With the help of many other coaches in DIII Rupp, I've been trying to add to the experience for DIII players in every world, and especially Rupp. I've been posting a lot in the Rupp forums and wondered if it would be more appropriate if I started its own thread. Probably I will use this thread to relay my updates and also for the annual Coach of the Year and MVP of the Year polls we conduct in Rupp. I already get a lot of feedback from a good number of Rupp coaches, but I'd love to get input from the coaches outside of Rupp as well (any feedback/suggestions/information/questions you may have). Please feel free to let me know here. Here's a link the the website if any of you are curious what I've been working on:

http://starrengine.yolasite.com/

P.S. - Parts of the website draw information from google sheets, and those pages can take some time to load the first time.

I overhauled the Player Builder system, now you can plug in your entire roster at the click of a button :)

I love using this. Thanks Man!

No problem, glad you like it. :)

I added a new feature to predict minimum Starr Score Potentials for players (including both new recruits and veteran players). If you are plugging in information for a new recruit, it also gives a recruit rating. The ratings range from A+ (if =SE believes your player has the ability and means to become a fantastic player before graduating) to F (if =SE believes the player will be terrible even after developing). It's still in its BETA phase- meaning I have not done a whole lot of testing yet- but I hope you all have fun with it. Feedback is always appreciated :)

I'm not seeing how to plug in your roster into the Player Builder tool. I'm just getting sent to a Google Doc and then I don't know where to go from there. 

Sure, the google sheets page is the platform I use to make the calculations. It's not as good as excel and I think it's slow, but it does the job well enough I suppose. When you go to the player builder tool, there are tabs at the bottom of the sheet. It's the second tab. Sometimes the sheet loads quickly and sometimes it can take up to 20 seconds or so, depending on some things.

When you are on the correct tab, labelled "Quick Roster Tool," scroll down to the bottom. You'll see a giant multicolored grid with all the DIII teams in the rows and all the DIII worlds in the columns. To plug in your team, load up your team page in a separate window and copy the 4 to 5 digit ID number associated with your team in the W.I.S. link. Then paste it in the appropriate box on the grid. Your team will automatically be plugged in from that point onward. If your team is in Rupp, it's already been plugged in.

If you are still having trouble after this, please site-mail me your team page link(s). I'd be more than happy to plug in any team for all of you, I mean that.

P.S. - I see a coach has added a new blank sheet to the tool. Maybe that's what's been throwing you off. I will slide that sheet over so it's not the first one to appear when others load the tool. I'll probably delete the sheet in a day or so if nothing is done with it.

Ahhh okay, I didn't see the tabs. Very interesting tool, although I feel that player ratings should be weighted differently. Still, something that I will use to expedite opponent scouting in the future. 

Thanks man :) I'd love to hear your thoughts on the weights, I've only been able to come this far because of coaches like you.

This is only for DIII, right? Can't find the DII or DI teams. Still seems like a great tool - I agree with how my team is rated. 

At a glance, I think that defense is weighted way too heavily for bigs. From everything I've seen/read, shot blocking is integral to interior defense, but it's not valued that way in your ratings. 

I also believe perimeter scoring is weighted too heavily for bigs. I would always take a big with better BH/PAS than PER, but you weight PAS more heavily. 

Here's an example: 

The following two PF's are rated the same in your system, but I'm confident any veteran HD coach would choose Player B. 

                  A SPD REB DE BLK LP PE BH P
Player A: 70  40    70    80   70  70  50  20 20
Player B: 90  40    90    40   90  90    1  40 40

Here's the comparison for two centers who have the same overall rating. 
                  A SPD REB DE BLK LP PE BH P
Player A: 70  10    70    80   70  70  50  20 20
Player B: 90  10    90    40   90  90    1  43 43

My other general thoughts are that Durability should not effect a player's rating at all and that IQ is weighted too much. 

bbunch - yeah it's just DIII. The weights for the Starr Positions become increasingly inaccurate at those levels so I settled for DIII alone for now. Thanks for the compliment :)


trail - Durability has in extremely small affect on a player rating, a small fraction of the other ratings. If I took it out of the formula, no one would notice (but I would rather have a player with 99 DUR than 1 DUR) and so it does play a role in the score- even if a very small one.

I'd be interested in hearing if others feel the same about the IQs being too heavily rated. I thought the same a few weeks ago and had decreased their effect. I was thinking I liked how they affect the scores at this point, but definitely could be wrong. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

trail what offensive and defensive sets do you run? The coaches I speak to (and myself included) have the tendency to feel shot blocking does not play a giant role in the game. I think of it as an extension to the DEF rating but not needed to have a great defender. I don't know if I can call myself a veteran coach yet- I personally would have a difficult time choosing between player A and B in your examples above. If I had to choose, I would choose Player A for my team in both scenarios. At the center position, PAS and BH are not as important. At every position, ATH and DEF are extremely important. SPD is weighted very high for guards and high for SF as well, but less at PF and not much at the C position. The DEF rating on its own is weighted exactly the same across every position. Of course, there are other ratings which are weighted differently that also play into defense. When you say shot blocking is not weighted heavily enough, are you referring to the guard and SF positions? Or do you feel they are not weighted high enough for big men either?

Scoring is one of the more complicated weights. For one, it weights higher and higher as players approach the 100 mark (not by a lot but =SE feels it should be more important to have a 100 PER 0 LP player than a 50/50 player). Next, =SE decides (based on the ratings) where the player is likely to take shots and diminishes the other scoring rating. If the two scores are comparable, it uses yet another weight. So basically if you have a 100 LP, 50 PER player (at any position) it will weight the LP and then weight the PER at a far lesser value. You probably know that a high perimeter rating will increase an inside scorer's ability to score, even if he still only shoots inside the arc... and vice-versa. WIS says it gives the player a broader range from where he can shoot the ball. Every position is weighted the same except the SG position, which is weighted more heavily. I hope I have addressed all of your points. I will keep all of them in mind, thanks :)