Hey guys, 

It seems that HBD just cant satisfy my dynasty needs and with an amazing NBA season looming, I'm pretty excited about basketball right now. So I think the only solution is to try Hoops Dynasty.

That being said, I don't want to jump in blindly. Any kind soul willing to give me some pointers before I choose my team? I really want to run a press defense, so if anyone with mastery of that style wants to help, even better.  

Thanks a lot.

I'm both bored (no work, power out over there) and have time on my hands right now (same reason), so I'll be glad to help. Check your sitemail.

JsaJsa is the right dude for this i would suggest Crum Midwest conference though details we got some openings i think the lake forest coach might not be coming back.  Theres some other openings if your looking to build your team from the ground up or if you want a team that doesnt need much right away i scout out some of the squads for you. Knox and Carroll give you some upside to win right away.

heres the best advice i can give a new coach - outside of getting a mentor, which you are apparently all over (and that is great). 
1) dont expect to win right away. a lot of coaches pick up a team, screw them up royally for 2-3 seasons, jump ship, and start over - MUCH more successful. its just the way it goes, takes a little getting used to. on the other hand, some coaches get right into it. but the point is, dont read too much into your level of success in the beginning - even though its d3, a lot of the more successful d3 coaches have played a long time, and you cant expect to beat them. your goal should be to just get a handle on the game, and start to hand it to the simmies, and try to get more and more competitive with human coaches

2) read the forums. there are some total BS ranting threads (ive contributed to theses particularly much lately, with the political season, and me being an idealist who drowns the reality of how ****** politics is these days in a bourbon bottle. got to love that old kentucky bourbon!). you might want to just skip over those threads, but normally, there are a LOT of valuable threads from new coaches and older coaches alike, asking questions, discussing various topics, and such. you can read back a few weeks and get a huge jump start on the game. id also strongly recommend reading the coaches guide, its a little out dated but it was written by one of the best coaches in HD history, so its a great starting point. also, id check out the thread from aejones called "winning in d2/d3" or "how to win in d2/d3", someone bumped it within the last week. and finally, if you go under interviews, WIS asked me to do an interview i dont know, six months ago? i am long winded and tend to try to answer questions in great depth, so i answered all their questions and told them to pick their favorites, but they published it all. so its really long, but there is also a lot of good information there, too.

so yeah... thats about it. i highly recommend, on the what team to pickup thing, trying to find a conference with a bunch of human coaches, and preferably one that is active (if the last 3 posts are from admin, telling you abuot openings in other worlds, its not an active conference!). taking part in the community and getting to know your conference mates is one of the most engaging and rewarding parts of the game. at least, it is for me, and a lot of other coaches. for some others, not so much, but to each his own!

good luck!

What these guys said. 

If you're looking for teams, might I selfishly suggest Otterbein in Crum? 

It's selfish because I want more folks in my division, but I think it'd be a nice place a new coach for a few reasons:

1. Runs the press, as you desire

2. Is in a conference with a lot of human players (7/12), so you have an active coaches corner and all that. This is the conference that I started HD with two months ago, and I loved it, so I'd say it's a fun one for beginners. But there are also five coaches who are postseason threats every year, so there are games that will challenge you.

3. Is not in a division with a lot of human players. There are three Sims in the division (other than Otterbein), so you get six conference games a year against teams you should beat. I know you don't expect to win immediately, but it sucks to go through an 0-16 or 1-15 season at the beginning. You shouldn't have to worry about that here. 

4. Only graduates one player this year, which means your first recruiting class will be very small. This is probably the best feature for a beginner--if you don't know what you're doing, you don't want your first recruiting class to be a six-man class that will make or break your next four years. 

5. Will have ten upperclassmen next year (four seniors, six juniors) if you don't cut anyone. It's a lot easier to win with upperclassmen in this game than with underclassmen, so you should be able to win some games while you figure out what you're doing. This also means your second recruiting class will be more important than your first, and your third class will be more important than your second. Which is how it should go when you're figuring things out. 

We'd love to have you in Rupp, D3, University Athletic Association.  We have several good coaches, and are a top 2-3 RPI conference. 

Problem is.... Rupp season doesn't turnover for awhile.  So my advice is, grab whomever right now, and when you get that second team - come to Rupp and help us try to take the next step to being #1 conference. 

We have 9 human coaches now (out of 12).  Either way, I am happy to help too if you want another opinion on your future team.  I've had some success at D3, but pretty average at D2.  The open schools are all rebuilds:  Centre, Hendrix, and Stillman. 

Yeah, unless he grabs Allen this weekend, Crum, Smith, and Iba are the next one-a-day worlds (all mid-November). And I've put in my Crum plug, so I'll leave that stand. I don't have a team in Iba or Smith, so I don't know what's available there. 

The University and USA South in Tark both have openings.  That would be a real baptism by fire in the game, maybe you should look for something more like a half-filled conference than jump straight into the bloodbath of the D3 Tark Southeast.