Posted by lilspike0738 on 1/5/2016 7:56:00 AM (view original):
Posted by grimacedance on 1/4/2016 4:25:00 PM (view original):
I don't think Gameplanning is your problem. A few things to note:
1. You had a brutal non-conference schedule. Outside of IU-PA, you faced 9 top 100 teams. You have to get better at scheduling -- there is no need to play that kind of schedule unless you have a potential top 5 team. With smarter scheduling, your record could easily be reversed to 12-6, if not better.
2. Your team is very oddly constructed in terms of recruiting classes. You have four big men (not counting the walkon) who are all freshmen and sophomores. You have 5 seniors that break down as 2 PG, 2 SG, 1 SF. This is why you are getting outrebounded (you are getting KILLED on the offensive glass) and only averaging 15.3 ppg total from your front court -- your PF/Cs are too young.
If you keep building like this, in 2 seasons, you'll have an experienced front court with an inexperienced backcourt. Your team is always going to be lopsided unless you fix this. You need to do a better job of planning your recruiting so you can be strong all around. Unless you in the first year of a total rebuild, you don't want to be in a position where you have to start freshmen.
3. Your offense is average. But your defense has been a tire fire (your opponents' have an offensive efficiency of 112 points per 100 possessions; your offensive efficiency is 101; the average efficiency is 100). For purposes of comparison, my D3 Carleton team in Wooden is 1-16 in the first year of a rebuilding process (had to fill 10 spots on a C- team). Carleton's opponents have an offensive efficiency of 114. So your defense is roughly 2 points better than my awful team.
You are running a man-to-man defense, but you have 8 players (not including the walk-on) who are less than 50 in DEF. Gragg is 41, Holt is 44, Schumacher is 44, Cowger is 40 and those guys are your top 4 guys in minutes played. They aren't good enough to play m2m. You either need to ramp your focus on recruiting for defense or switch to a zone D (and then recruit better rebounders).
4) This is the type of thing that I require the most assistance in... I have no idea how the playbooks work in this. I don't know what each playbook requires to be successful. I am unaware that Man defense requires more defense. I just assumed that average defense was sufficient enough.
3) How do I know how efficient someone is going to be? I have multiple guys with high PE, Agility and Speed (with A- or better knowledge of the scheme) and they still are shooting about 39%-40%... How do I know what percentage/usage to give them?
Game planning, and understanding the playbooks are my two biggest downfalls... I'm just learning how to recruit players effectively, I'm still working on balancing the team and such. I have no idea what playbooks require in terms of players, stats, and/or how to utilize the depth chart/usage or how to determine, for myself, which players need more or less.
OK, a quick and dirty primer on defense:
Four primary attributes that determine defense are ATH, SPD, DEF and IQ (BLK can be important in big men). These all work together; you cannot view any of them in isolation. DEF has been described by admin as a player's willingness/effort on defense. A guy with a 1 DEF rating simply does not care about playing defense; a guy with a 100 DEF rating will give it his all. But if that 100 rating player has low ATH/SPD/IQ, he won't be an effective defender.
In guards, speed is more important than athleticism (but you still need athleticism). In big men, athleticism is more important than speed (tho speed is nice).
In a m2m defense, you need to have quality defenders across the board. If you don't, other teams will target the weak guys. Part of your problem on defense is that you are playing four guys who are weak defensively, creating easy scoring opportunities. This is why your frontcourt has been an issue. Schumacher and Holt have mediocre ATH, SPD, DEF and IQs. So if I am playing you, I am going to toss the ball inside repeatedly. Gottfried is the only guy who stands out on your roster as being a good m2m defender.
Zone allows you to hide a poor defender, but it is not a license to have a team full of them. In zone, your player's ATH/SPD/DEF/IQ is averaged out. In a 3-2 zone, your PG/SG/SF have their defensive attributes averaged to create a perimeter defense rating. So if you have a SG who is weak defensively, but a PG and SF who are strong defensively, you can still have an effective defense. A 3-2 zone works with PG/SG/SF averaged with PF/C averaged in the frontcourt. A 2-3 zone operates almost as a 2-2-1, with PG/SG averaged, SF/PF averaged and C standing alone.
Too many coaches think zone is an excuse to have a team full of pisspoor defenders. A bunch of crappy defenders averaged out equals a crappy average.
In zone, you need to recruit for SB and REB in your big men. Shot blocking is important because it alters the inside shots -- even if the shot isn't blocked, a good shot blocker will force a shooter to shoot in it in a way that results in lower shooting percentages. You need rebounding because your big men won't be as close to the basket, so you need good rebounding to make up for it.
A full court press puts a premium on ATH/SPD as well as Stamina. In m2m, you really need that good DEF rating. In FCP, you can sacrifice some DEF (tho, not all of it) for higher ATH/SPD. You need the stamina because you are going to wear guys down (which is why it also requires the most depth).