Tonight, I play my first game in D1 against a ranked team. I'm a 20 point underdog at home. They are #12 in the country. I'm not optimistic.

I have a normal process that I go through when game planning for my next game. But this one brings a twist that I haven't faced before.

They have a HUGE advantage over me on ATH and DEF, and a decent advantage over me on SPD as well as many of the other ratings. This usually screams to me: play slowdown. Slow down the pace of the game to (a) keep my starters on the court longer since they won't be fatiguing, and (b) minimize the number of possessions to hopefully keep the game from getting out of hand.

But here's the twist:

They have 3 walkons, and are only playing with a 9 man rotation. That tells me: play uptempo. Go fast, tire them out, make them go into their thin (as in only 4 players) bench. Playing a fast paced game with only 9 players may fatigue them, cause fouls, and maybe create a little bit of havoc with their game plan.

So that's my conundrum: part of me says play slowdown, part of me says go uptempo.

What would you do?

It really depends, do you have better stamina, do you have proven scorers, two starters and one bench player? If not, slowdown.

The lack of ATH/SPD on your team would kill you on uptempo. If I were you, I’d play slowdown, double team Doss, and play a -4 defense. You’ll foul a lot, but aside from Doss they mostly score inside. I’d also up the distribution on Sparks and Countryman and pray the guy double teams your team’s usual leading scorer.

Posted by zorzii on 12/31/2017 9:34:00 AM (view original):
It really depends, do you have better stamina, do you have proven scorers, two starters and one bench player? If not, slowdown.

Stamina is about a wash. Yes, to the other two questions.

I'd compare your 7-8-9 players to his.

If his are better players, go slowdown

If you're playing man to man, even if you're going uptempo, it probably won't make a huge difference, since they usually play slow down and 2-3 zone which saves on their stamina.

If you're going to play full court press, go check the game Hawaii vs Oral Roberts if you want an idea of how it affected their stamina. I don't think you're going to get any huge gains from it, in this circumstance. Comparing your athleticism and defense to Hawaii's, you're more than likely not going to get them in foul trouble.

Your best bet is to put Sparks on the 2nd line, increase his distro 5 times your next highest distro guy at +2, but at the same time making sure his disto total doesn't exceed 50% of your teams shots. Hawaii plays mostly 2-3 +2 or 2-3 +3 so not sure how much of an impact it has compared to playing 2-3 at 0. If you're going to come out with a victory, you'll need to limit the amount of possessions and Sparks will need to have a career game from beyond the arc.

I think going negative def and doubling up on Doss is a no-brainer

Thanks to all for the advice.

Still lost the game, 64-56, but was able to play it close until the last minute. A 3 pointer with a minute left pulled me to within 2, but Hawaii scored the final 6 points to close it out.

I ended up doubling Doss and playing -4 with a slowdown. The only other change I made was to replace my PG, Collier (23 DEF), with Knight (46 DEF) in the starting lineup. Lost something slightly with BH/P but made up for it with DEF at the point (though Knight did foul out). Doss still scored 18, going 5-11 from beyond the arc. Shepherd, their other big scorer at C, scored 20. As suspected, playing -4 would create a lot of fouls inside and he went 10-12 from the free throw line.

I also suspected that Hawaii would play slowdown and double up on Sparks, and they did just that. Sparks was held to nine points, but my other scorer, Countryman, scored 16. It probably helped that I upped his distro (as well as Sparks').

No offense but that team is just so much better than yours, almost nothing you could do would lead you to a W.

You have to go slowdown minus in that scenario.

I was fully expecting a loss, as I knew they were much better than I was. I just wanted to keep it from being a blowout.

Getting to within 2 points with 1:00 left . . . I can live with that.

Posted by tecwrg on 1/1/2018 9:57:00 AM (view original):
I was fully expecting a loss, as I knew they were much better than I was. I just wanted to keep it from being a blowout.

Getting to within 2 points with 1:00 left . . . I can live with that.

For sure. Good gameplanning and good result.

Posted by cubcub113 on 1/1/2018 9:05:00 AM (view original):
No offense but that team is just so much better than yours, almost nothing you could do would lead you to a W.

You have to go slowdown minus in that scenario.

Sometimes the better team doesn't win, right, Cub?

;)

Do you remember?

You remember.

Posted by pallas on 1/1/2018 4:24:00 PM (view original):

Posted by cubcub113 on 1/1/2018 9:05:00 AM (view original):
No offense but that team is just so much better than yours, almost nothing you could do would lead you to a W.

You have to go slowdown minus in that scenario.

Sometimes the better team doesn't win, right, Cub?

;)

Do you remember?

You remember.

I also gameplanned pretty awfully for that game...