Know theres been a lot of questions on this already and i've read it all. I know with press the most important categories are Ath/Spd/Def which raises this question. On my Earlham team, in the past, i've started: Newkirk, Hutchens, Lewis, McDaniel, and Hanson. But I was always playing the motion/zone. In this line-up McDaniel and Newkirk defense ratings are each sub 40 so I was wondering if with the fb/press I should put in my better defenders. Here's the link: whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx



I have one sample game with the fb/press(btw im running the halfcourt press/2-3 zone since my guys have high IQ's in zone) and I know the IQ's are EXTREMELY important in the press but playing it helps it go up quicker and Im not making the postseason this year so I have nothing to lose. I feel like next year I will be able to make a run so thats why im changing it now. So any feedback would be greatly appreciated especially on who I should start. 

Thanks, James

I sure hope you mean flex/press. FB/press is just asking for trouble.

Not necessarily.

nope im goin with fb/press I've seen it be very successful especially in Wooden D3 so I figured id give it a shot, any suggestions on line-ups?

Posted by dahsdebater on 8/14/2012 5:32:00 PM (view original):
Not necessarily.

This doesn't prove that the team wouldn't have been better off had it ran flex/fcp or motion/fcp. fb/fcp puts you in a huge stamina hole. FB has been discussed pretty extensively a while back and is considered by most to be an inferior offensive set. 

I agree that it's an inferior set, but I can see where at this point it is so little used there is a niche available for a FB/FCP team to be successful given that they can ignore LP and PER even more than the average coach.

Dahs has it right - there's a finite number of recruits out there.  Those great players with OK DEF and crappy LP/PER?  They're still out there.  So the fewer coaches run FB, the better the few who do, do.

That sentence is grammatically correct, I swear.

Posted by cornfused on 8/14/2012 6:51:00 PM (view original):
Dahs has it right - there's a finite number of recruits out there.  Those great players with OK DEF and crappy LP/PER?  They're still out there.  So the fewer coaches run FB, the better the few who do, do.

That sentence is grammatically correct, I swear.

I have been ignoring per/lp while running motion/fcp (and motion/m2m, motion/zone, triangle/m2m) for about 20+ seasons. You really don't need per/lp to succeed in d2/d3. 

A huge benefit of flex/fcp is that you are already running flex. Save the IQ conversion on offense. 

get high stamina/spd/ath guys, dont worry much about lp/per/def, and you can really win with this setup. It's definitely possible, maybe not the best way to play, but it's doable. While I don't have a title, I've had solid sustained success w/ FB/FCP w/ my Staten Island dIII Naismith team. I focus very heavily on stamina in my recruiting and play a 12 player rotation.

I've run the press/break successfully in Wooden DIII for a long, long time.  It may not work as well at DII/DI, but in DIII, where all coaches are working with flawed players, I think it is a tremendous system.  What's obvious is that you need players with SPD/ATH/STA to win.  My Beloit teams average in the low to mid 50's in both SPD and ATH, and in the upper 70's to low 80's for STA.  PER and LP are far less important.  What's less obvious is to recruit players with high DEF and solid FT%.  With this system, you win by forcing turnovers and by forcing your opponent to foul you.  You accomplish this by multiplying ball possessions (turnovers) and by utilizing superior athleticism and speed to generate fouls.  The more fouls you generate, the tougher it is for your opponent to hang with you.  It is also imperative that you have a deep team.  I no longer redshirt players, so that I am always 12 deep.  I also try hard to have three players in each class, so that I've always got a solid mix of youth and experience. 

James: you have to be patient in building a team for this system.  Think less about what your perfect starting five should be and more about what the best balance will be for your first and second units.  Your starters probably won't play more than about 21 or 22 minutes a game because of fatigue, so this is a crucial point.  GL

Thanks paul, hopefully eventually I can start doing what Beloit does in Wooden! haha jk they are savage. to get up to how good they are would be almost impossible haha

High LP guards do well in the FB.  They're by no means a necessity, but I've found that they can thrive if you get one over 50.

I should add that Beloit is not the only successful press/break program in Wooden DIII.  Maranatha Baptist Bible College has been doing it even longer than we have, and Norm as two or three national titles.  Currently Trinity and Dickinson also run the press/break successfully.  I'm sure there are a couple of others that I'm forgetting, but the point is that it has worked very well for multiple programs.  There has not been a more dominant system than press/break in Wooden DIII.

My Rutgers team is FB/FCP.   I am not even a good recruiter and I still make it work, somehow.  I don't ignore PER either.  I think it dove tails nicely with the SPD attribute.  Not that you  can tell from my team but I don't ignore it.  I like to have two good shooters.


I look for SPD-ATH-DEF and then try to match the 90 ATH guys with LP and the 90 SPD guys with PER.  I also tend to play 11 (sometimes 12) so it lessens the need for REALLY hgh STAMINA.  FT is important as well but I don't really look for it, I am just happy when I have it.

I generally play uptempo, trying to get to other teams bench.

Joe -- I agree that PER is important, and I do try to have a couple of guys who can hit the three point shot.  But it's still true that you can have a guy with a superior SPD/ATH combination and minimal PER/LP, who can be a great offensive player in the press/break system.