Success with 8 man rotation? Topic

Had a bad recruiting season and ended up with 4 walkons. I think all 8 players are pretty good except for one really so I guess I have more of a 71/2 man rotation. Anyway I just wanted to know if any coaches out there had any good tips on running 8 man rotations. I just cracked A- prestige and would like to at least maintain it through next season when I'll have another go with 5 schollies open. My team is really young so I'm not too optimistic. I have one senior one junior and everyone else is soph and fresh.
3/20/2013 9:11 AM
8 man rotation can get a lot of minutes to everyone helping improvement.
Going slowdown helps. Having really high stamina guys set to rest at a lower level than always fresh may help. If you have a really bad shooter setting his distro to "0" will keep him fresher longer.
Key to me though is setting up depth chart. Leaving holes in the depth chart can help. Without looking at your team, something like this...
PG1   SG1   SF1   PF1   C1
 -        SG2   SF2   PF2    -
SG1   SF1   SG2   C1     PF1
SG2   PG1    -       SF2   PF2
3/20/2013 11:22 AM
What does leaving holes in the depth chart do?  I've never heard of that strategy before.
3/20/2013 11:27 AM
Thanks Jenningss I will definitely try this out. I don't have any high stamina players. No one in the 80s. I also am curious about the holes in the depth chart. I've seen other coaches talk about this but never got a full understanding of the manipulation.
3/20/2013 11:43 AM
Posted by jenningss on 3/20/2013 11:22:00 AM (view original):
8 man rotation can get a lot of minutes to everyone helping improvement.
Going slowdown helps. Having really high stamina guys set to rest at a lower level than always fresh may help. If you have a really bad shooter setting his distro to "0" will keep him fresher longer.
Key to me though is setting up depth chart. Leaving holes in the depth chart can help. Without looking at your team, something like this...
PG1   SG1   SF1   PF1   C1
 -        SG2   SF2   PF2    -
SG1   SF1   SG2   C1     PF1
SG2   PG1    -       SF2   PF2
lmao at leaving holes in the depth chart. You do realize that does absolutely nothing, correct? The only thing that determines how often a player plays is the # of players in the depth chart and the fatigue settings. 
3/20/2013 12:24 PM (edited)
I thought it at least gave priority to certain players during substitution if anything.
3/20/2013 12:25 PM
Posted by rednation58 on 3/20/2013 12:25:00 PM (view original):
I thought it at least gave priority to certain players during substitution if anything.
Well, yes. The rankings on the depth chart mean something, but there's no difference if there is a gap in the depth chart. It doesn't do anything. It won't hurt you any at least. 
3/20/2013 2:08 PM
It helps me organize. Especially a short rotation. An extreme example would be a PG set to fairly fresh... with nobody else on the depth chart behind him. This is a bad thing. But it may be less bad than having starters and backups playing out of their natural positions just because of filling out the entire depth chart, especially with foul trouble.

Oh yeah, to help with a short rotation you may want to play with the foul setting and wether to leave them in more aggressively or not.
3/20/2013 2:35 PM

Funny, I've never really used foul settings and when I've tried, I just made a mess of things. Guess I'll see how well I can manage that this season.

3/20/2013 2:37 PM
Posted by djp4516 on 3/20/2013 2:08:00 PM (view original):
Posted by rednation58 on 3/20/2013 12:25:00 PM (view original):
I thought it at least gave priority to certain players during substitution if anything.
Well, yes. The rankings on the depth chart mean something, but there's no difference if there is a gap in the depth chart. It doesn't do anything. It won't hurt you any at least. 
this is not true. with 8 men, im not sure how important it is, but if you have 8 core and 2 fringe, 1 guard and 1 big, it can definitely help - but regardless of it helps, there is no uncertainty, it DOES do something. for example, if you have your 3 primary guards and 3 bigs, and a crapper guard/big you want to play the less harmful 2/4 spots, then youd have like:
PG: guard 1, guard 3, blank, guard 4
SG: guard 2, guard 3, guard 4
PF: big 1, big 3, big 4
C: big 2, big 3, blank, big 4

this would guarantee that anytime your 2 backup dudes, guard 3/4 or big 3/4, are together, the 3rd man will always play pg or c. the 4th man will always play sg or pf. so, you clearly have the ability to manipulate who plays where when certain guys are in, based on blanks, and there are more applications than this simple example here.
3/20/2013 2:43 PM
Posted by jenningss on 3/20/2013 2:35:00 PM (view original):
It helps me organize. Especially a short rotation. An extreme example would be a PG set to fairly fresh... with nobody else on the depth chart behind him. This is a bad thing. But it may be less bad than having starters and backups playing out of their natural positions just because of filling out the entire depth chart, especially with foul trouble.

Oh yeah, to help with a short rotation you may want to play with the foul setting and wether to leave them in more aggressively or not.
if anything, wouldnt you want to take them out quicker? it seems like if you are aggressive and draw an extra foul, you get REALLY nailed, because you are so short on depth. to me, aggressive settings are more for teams with great depth, who want to get more out of starters, while conservative settings are for those who lack depth and need guys to be able to continue rotating.

it might seem counter intuitive, i can see how one can say, with 8 men, you need your starters to push to stay in, but that is going to happen by default, because you have such a short rotation. it just seems to me like aggressive + 8 men is dangerous, seems like its pushing too hard and you can royally screw yourself. keep in mind foul rates are one of the things most correlated with fatigue!
3/20/2013 2:46 PM
Posted by rednation58 on 3/20/2013 2:37:00 PM (view original):

Funny, I've never really used foul settings and when I've tried, I just made a mess of things. Guess I'll see how well I can manage that this season.

i dont use them either... i think the default setting makes the most sense in the large majority of situations, and havent really put in the effort to mess with it in the edge case situations where it may or may not help.
3/20/2013 2:47 PM
Thanks for the help billyg. I have no choice but to try this for the time being. until next season!
3/20/2013 4:07 PM
Success with 8 man rotation? Topic

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