Newbie here, just played first game (exhibition) and lost after a horrible second half. Not sure how to use the result as a teaching tool since I can't actually see the game. I do know if I go into the regular season like this I'm going to be destroyed. And that would be bad. For me.

Any tips as to how best to use box results for newbies? Especially if you have schizophrenic halves?

Thanks in advance,
Tom

Go to your player game plan and set your non-good-PER-having players to -2. You must have everyone set at the default at zero with guys like Bryant shooting 3's.

tc, you can look at the play by play. Here is how: From the main page (locker room): Click on the link that says game results. Should be located halfway down the page, to the right of your team. This will take you to a new page where you can click on links to the 1st and 2nd half. Alternatively, there are links near the top of the box score to the 1st and 2nd half play by plays. 

Posted by ggallagh on 3/7/2014 9:13:00 PM (view original):
tc, you can look at the play by play. Here is how: From the main page (locker room): Click on the link that says game results. Should be located halfway down the page, to the right of your team. This will take you to a new page where you can click on links to the 1st and 2nd half. Alternatively, there are links near the top of the box score to the 1st and 2nd half play by plays. 

thanks. i did do PbP, and it at least tells me who's on the court and how the game came down. What I can't tell is who was getting burned by the mighty bench guard of my opponent.
I did realize that I have a terrible shooting team, though, and that might be all the explanation i need to have.

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as to the previous post, I'm not sure I even understood that...:) Sorry!

Posted by stinenavy on 3/7/2014 7:43:00 PM (view original):
Go to your player game plan and set your non-good-PER-having players to -2. You must have everyone set at the default at zero with guys like Bryant shooting 3's.

ah, okay, now I get it. Probably a guard getting taken to school on the perimeter. thanks!!

Within your "Player Game Plan" under the coaching drop down you can set 3 point frequency for all of your players.  What he is saying is that some of your guys need to be set at -2 or they will be chucking way too many 3s.

Just very high level quick observations:

1. You're learning a new defense (Playing zone with low IQs), and had foul troubles (which didn't kill you, but likely didn't help)
2. I'm no good at the fastbreak, but you may be too low on ATH for it, thus 14 TO's (and probably contributed to the fouls).

As far as teaching tools: The box score can help you spot weak lineups (Ex, every time 4 guys are on the floor the defense falls apart), when it's 'luck' that kills you (you had a stretch of 3 empty possessions I think when they score 8 or so, and that was the game)- so if I were digging hard, I'd look at the 5 on the floor with 7 mins left. (quick look, Leichty (19), Lewis (43), O'Donnell (26), Latham (54), Bryant (37) gave up a 3 to the center, 2 to the SG, fouled the C).  Not sure what's there, but those are the sort of things to look at, to try and figure things out (especially in a zone, think about the 2 up top as 'one' and the 3 down low as a unit).

But, I think it all came down to offense in the end, and yours didn't shoot well at all (thus the comments about reducing threes).  Good luck, take my advice with a grain of salt, I seem to pop up on the most wins without a championship list from time to time :)

thanks asher. I noticed something else. I didn't even do the play distribution thing before the game. Oops! Life as a noob.
this is why exhibitions are good. you figure out that coach has more rust than the players.
I changed depth chart and will test the distribution to see if that comes close to executing my "will" on offense in the next game. ultimately, I think my biggest problem is simply that I had a returning roster with no good perimeter shooters on it (and zero shooting guards!), which is why the advice to reign in the 3s will probably be pretty important.

thanks, emy. Just an old buzzard that likes to do fun things with fun people.

for my helpers, I have an update. Advice worked out in 2d exhibition game. We trounced a similar team to the one I lost to. thanks! so fellow noobs, player game plan is your friend! :)

Congrats. Glad someone cleared up what I was trying to say in the first post. It was a bit fuzzy.

Posted by stinenavy on 3/9/2014 1:19:00 AM (view original):
Congrats. Glad someone cleared up what I was trying to say in the first post. It was a bit fuzzy.

it was still great advice, and I actually made the same mistake in my opener again. when you said drag the no per shooters to -2, you really did mean *all* of them. I didn't, and it cost me the game. I need to just be ruthless about 3 pointers from pretty much everyone. we took too many and missed too many and lost to a team we shouldn't have. on a brighter note, when the game plan works well, you can see it very clearly in the box. my guys are good at drawing fouls and getting to the line, and I just need to emphasize that even more.

downside is I don'thave a single serviceable 3 pt shooter on my roster--I inherited all but 3 players--so we're toast with good zone defenses all season I think.

Might want to swap in Jenkins at the small forward for Rowland. That 4 defense is going to hurt you at the small forward position.

Posted by phillyboy107 on 3/9/2014 11:29:00 AM (view original):
Might want to swap in Jenkins at the small forward for Rowland. That 4 defense is going to hurt you at the small forward position.

funny you should mention jenkins--and thanks for looking. yeah, I just discovered I accidentally wiped him off the depth chart entirely. i was wondering why it kept having the redshirt button active....heh heh. Fixed. didn't hurt me last game, but the dartmouth game I need him.