Is this an impossible style to win? IM Wright State and even after 3 seasons and finally getting guys who can play the style I lose to D2 teams and suck. Is it just a pipe dream to run it?

No, I just don't think your team is all the optimized to run it. 72 team stamina will seriously hinder your ability to run that set, as well as having low team ATH/DEF. Although I do think in general it is a tougher style to pull off properly at D1, it is still possible.

High stamina, no redshirts, no ineligibles, uptempo. Must have comparable rosters in ATH/SPD/DEF or you will foul like crazy.

It doesn't have to be ran exactly that way. But that will maximize results.

If you want to stick with it, I suggest you bump ath, spd, and defense far up the priority list in scouting and recruiting. You do want higher stamina too, but that’s less a change in priority (because the variance is much smaller than the others) and more a matter of just setting the bar a little higher when recruiting (try not to recruit guys who can’t quickly get to high 70s at least).

Ath and defense - in general, and with few exceptions, don’t recruit any guys who won’t make it to 70.
Speed - your guards need to be 80+ to be competitive at a mid-major level. Shoot for 90s.
Rebounding - you need 4 guys who can rebound a little, 2 on the court at all times. 70 range is ok; more is better of course, but at D-, you need guys who are not expensive, you can’t have it all, and rebounding is an area for you to think about de-emphasizing.
Scoring - you need 3-4 guys who can score. 100 combined LP/per is workable. I always liked having a couple guards who could shoot 3s (70+ perimeter) so defenses couldn’t cram inside. Again, consider de-emphasizing here. Focus on ath and speed for your points. You’re trying to score in transition.
Ball-handling/passing - as you get better, your bar can go up, and you can think about becoming nationally competitive. One step at a time. De-emphasize for now, except for your 2 PGs. For them, think 70s range.

*You should note in recruiting, there are quite a few guys who come with high ath, defense, and little else. Snatch those guys up, maybe one every season or two. You can usually get them for cheap, and these are useful system guys for FB/press.

"You should note in recruiting, there are quite a few guys who come with high ath, defense, and little else. Snatch those guys up, maybe one every season or two. You can usually get them for cheap, and these are useful system guys for FB/press."

And play them at SF.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 5/16/2019 9:55:00 AM (view original):
"You should note in recruiting, there are quite a few guys who come with high ath, defense, and little else. Snatch those guys up, maybe one every season or two. You can usually get them for cheap, and these are useful system guys for FB/press."

And play them at SF.

Yeah, and basically have 5 SFs on your team. Not a good strategy.

Posted by Benis on 5/16/2019 10:25:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Trentonjoe on 5/16/2019 9:55:00 AM (view original):
"You should note in recruiting, there are quite a few guys who come with high ath, defense, and little else. Snatch those guys up, maybe one every season or two. You can usually get them for cheap, and these are useful system guys for FB/press."

And play them at SF.

Yeah, and basically have 5 SFs on your team. Not a good strategy.

Getting one every season or 2 is ~3, not 5 on a team. And that’s about right. At D-, he needs cheap value to move into a better position, to reasonably compete for better players.

If you have 5 90/90/90 guys on a fb/fcp team it ain’t a bad start. You need a couple of 50s thrown in to really make it works.

Play the freshmen at sf, if they develop a 50 BH slide them to the 2, if they grow to a 50 reb, slide it to PF.

a team like that would be competitive.

***Edit: 90 speed 50 reb guys won’t be easy to get, I thought I had some but I dont

If you’re someone who likes to compartmentalize, you can break your team into 3 categories. In order of priority:

1) Guards - 5 players. Target 80+ for speed and defense, try not to go below 70. Try to have a scorer or two (70+ perimeter, or 100+ LP+Per) and a distributor or two (~70/70 in BH/pass) in the group; but prioritize speed and defense. Stay in or above the 70 ath range, if possible.
2) Bigs - 4 players. Target 80+ for ath and defense, try not to go below 70. Target 70 for rebounding, try not to go below 60. Try to have a scorer or two (70+ LP, or 100+ LP+Per) in the group. Ideally, stay above 30 speed, but not a priority at D-.
3) Other/swing - 2-4 players, those cheap ath/def only guys. Upper 80s and above ath/def, if possible. If not at least 85, probably not worth it. You can play these guys at SF, and/or they can backup the bigs and guards as well. (They make good 11th and 12th)

Stamina overall - recruit guys who will make it to upper 70s reasonably soon. If they start down below 60, think twice, even if green, unless you have a lot of stamina elsewhere at that position/s.

Obviously, your mileage may vary.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 5/16/2019 11:57:00 AM (view original):
If you have 5 90/90/90 guys on a fb/fcp team it ain’t a bad start. You need a couple of 50s thrown in to really make it works.

Play the freshmen at sf, if they develop a 50 BH slide them to the 2, if they grow to a 50 reb, slide it to PF.

a team like that would be competitive.

***Edit: 90 speed 50 reb guys won’t be easy to get, I thought I had some but I dont

What division are you thinking of with these ratings?

D1. I think you could make the PT and maybe the NT (in a low conference) with just ATH/SPD/DEF in D1.

I mean, you still need a PG and 3-4 guys who can rebound but I think a team with:

2 PG types
5 super athletes
4 post players
and 2 scorers would do quite well.

Well, that's 13 so one of the scorers needs to fill another roll as well.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 5/16/2019 3:01:00 PM (view original):
D1. I think you could make the PT and maybe the NT (in a low conference) with just ATH/SPD/DEF in D1.

I mean, you still need a PG and 3-4 guys who can rebound but I think a team with:

2 PG types
5 super athletes
4 post players
and 2 scorers would do quite well.

Well, that's 13 so one of the scorers needs to fill another roll as well.

I think the hard part is the scoring. You'd have a SF type guy with 50 BH and no per at SG. Then another dude similar to that SF.

I dunno, I don't see it working well at D1.

the best team one could theoretically build in this game is a fb/fcp team, so its definitely not an impossible style. fb/fcp is very different than other systems though, and needs to be played that way. frankly, fb is very different from the other offenses, in and of itself, so that throws people plenty. combining with press creates an ultra-high tempo system that saps your (and the other teams') stamina like crazy and adds a unique flavor to the set. frankly, you have to be 12 deep with 5 guards and 5 bigs (or similar) AND high stamina, to have a great fb/fcp team.

arguably, stamina is your #1 core for literally every player on your team. same disclaimer as stamina everywhere else - great stamina doesn't make a **** player any better - but great stamina makes a good player great and a great player elite. for great players on teams everywhere running all systems, especially lead scorers, stamina is often the #1 marginal stat - meaning, if you could add 5 of any attribute, it should often be stamina (especially in d1). most people might not look at it this way, but really, stamina is kinda misunderstood. basically, think of it like - you need enough stamina to keep your team from getting tired - and then for great players getting extra minutes. the first is a hard requirement to be good - and fcp/fb needs so much stamina, that fb/fcp needs high stamina uniquely. a 70 stamina player is un-startable in that set, you really want your starters to be averaging around 85. secondly, in general, great players don't benefit much from a tad more offensive skills, or defensive skills, because they've already basically maxed those out and having more doesnt help (especially in d1, but true everywhere - for example, a d1 90 spd/per/bh guard is massively better than 80 spd/per/bh but almost negligibly worse than a 100 spd/per/bh guard - so that guard would benefit a lot more from 5 stamina than 5 speed or per - where as a bad player would rather have almost more of anything, than more stamina).

i know your question isn't about stamina, but stamina is exceedingly important in fb/fcp, and if you don't understand the nature of stamina and its value in various circumstances, you can't be a great fb/fcp coach. it just can't happen.

a lot of the above advice was good, but the advice about prioritizing defense (the stat) was bad, for a few reasons. 1) you can't have it all, and you HAVE to have good stamina, ath, and speed. that is your mission in life. 2) you HAVE to be 12 deep, and competition for high ath/def players is really high, so you have to look elsewhere.

really, your focus has to be sta, ath, and speed. this means you should usually be running 3 guard sets. you can run a SF at PF even, but your REB at the 4/5 is going to be very important. lp in your bigs is damn near useless - what division are you in? in d1, its not totally useless, but in d2/d3, you just don't have the ath/spd in your bigs to be effective fb scorers, not at volume. then you also need a couple high per guards, who you will give a **** ton of distro. they will only be playing like 22, 23 minutes a game, because of how tired they will be, but they need to be like 18ppg range. you need 2 starters and 1 backup guard who is awesome scoring wise, if you want to be a championship caliber fb/fcp team.

basically, thats it. get your entire backcourt (including the 3) to have great sta, ath, spd. focus on solid rebounding / defensive type bigs, and punt on scoring from your bigs. then you really need to focus your recruiting resources into getting a couple high per guys who will dominate.

one thing in your favor is FB can make more from less - you can get more from those top scorers than in other systems, AND you can get more from mid-level scorers than in other systems. you have a high ath/spd guard with middling per? fine, he can score 8ppg more efficiently than a similar guard in any other scheme. all your offense does not need to come from high per/lp type guys - frankly, about 5% of it should be coming from high lp guys, because you shouldn't really give a damn about lp and should be focusing on other stuff, so you shouldn't be ending up with high lp guys - and high lp guys (unless they are slasher guards) kinda suck in fb anyway. you just need your bigs for reb, def, and putbacks / tip-ins, which they will get on their own from your system and from having good ath for them - not from having much distro.

note in d1, sfs can be amazing - you might have 4-5 on a great fb/fcp team. note that in d2/d3, you'll get maybe 1 worthwhile sf every 5 years, if not less. expect to run about 7 guards and 5 bigs in d2/d3 with this scheme, and expect about 90% of your distro to be assigned to those 7 guards. if you get top 5 stamina, ath, and spd in the country, which should be doable with your ability to not give a **** about lp or per, and to value def less, in almost all your players (except you need per in a couple guards), you should be in a really good spot. throw in strong rebounding bigs and a couple high scoring per guards that you ride for all they're worth, and you have a fantastic championship favorite type squad.

Stamina, stamina, stamina....what the hell is good stamina? 80?

Posted by Trentonjoe on 5/17/2019 12:15:00 PM (view original):
Stamina, stamina, stamina....what the hell is good stamina? 80?

in fb/fcp, i would view 80 stamina on a starter as poor. you really want 3-4 guys in the 90s.