As I mentioned in a previous post, enjoying playing this game again after a long lay off. Took over a major rebuild project and admittedly I thought the progress would be quicker. Losing to a lot of Sim AI teams that I appear to be better then.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=7488

Any thoughts on what the glaring holes are on this team? I have some ideas but curious what others think.

Very bad athleticism and defense. Competitive D3 teams will be looking at starters averaging ~50, and championship caliber teams are routinely 60+ in those cores. It looks like you’re recruiting from the D3 pool, I would encourage you to start focusing on the D2 pool and even local D1 players. If you need help with figuring out how to effectively scout higher divisions from D3, there are some good methods discussed in this thread.

Start there, and when you have some higher quality players, you’ll be able to dig into more nuanced gameplanning stuff. But right now, it is mostly that your team is just outclassed in the most important places.

Thank you! When I looked at my ratings compared to even just the teams in my conference I did notice the very poor Defense and Athleticism. So glad you reaffirmed that. And admittedly in my first two seasons I've been nervous to get into D2 recruiting battles that I lose and then am left with nothing when those guys don't sign during cycle 2. But will take a crack at that.

Agree with Shoe Defense and ATH are the real back bones of this game. In D3 you can get away with a player or two in the 30s but most of the players on your roster just don’t belong on a competitive team. I would also consider reading the pinned D2/D3 guide by AEjones. The Recruiting—Player Evaluation is really gold. The other recruiting sections date back to the older form of this game so you should skip, but the non-recruiting sections are all still very applicable.

Posted by mjpolzin on 7/1/2021 10:59:00 PM (view original):
Thank you! When I looked at my ratings compared to even just the teams in my conference I did notice the very poor Defense and Athleticism. So glad you reaffirmed that. And admittedly in my first two seasons I've been nervous to get into D2 recruiting battles that I lose and then am left with nothing when those guys don't sign during cycle 2. But will take a crack at that.

As a D3 team, there is a ton of players out there that are acceptable signings. TONS. When scouting/recruiting, make sure you're not only focusing on the player(s) you want to sign, but also backups. You're gonna want the biggest pool you can get to pick from, because D1s and D2 schools will start picking off your players as each session passes (if you're aiming high enough. If you're not having D2 and D1 schools at least showing up on the radar, you likely need to aim higher in talent). It's ok if a player gets taken from you. It means your looking for the right level of talent.

My suggestion is to have a player or three unlocked to use as fall back options if you lose a roll or if a player ends up in D2 at the last second. That way you can offer the ship at the end and come away with at least a serviceable player.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

So if a D2 recruit has an early preference or end of period 1 preference does it even pay to assign attention points to him? Because I can't sign him until late anyway

Posted by mjpolzin on 7/3/2021 11:56:00 AM (view original):
So if a D2 recruit has an early preference or end of period 1 preference does it even pay to assign attention points to him? Because I can't sign him until late anyway

Yes, AP investment accumulates, so every cycle you show attention, it all adds up. You will be stuck at moderate until he is eligible to sign with you, but as soon as he can sign with you (first cycle of the late session for D2 pool, last 24 hours for D1 pool) he will immediately jump to very high, if you have done enough effort to be in the lead in effort credit and have a scholarship offer to him. So yes, it can pay off to invest early attention in those players, for sure. You do want to be careful with visits though, because higher division teams can come along and just take him before you can sign him, and of course it takes less effort at higher divisions anyway. You could be “in the lead” but still listed as moderate, and lose the recruit without a battle to a higher division school. So be judicious with how you use $$ resources. Unlike AP, those don’t regenerate every cycle, of course.

Trying to generate some discussion again here. I feel like I have improved my team (See the link back in the original post). And although my Def and Ath still aren't where I need them, it is better than most of the seemingly inferior Sim AI teams I keep playing. But yet I keep losing. What am I missing? I'm perplexed that I am purposely scheduling mostly Sim AI teams to finally start winning. But I keep losing!

The answer is still athleticism and defense. Until they are both up closer to 50 as a team, you will struggle to beat sims, and get pounded by good human teams.

Playing straight zone, you can cut 3 or 4 players this season and run with 8 next year. You really can’t afford having guys like Entrekin or Jackson on the team getting minutes. Even Diehl is pushing it. Like you can play them against a press if they show up as walkons, but don’t offer those guys scholarships when you run a zone. If you run a zone, you should be focused on making sure you have 5 *good* guards and 3 *good* bigs to play every season. Focus on an 8 man rotation, the last 3-4 spots can be ineligibles, walkons, redshirts, or freshmen projects with good work ethic you’re developing for the future.

Starting bigs - PF Anderson and C Albarado (set Albarado fatigue to “getting tired)
backup at both slots - Greene

Starting Guards - PG Diehl, SG Gritton, SF Holloway (set to “getting tired)
backup point - Willis
backup 2/3 - Easley

Entrekin and Jackson can take up the 3rd and 4th slots from pg-sf, give them high distribution, but they’ll have minimal exposure. Symanski can be 3rd PF and Wycoff 3rd C. Wycoff is getting way too many minutes, he’s really hurting you. His LP ability is fool’s gold. It’s nice that he has some bank shots in his repertoire, but he can’t defend or rebound well enough to get more than garbage time for a team that wants to win. Symanski is kind of the opposite. His problem is that he can only defend. He’s a liability everywhere else. But if a guy can do only one thing, defending is the thing it should be, it’s a matter of where he fits on the court. 4 is probably the best spot for him, so get him minutes when the starters are both out, and Greene is covering C.

Alright thank you for the specific input! Not sure I'll cut guys I recruited to save my reputation grade. But I can just bite the bullet with a few of them until they graduate.

I don't think cutting your own guys has a huge impact, I've done it several times before--or at least not much impact when it comes to recruiting. If you have any frosh/soph players that aren't going to grow into a useable player, you should start by cutting them. I've got a player that I recruited last season on one of my teams that I'm now regretting--I'm 90% sure I'm going to cut him when I get the chance.

Ok good to hear. There's been a few recruiting battles where I surprisingly end up being in the running for a guy. But get spooked by not wanting to cut a player to free up a scholarship.

Yep, it's not ideal to cut a player you recruited but consequences aren't significant if you cut 1 or 2 of them. I don't know at what point it becomes problematic, like if you cut 3, 4, 5, etc.

Posted by mjpolzin on 9/25/2021 10:55:00 PM (view original):
Ok good to hear. There's been a few recruiting battles where I surprisingly end up being in the running for a guy. But get spooked by not wanting to cut a player to free up a scholarship.

Keep in mind you do not get resources if you cut a player that YOU signed. If you cut and don't fill the spot (lose the roll) you will get resources for that opening next season. But not this season.

My suggestion is if you haven't reached out to a mentor, you should do so. Coming to the forums for help shows that you're interested in improving. So don't take this wrong, but your team did look really poor as far as ATH/DEF. As others have mentioned the importance, you could literally have a team of 12 players with like 65 ATH and 65 DEF, have 0s in rebounding and ball skills and everything else, and that team may have better success than you're having at the moment. That is how important those attributes are. There's a few coaches out there that kind of do that (not the "0s in everything" part. But that aim for only ATH/DEF) and they have decent success.

Since you're in D3, check out mfnmyers Dickinson team in your world. It may be built fairly similar to what I'm describing