Just started playing HD, and my team is low on rebounding talent. I've been outrebounded in all my games thus far (2 exhibition, 1 N-C). Any way that I can game plan better to increase my rebounding despite my talent gap?

Also, does double-teaming really make a difference in slowing down a high scorer from your opponent? I've selected double-team "when leading scorer" on their most talented shooter every game, and from the PBP it doesn't seem to help out very much. The guy still goes off, especially near the end of the game.

Appreciate the help.

Welcome to HD! Glad you're here.

After taking a glance at your team, unfortunately you're in a position where you don't have much talent. It's very common when taking over a team with all sim players, that you will end up having a very poor season, and won't see a lot of improvements until you're able to get some of your own recruited talent. You will be able to sign players that are a MASSIVE improvement over what you have on the roster now.

With that being said, talent trumps all. Game planning isn't as strong if you don't have the needed pieces to make an impact. Double teaming players "can" slow down a big time scorer in HD. But without having the needed defensive talent, you will see a lot of inconsistencies this season. Don't put a lot of stock in your game planning mishaps this season, as your main concern at the moment is to bring in players that can help you win.

I recommend getting a mentor from the mentor list, and discussing scouting and recruiting, to prepare you for the upcoming recruiting sessions, and you will see a night and day difference from the talent on your current roster, compared to the players you will be signing in the future. Right now, you're trying to build the foundation for a house, but you only have cardboard, tape and staples to work with.

Revisit this question after signing some players that you recruited, and you will see a difference in game plan choices such as double teams. Until then you will see some inconsistencies

You're in a situation like I'm in at Memphis this year. I literally just set the team up and will come back in 2 weeks when I can actually make a difference. This team that I took over hasn't been competitive in any game this year (0-19) and I don't see it winning a game. This team is a FB/FCP team with 6 walkons, which you'll find out is definitely not a good situation to have when running FB/FCP. I just came back after taking like 9 years off and learning the new recruiting system myself and wondering if I should have gone back to a d2 or d3 team....

Thanks Topdog. Yep, definitely need to upgrade my talent through recruiting, which will take time and make this season a bit of a lost cause. Just trying to gameplan to maximize what little talent I do have on my team - maybe at least keep my prestige where it started. Pureh, I went back to GD two months ago after a 10-year hiatus. Slow going early on, especially as the game has evolved. Always wanted to try HD but never had the time. Took advantage of the March Madness promo to get going. I think it's interesting that the first season I only have the players left to me by the sim -- contrasted to GD, where you recruit at the beginning of the season, and then get to put your FR on the field that season to get your team going a bit faster. But I guess this season lets me tinker around with game settings and see what tends to work here. There's a lot of help on the HD forum boards, too -- in GD, gameplanning settings are held pretty close to the vest for most of the elite coaches.

t-rexf - Go to the second pinned post and join the HD discord! It is full of coaches who are more than willing to help newcomers to the game or just chat in general.

Posted by t_rexf16 on 4/13/2021 10:08:00 PM (view original):
Thanks Topdog. Yep, definitely need to upgrade my talent through recruiting, which will take time and make this season a bit of a lost cause. Just trying to gameplan to maximize what little talent I do have on my team - maybe at least keep my prestige where it started. Pureh, I went back to GD two months ago after a 10-year hiatus. Slow going early on, especially as the game has evolved. Always wanted to try HD but never had the time. Took advantage of the March Madness promo to get going. I think it's interesting that the first season I only have the players left to me by the sim -- contrasted to GD, where you recruit at the beginning of the season, and then get to put your FR on the field that season to get your team going a bit faster. But I guess this season lets me tinker around with game settings and see what tends to work here. There's a lot of help on the HD forum boards, too -- in GD, gameplanning settings are held pretty close to the vest for most of the elite coaches.

C+ prestige is easily recoverable in one season at D3 (I think one good season should get you in the Bs at least). And in recruiting, if you are battling any human (and this unadvisable in most situations) the odds that you have a better prestige than them at C+ very nearly the same as C- which is the lowest at D3. So yes to experimenting and figuring out game planning etc. But there is absolutely no need to worry about prestige at all this season.

Posted by t_rexf16 on 4/13/2021 1:12:00 AM (view original):
Just started playing HD, and my team is low on rebounding talent. I've been outrebounded in all my games thus far (2 exhibition, 1 N-C). Any way that I can game plan better to increase my rebounding despite my talent gap?

Also, does double-teaming really make a difference in slowing down a high scorer from your opponent? I've selected double-team "when leading scorer" on their most talented shooter every game, and from the PBP it doesn't seem to help out very much. The guy still goes off, especially near the end of the game.

Appreciate the help.

there isn't that much you can do, but a little. the normal rule of thumb involves setting +/- primarily based on how many 3s the opponent takes, but you will want to play a heavier - as that will help your rebounding. you may get beat on 3s but at least then the opponent might get unlucky and miss a bunch too, and give you an opening (you probably need a little luck to win games with that team anyway). you can play a -2 or so against an unknown opponent and try like a -1 if they take 30% 3s or more and perhaps a -3 if they take 20% or less. (when i say % of 3s that is just shorthand for 3pta / fga for their team on the season, which is a quick rough way to get a measure of their volume of 3pt shooting).

i'd also get scott out of the rotation, despite his good reb rating, his ath/def are atrocious and those are key ratings. running slowdown may help because your starting rebounding lineup isn't so bad but it definitely drops off.

in general though, dogg was right - the players you have dictate most of your success, there is only so much you can do from there. i mean - there is a LOT of difference between how well executed teams are by coaches across the spectrum - its normal to see coaches with top 25 teams miss the NT and coaches with garbage teams easily make the NT and you'll see two almost identical teams but one is top 5 and the other is about 25 with both ~top 10ish talent. that stuff is normal, and coaching can make a big difference, but there's a limit. typically making due with SIMAI recruits is a bit past that limit :) however, freshman get their IQ up to a C- very quickly (about 10 games perhaps a bit less) and up to a B- pretty quickly (late in the 1st season), so you should be able to bring in freshman who start improving your team right away. after a couple classes of that you'll be in better shape and with some options.

You've got at least 6 players on your team that do not belong on any basketball court. And unfortunately there is nothing you can do about that. And when recruiting starts, I would just plan on taking the shotgun approach and plan on signing 6 players the second recruiting cycle. You can do that by cutting enough players to get you those 6 schollies.

I would start off by cutting Scott, Wiest, Domkowski, Irwin.

And next time you take on a team, look for one that previously had a human coach, or just expect it to take 2-3 seasons ( at least) to become competitive.

And the biggest secret for new coaches to know in DIV III. You can recruit Div I and Div II players. But there is a right way to do that and that is too long of a conversation.