in that environment. Chuck convinced me of it and we ran with it in the preseason. It’s what we’ve been trying to use and it’s helped us.”

It works because the Gamecocks have older players on the perimeter—James Reese, Erik Stevenson, Jermaine Couisnard, Keyshawn Bryant—who can use their length and basketball savvy to clog passing lanes and take some of the pressure of the frontcourt.

“We started trying it I liked it because of the aggression. It protects our bigs in the middle the way we’re playing it right now where before it would expose them a little bit in ball screens or different actions,” Frank Martin said.

“We’ve spent time on it. We coach it. Because I like it I’ve committed more practice time to it. Like everything else, when you spend time on it you should get better at it. I think our guys have.”

And it’s worked.

The Gamecocks have switched to the zone for stretches in their last two games against Georgia and Vanderbilt, both wins, and helped spark the Gamecocks’ big runs in both games.

South Carolina uses it to help turn defense into offense and get in the open court, it helps build momentum and the results permeate.

"It’s important because it’s something that carries over throughout the whole team. For instance, I wasn’t in the game when the run first started but I saw the pressure ‘Cobi (Wright) and those guys were putting on guys and getting deflections,” James Reese said.

“When I came in, I was already pumped up. Everything started to happen all over again times two. We went on that crazy run and went up. It’s something that travels throughout the whole team.”

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