Here's a little visual of how the game has changed. Look at where the zone is set up in the 2003 championship game against Kansas. KU was a great team that year but had basically two shooters: Heinrich and Lee (who shot a better percentage from three actually than Heinrich). Look how packed in the zone is.
The top guys are basically at the foul line or even below. Kansas has two guys on the inside. This is a true 2-3. Look at how deep SU's back line is. All three guys basically at the level of the low block.
Now look at the zone yesterday against Bryant, who is decidedly NOT one of the best teams in the country. They're feisty, but not elite.
Look at how high the top guys are - at the top of the key if they're playing off the ball, and if they're on the ball they're a yard beyond the extended three point line (i.e., it's further out than it was in 2003). Look at the "back" line of the SU defense. They're at the foul line OR BEYOND in the case of the dude at the top in front of the SU bench. And he's not even guarding anyone really. That's just where he plays it.
In the first photo, their rim protector is McNeil, who was a good shot blocker. But he had Anthony on one side and Warrick on the other. Very difficult to score inside there. In the second photo, Edwards is all alone under the basket. Nobody there to help out at all. He's a pretty good shot blocker too, but when you're isolated like that you are on an island, and it's very easy for him to pick up fouls. Very easy for the offense to find gaps and seams in the zone, to use diagonal passes to get the ball in the middle and then attack down in the paint.
This is standard for how SU plays the zone now because every team has shooters. This Bryant team has four regulars this year shooting better than 40% from three. That Kansas team had two - Lee and Heinrich. After that it plummeted. And that was normal. When I was at SU, they only ever had one guy who could really shoot from three - Matt Roe. Teams could pack it in and only have to worry about Roe, really. Plus teams just didn't shoot as much from deep. Now they're hoisting a million shots from out there at a good percentage and you HAVE to extend the zone. That leaves huge gaps and leaves the rim protector in total isolation.
The zone simply doesn't work in today's game. Yes, of course there will be games where the other team doesn't shoot well, and the zone will look great on those days. But many more days than not, teams aren't shooting poorly, which is one reason why SU is winning 16-19 games these days instead of winning 24-28. It's not that you can't win an individual game this way, of course you can. But as a system, it's outdated and not suited for today's game.