Just for grins, I've decided to try and run a 5 guard (or 4 guard with 1 SF/PF combo) at one of my schools. I'm going to implement a FB/FCP offense/defense. I know its a gimmick, but I figured it might be fun to break the mold a little.

Has anybody ever tried this? I know I'm looking for high ATH/SPD/DEF/WE...any other suggestions would be appreciated.

A few years ago, there was a coach who had 12 SFs.  He was killed on the boards and the team wasn't successful.   But the 5 guards certainly sounds interesting.  Keep us posted

I'd think the 1 big man could be less fast than the rest (even so far as < 20 speed) as long as he had very high rebounding and I'd also suggest high passing, in order to start the FB.  Ideally your team would score before his lumbering self made it past half court.

A team in my D3 conference made it to two national championship games (winning one) with a similar type strategy with FB/FCP.

The strategy differed in that it was prior to potential being implemented so you could mold your own development and also prior to the elimination of the position penalty.

Every single guard had amazing (for guards) rebounding skills.  Every post player (for bigs) had very good perimeter, ball handling and passing.  The bigs had almost a complete disregard for low post if I remember correctly -- I know that I was running +5 defenses against them due to the gigantic number of threes they would take.

So not five guards, but you have five guard like players on the court -- although they could all rebound.  It worked quite well until the change to how the game worked killed the strategy.

With the new type of potential available and more importantly the lack of position penalty, this strategy might work quite well again.

pretty sure bow2dacows is currently running either a 5 small or a 4 small/1 big at D3 in Naismith. (if not there, then Tark...I know I stumbled over the team page in one of my worlds)

Posted by rednu on 4/6/2011 4:05:00 PM (view original):
pretty sure bow2dacows is currently running either a 5 small or a 4 small/1 big at D3 in Naismith. (if not there, then Tark...I know I stumbled over the team page in one of my worlds)

Yep-

http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=2917     

I've been running with an all SG/PF lineup in DII Rupp. Can't say i've been very successful.

My experiment is to try to determine if overall team ratings are better than a few players at a position with very high ratings. Example: i don't have any great REB/LP players, but as a team we are just as good as any in the conference. i don't have any great BH/PASers, but again i rank near the top of the conference as a team. I'm going to keep at it for a while.

I am also trying to use it to create a very fluid/changing lineup each game in hopes that it is difficult to gameplan for.

yup we are only going into our 2nd season of it.  i needed to get like 9 new guys in year 1, but we still went 13-14 against a soft schedule, so it generally wasn't too bad.

this will be another rough season with only 2 upper classmen but now that we've got a core together for the next several years i can try to fill 5 spots in the next 2 seasons with guards that can fill specific roles, particularly in regards to rebounding.

Posted by alblack56 on 4/6/2011 9:46:00 AM (view original):
A few years ago, there was a coach who had 12 SFs.  He was killed on the boards and the team wasn't successful.   But the 5 guards certainly sounds interesting.  Keep us posted

with the old engine, joesgk won a DII NT (in Smith World) at Tiffin using an all SF lineup.  He had some success at San Francisco (Sweet 16) and Fresno St (Elite 8) in DI doing it as well.

Posted by haasdr on 4/6/2011 7:20:00 PM (view original):

Posted by alblack56 on 4/6/2011 9:46:00 AM (view original):
A few years ago, there was a coach who had 12 SFs.  He was killed on the boards and the team wasn't successful.   But the 5 guards certainly sounds interesting.  Keep us posted

with the old engine, joesgk won a DII NT (in Smith World) at Tiffin using an all SF lineup.  He had some success at San Francisco (Sweet 16) and Fresno St (Elite 8) in DI doing it as well.

Was gonna mention this as well.

I have a feeling this would have worked decently before the position v. position rebounding update. We might see freaky results here along the lines of 50 reb v. 25 reb. and alot of oreb for the other team. 

yes, i had games where i got outrebounded 60-20....usually it was like 45-25.  obviously you're relying on generating a lot of steals to try and make up for it

Posted by bow2dacowz on 4/7/2011 1:11:00 AM (view original):
yes, i had games where i got outrebounded 60-20....usually it was like 45-25.  obviously you're relying on generating a lot of steals to try and make up for it

What kind of steal # did you put up? Steals make up for some possession, but the # of second chances and put back effectively increases the opponents fg%.

it wasnt nearly as bad as youd think.  i dont have access to the stats, but i shot a higher % than my opponents for the season.  generally there'd be 20-25 offensive rebounds allowed, but often times youd get several in a row  before a basket was scored, so it's not like i was giving up points for every time there was an offensive rebound allowed. 

i averaged double digit steals and 20+ forced turnovers.  the games where we were slightly better than that we did well...the games where we only forced 15-20 turnovers we typically did not win. 

we were also a very, very young team with 9 new players and brand new offense and defense systems being installed.  i had really only 1 guard with any rebounding because i was really more worried about getting as many decent guards as possible in year 1 so that we could fill in for need in the years to come.  i'm not saying we are gonna go win a NC doing this,, and with only 2 upperclassmen on the roster this probably figures to be another long year...but i think by the time these guys are jr's and srs we could be able to put a scare into just about anyone. 

it's been a fun departure from the norm anyway and definitely a different kind of challenge.  i'm sure i'll keep picking stuff up about it along the way. 

Posted by jamespastine on 4/6/2011 5:03:00 PM (view original):
I've been running with an all SG/PF lineup in DII Rupp. Can't say i've been very successful.

My experiment is to try to determine if overall team ratings are better than a few players at a position with very high ratings. Example: i don't have any great REB/LP players, but as a team we are just as good as any in the conference. i don't have any great BH/PASers, but again i rank near the top of the conference as a team. I'm going to keep at it for a while.

I am also trying to use it to create a very fluid/changing lineup each game in hopes that it is difficult to gameplan for.

I love using line-up substitutions just for that last reason alone james - and I hate it when I run into a team that does it as well... individual matchups are getting more important (new rebounding methodology for instance) and it is the first area I gameplan - having to first figure out what my opponent is going to throw at me makes it that much harder...