Its mu first season I don't understand why my team is so bad. My overall rating has been better than or close to every team I've played and I'm not just losing but getting blown out I just lost to some team by like 40. Can someone please help

Start with the link at the bottom of this post, hopefully it works, im doing this from my phone. there is a lot wrong with your team that this should help clear up. after that maybe ask some more specific help questions. there are a lot of really good coaches on the mentor list that are more than happy to help out a "newbie" coach as well, this game is a lot of fun dont give up after one or 2 rough seasons, that team is a few seasons away from being competitive. http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=451367

Basic cliff notes (ignoring any deep gameplanning aspect)...

Don't get so caught up in overall rating.

ATH/DEF are two very important catagories and you are very low in both.

You are taking far too many 3s considering lack of 3 point shooters.

You don't have a PG who can run the offense properly.

And the main culprit - You are playing a zone with awful IQs there (fine if you are switching to zone, but effectively switching O/D takes time).


There is great advice to be found on the forums. Don't give up! Read up, people will give you a lot of helpful info, and enjoy the game! Once you get a handle on it you'll see it's a lot of fun!

A couple of the teams that are crushing you have artificially low ratings because of taking walk-ons. Their 11-man rotation averages much higher than your 11-man rotation. But let's take a test case of a team that's not like that, has a similar rating, and killed you: Denison. 

You have a three-point edge on overall rating, but you should look at some of the individual categories: 

*They have a 20-point ATH edge. 
*They have a 10-point SPD edge
*They have a 13-point DEF edge. 
*They have a 17-point PER edge. 
*They have a 13-point BH edge
*They have a 9-point PASS edge

*You have a 16-point REB edge. 
*You have a 21-point BLK edge. 
*You have a 20-point LP edge. 
*You have a 4-point WE edge
*You have a 6-point STA edge
*You have a 17-point DUR edge


So how should the game play out, if we just think a real life game with these characteristics (that's not a wonderful proxy for how WIS games work, but it's a good start to a thought experiment)?

*Unfortunately for you, they have a huge advantage in both speed and athleticism. A slow and unathletic team can beat a speedy, athletic team, but they need to have big edges almost everywhere else. You have edges in a few places, but not enough. Your speed and athleticism affects your entire game. For instance, without powerful guys with good leaping ability, it'll be hard to take advantage of your edge in rebuilding technique.They can have worse technique but just out-athlete you. ATH is one of the most important ratings in the game. 

*You have an edge in rebounding, which should allow you to win on the glass, but their athleticism might cancel it out to some degree. 

*You have an edge in shot blocking. I have no idea whether this is important. But it might be canceled out by athleticism in the same way as REB. 

*They have an edge in defense, and you're about the same in the combination of scoring ratings (LP/PER), so they'll likely shoot a much higher percentage than you. You may have an edge inside, but their perimeter shooting will crush your bad perimeter D, and I'd expect to give up a lot of threes. 

*They handle the ball MUCH better than you, and since both teams run the press, that means they'll likely avoid turnovers while you commit a lot of turnovers. 

*You have a big edge in durability, which means you're less likely to get injured during the game. But because injuries don't happen that often, this is not likely to be important. 

That's my analysis just looking at ratings in each area, without even looking at who the starters and subs are (which is obviously quite important), let alone opening the box score. After opening the box score: 

*You won the rebounding battle by OREB%, but just barely. Their ATH canceled out your REB. Because they took more shots, they got more total rebounds, but this facet was almost dead even (you got 40% of your misses, they got 39%)

*They shot six percentage points better than you from the field. Makes sense because of their D. You actually didn't get burned too bad from deep though. 

*They won the turnover battle in a BIG way. This contributed to them taking seven more FGs and 11 more FTs than you. This is because of their BH/Pass advantage on offense and their SPD/DEF advantage on D. 

Does that all make sense? I know it's a lot, but it's better to break a game down like this than just looking at overall rating. And it's even better to break your game down by looking at the individual matchups. You're better off having six guys with 99 PER and six guys with 1 than having twelve guys with 50 PER, if that makes sense. So even the average ratings for each skill aren't the be all and end all. 

But I hope this gives you a better idea of what to look for. My main advice would be to seriously upgrade your speed, athleticism, and defense in recruiting. Don't worry at all about durability. Also read aejones' "How to win at D2 and D3" thread. 

You  also have eight Sim-recruited players.  Sims are traditionally terrible recruiters and NOONE can win at this game with that many sim guys.

Your defensive ratings, in particular, are awful with this group

Thanks for the help jsajsa I want to switch to zone and I tried practicing a zone but playing a press for one game but w the press I stayed close for the first half but then I lost the 2nd half by like 30 pts
http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=9154965

And tarvolon thank you i think I screwed up in recruiting at the start of the season decades the highest athleticism I got was like 40

Did you scout? Using FSS is an absolute must. Unless you have the Devil's own luck, you can't win without it. 40 ATH with high potential is good at D3 no matter what position we're talking about. 40 ATH with average potential is good for a guard and not so great for a forward but can be taken if they're really good in their other skills. 40 ATH with low potential may be okay for a guard with other good skills but is not so hot in a big man. 

Looking at this year's recruits, Finke could be good if he's high potential in DEF, high in either LP or PER, avg in BH and P, and avg in at least SPD or ATH, not necessarily both. That'd make him a competent defender, competent ball-handler and a solid scorer. 

Young looks like a solid get as long as he has some room for growth in ATH/DEF/REB/LP. Not necessarily all of these, but at least two or three of them. 

Mayer looks like he's growing in SPD and can become a lights out shooter, but he'll be a defensive liability if he doesn't have good potential there. 

Garland is growing in all the right places. If that early growth means he has high potential in ATH, SPD, DEF, BH, and P, you'll have a good shooting guard on your hands, albeit one without a lot of deep range. If you get lucky and see crazy growth in passing (like 35+ points), you could have a really nice true point guard. 

I'm still fairly new at this and haven't been able to build teams that can compete in the NT. So TIFWIW. But I have been able to consistently build teams who can at least make the NT. So it's a start. the aejones thread helps a lot, as do the forums. 

I didn't scout because you can't with the 4.95 promo but I plan on renewing next season so I will use scouting then and based on what you said Garland will probably be my best recruit because he's got high potential in all the areas you said and Young has high potential in reb and lp so based on what you said he'll be good

Good. So there's two guys for a good start. And fortunately they're both freshmen, so they're something to build on! Young will be a mediocre defender, but he'll be able to rebound and score, so he'll help you. I like to keep balance on my teams, so if you have a big man who can score and rebound but is only average defensively, I'd try to find another big to partner with him who is an excellent athlete and defender and a solid rebounder, even if he can't score. Not everyone has to score, especially not if you stay in triangle. 

A guy with high potential in five key areas is a nice get for not scouting, so Garland will defend well for his position and dribble well for his position. His scoring won't be elite, but if he's high in SPD and BH, I'd figure that 31 LP will enable him to score near the basket on drives. Watch his passing rating this year. If it hits 40 and he still has high potential, you may have a PG. If not, find a point guard! Your PG doesn't have to be able to shoot, but he'll need good SPD, DEF, BH, and P. And non-terrible ATH. 

With as many scholarships as you have open next year, I'd try to get one good player at each position (the position you want them to play, not necessarily the position they're listed at), and then get the best you can with your remaining scholarships. Don't worry if you have to take a walk-on or two, make sure you get a good core for the future. Your team will suck next year, but in three seasons or so, you can build an NT team. 

Best of luck!

Another question. how can I cut down on turnovers? my team is averaging 22 a game and the reason I lost last nights game by 2 is because I had 20 turnovers and he only had 12.

Recruit better ball-handlers and passers. 

I also usually run slowdown if I'm really concerned about turnovers. There's a thread on whether or not changing tempo is effective at limiting turnover rate, but I have anecdotal evidence that says it is. Plenty of good coaches disagree though.