Engine Loves the Press? Topic

All final 4 teams in DII Smith NT run the FCP.    Is this just by chance or does the engine still favor the pressing teams at DII/DIII?
5/22/2013 4:19 AM
DIII has 2 pressing teams, one m2m, and a  zonen in the Final Four

I recently looked at the top 30 DII teams in a world. It was evenly divided between press and m2m
5/22/2013 4:29 AM
My Minnesota, Dulth squad is one of those DII Final Four teams, and the press has worked out wonderfully for me since I took over the team four seasons ago (an NT title game appearance, a PI championship, an NT second round, and now another Final Four). In fact, it's the team I've had the most success with. Some of that credit goes to tcole23 who left me a fantastic squad to work with, but this season's team are all my recruits.

Still, I'm not sure how much of the team's success is attributable to the press. My teams which run M2M seem not to do as well, but then maybe I didn't recruit as well or something else is off, too.

5/22/2013 8:35 AM
I run press with two of my teams and man with the other 2...personally I'm liking the greater consistency from game to game that I'm seeing from M2M and considering shifting my 2 FCP teams over in the next "down" cycle for each. If you've got the Ath/Spd/Def, I think either one will work to success. (this post is not meant to knock the zone -- I simply don't have any experience with it under the current engine)
5/22/2013 10:32 AM
I took over a team, Keuka, in Phelan, who was already running the 2-3. Plus, as a Syracuse fan I had wanted to run the 2-3. Is this going to put me at a disadvantage? Should I be running the press or m2m?
5/22/2013 11:42 AM
my team, rollins, is playing minn. duluth tonight. i prefer press as it pairs better w/ fastbreak. and the higher ath/spd that you must recruit for - in this off/def set - seems to affect other attributes more so...ie. speed kills, and so does ath.
but then again,we have only 2 fr (and 1 walkon) with a def iq worse than a-. so that might have a lot to do w/ it.
good luck tonite, bistiza
5/22/2013 2:06 PM
cuse: as I understand, conventional wisdom suggests that the zone is inferior as a defense but does have benefits that might, if used properly, offset the disadvantages. The advantages are that you can switch between 2-3 and 3-2 with no penalty, giving you more control over the +/- settings, and that it doesn't tire you out, which allows you to keep your starters in much, much longer. 
5/22/2013 4:21 PM
Posted by tarvolon on 5/22/2013 4:21:00 PM (view original):
cuse: as I understand, conventional wisdom suggests that the zone is inferior as a defense but does have benefits that might, if used properly, offset the disadvantages. The advantages are that you can switch between 2-3 and 3-2 with no penalty, giving you more control over the +/- settings, and that it doesn't tire you out, which allows you to keep your starters in much, much longer. 
I am just getting started coaching zone as a change of pace ... I have coached both press and m2m and I agree with rednu. I think the m2m is more consistent day in and day out.

When playing press, I hate to play any minus less than -2 because of fouls (so no -3, -4, -5).

The one thing I notice about the zone is the rebounding ... you will need very good rebounders at the 4 and 5 position to keep up with moderate rebounding teams.

You also need to be careful in this game and scout your opponent before using 2-3. Guard play seems king for scoring and you need to shift to 3-2 if your opponent is playing a Guard at SF ... 2-3 is OK if the SF is more of a PF type. It has been my experience that there are more SF's like Guards than Bigs, so I play 3-2 more than 2-3.
5/22/2013 9:33 PM

I have a very young team, nothing but freshman and sophs. This season is pretty much going to be a wash for me anyway, would now be a good time to switch to m2m?

5/23/2013 2:23 PM
Posted by cusetroop on 5/23/2013 2:23:00 PM (view original):

I have a very young team, nothing but freshman and sophs. This season is pretty much going to be a wash for me anyway, would now be a good time to switch to m2m?

If you want to make the switch to m2m, now would definitally be the time.
5/23/2013 2:27 PM
http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=9487572

^^ that should work, I had to type it in. Every time I try to paste, it freezes my page.

Anyway, thats what I'm working with. Took over a team with nothing but Sophs, tried to recruit what I could. I had 4 centers lol, 2 were under 6'6. Anyone have any advice for a 1st year player?

We fell apart in the 2nd half
5/23/2013 2:51 PM
Posted by joeykw18 on 5/23/2013 2:27:00 PM (view original):
Posted by cusetroop on 5/23/2013 2:23:00 PM (view original):

I have a very young team, nothing but freshman and sophs. This season is pretty much going to be a wash for me anyway, would now be a good time to switch to m2m?

If you want to make the switch to m2m, now would definitally be the time.
At the very least, switch all your team practice minutes from the current defense into M2M -- you don't have to start playing it right away as even with an all FR/SOPH crew you probably have better overall IQs for a while in your current defense. But start the transition now by shifting the practice minutes, play what you already know, and then either toward the end of this season or at the start of next you should be able to start playing it in games.
5/23/2013 2:54 PM
Posted by rednu on 5/23/2013 2:54:00 PM (view original):
Posted by joeykw18 on 5/23/2013 2:27:00 PM (view original):
Posted by cusetroop on 5/23/2013 2:23:00 PM (view original):

I have a very young team, nothing but freshman and sophs. This season is pretty much going to be a wash for me anyway, would now be a good time to switch to m2m?

If you want to make the switch to m2m, now would definitally be the time.
At the very least, switch all your team practice minutes from the current defense into M2M -- you don't have to start playing it right away as even with an all FR/SOPH crew you probably have better overall IQs for a while in your current defense. But start the transition now by shifting the practice minutes, play what you already know, and then either toward the end of this season or at the start of next you should be able to start playing it in games.
Sounds like a plan, thanks!

5/23/2013 3:01 PM
Posted by cusetroop on 5/23/2013 2:52:00 PM (view original):
http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=9487572

^^ that should work, I had to type it in. Every time I try to paste, it freezes my page.

Anyway, thats what I'm working with. Took over a team with nothing but Sophs, tried to recruit what I could. I had 4 centers lol, 2 were under 6'6. Anyone have any advice for a 1st year player?

We fell apart in the 2nd half
Height is a meaningless statistic and has no bearing on game play -- it's effect is assumed to be incorporated into other attributes. Ii is eye candy (you might know that already, but since you make mention of height in your post, I'll throw it out there).

You have a lot of very low defenses...obviously I can't see the potentials that go with them, so they might grow into better numbers, but you're going to get lit up regardless of what you run this season I suspect. Choose what you want to run longterm with the program and start practicing 25 minutes in it now. You have some B's in zone, so you can probably run that through most of the season and switch when the IQs in the new defense start to get to that level (you'll probably need to build them all season and start playing the new D next season, assuming you're looking at M2M since there's a lot of F's there to start).

Find aejones' "How to win at D2 and D3" thread and read it -- lots of good, good stuff in there to point a beginning player in the proper direction. Welcome to the game and good luck!!
5/23/2013 3:04 PM
again, thanks for the help. I'll check out that thread.

i cant believe it took me so long to find this site. I plan on sticking around a whle
5/23/2013 3:15 PM
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