Always seems like the SIM teams play much better in the conference tournament, than in the regular season, unless I'm crazy.

They always do...edit...they often do........makes not sense

I've experienced this as well, especially in D1, spent 4-6 seasons in D1 mostly sim conference (2-4 Total human coaches a season) and struggled to make the Conference final for some odd reason... Toward the end of my D1 experience after dropping back to D2 just to get more experience I made the conference final but seemed way harder compared to reg season

it's bs about the no upset variance in the CT, it's total crap. same with the "comeback" "limit" for blowing out opponents.

I have never noticed that....

It's just more noticeable when it happens because the games are more important.

Posted by llamanunts on 4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM (view original):
It's just more noticeable when it happens because the games are more important.

well yea its more noticeable when you beat the same sim team twice by 20 and 30 points in the regular season and then lose by 7 in CT

Sometimes, I have a gut feeling that I will lose to a SIM... And everytime I do, it's because the SIM will pour 10 and more threes in a game, whether I go +1 or +2... Per talent is a solid indicator of a possible loss against SIM. When I see two guys over 90 per... I get nervous. Other than that, I feel you have a bad SIM, whether it's against humans or sims from time to time.

The toughest bad SIMS are in the NT... Sometimes, your team does not show up and it cost you a chance at a final four or even more.

Posted by thewizard17 on 4/27/2016 10:18:00 PM (view original):
Always seems like the SIM teams play much better in the conference tournament, than in the regular season, unless I'm crazy.

Yes, I've also noticed this a lot. It's been a pretty regular pattern in the 3 earth years that I've played HD. A lot of upsets, but then even if the human wins, the game plays out much tighter compared to regular season results.

Posted by taniajane on 4/28/2016 8:32:00 AM (view original):

Posted by llamanunts on 4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM (view original):
It's just more noticeable when it happens because the games are more important.

well yea its more noticeable when you beat the same sim team twice by 20 and 30 points in the regular season and then lose by 7 in CT

Yes, exactly. It's not nearly as noticeable or, more accurately, memorable, when you win by 20 in the regular season, then lose by 7 in the regular season, then win by 30 in the CT. You chalk the 7 point loss up to being a fluke and get on with your life. When it happens in the CT it becomes a forum thread.

I've also noticed that there are a lot of coaches who actually have a 'regular season strategy' and a 'postseason strategy' and change their lineups for the ct, taking people off the depth charts, no longer giving minutes to a guy who was promised, demoting a promised start - usually one would expect many of those changes to make the team better, but nonetheless, they are changes.

I've kept records for some of my teams over the years, and I did a quick count.

It looks like around 57% of the time, the Sim AI in the CT outperforms its regular season results (point spreads). This is for 4 of my teams.
I've had 35 games vs Sims in my CT's, and 20 times the Sim did better in the tourney.

Crum Albertus Magnus (seasons 63 thru 68), Sim outperformed 6 out of 11.
Crum Merrimack (seasons 69 thru 74), Sim outperformed 3 out of 5.
Crum Holy Cross (seasons 75 thru 81), Sim outperformed 5 out of 8 (though I lost records for Crum Season 79).
Wooden Conn College (seasons 77 thru 81), Sim outperformed 6 out of 11.
So that's 20 out of 35 times, but pretty consistent across the board.
I have to find my current Naismith team for more numbers.

UPDATE:
Naismith Albertus Magnus (seasons 83 thru 87), Sim outperformed 4 out of 10 times, so only 40%, though 2 times they outperformed by only 1 point.

So, grand total, 24 out of 45 times, or 53.3% of the time, across 45 games.
So not that outrageous, but the Sim has outperformed vs 4 of my 5 teams, and I've had some really good teams through these seasons.

The biggest seasons that ****** me off were:

Wooden Conn College:
Season 81 (14-2): Reg Season beat Westfield State (6-10) by 15, then I lost by 5 in the CT.
Season 78 (16-0): Reg Season beat Amherst (10-6) by 5, then I lost by 6 in the CT.

Naismith Albertus Magnus:
Season 83 (15-1): Reg Season beat Newbury (11-5) by 12, then I lost by 4 in the CT.

Crum Albertus Magnus (13-3):
Season 63 (13-3): Reg Season beat Rivier (14-2) by 16, then I lost by 7 in the CT.
Season 66 (14-2): Reg Season beat Emmanuel (6-10) by 9, then I lost by 4 in the CT.

Crum Holy Cross:
Season 77 (13-3): Reg Season beat Lehigh (12-4) by 17, then I lost by 14 in the CT.
.

So that's very slightly over 50% in a small sample. I don't think that amounts to strong support for the notion that sims overperform in the CT.

...and why would they? Why would that happen? Do the developers and programmers want sims to beat humans in the CT? If there's an incentive to have that, I don't see it. Perhaps it's a failure of my imagination.

I've noticed this pretty much every season so far. Doesn't make much sense.