Quote: Originally posted by dalter on 10/24/2009A2: Truthfully I never really shot for any 'particular' distribution I just played what I had. Personally I'd stay away from 6-0-6-0 because I always like to have a senior or two on the team. -combalt

What the hell does combalt know? He's retired now.

Quote: Originally Posted By blackdog3377 on 10/25/2009he used to be daalter for a long time before retiring from HD

dogget was joking, we're in a conference together.

Category: Jobs/Prestige

Q: I'm still early in my career, 1st season D3, and am interested in moving up quickly to D1. As I just got accepted to Boston U's grad school, that is an obvious sentimental favorite, but they're currently rated as a D- prestige in the world I'm in.

What's your opinion about the viability of taking on a D- prestige school? Is there any sense to staying at a D3 school a few years so I can jump directly to a D, D+ or better instead? Is moving to D2 first a good idea, or is the direct jump from D3 to D1 possible/viable? If I do end up in a D- are there any special considerations with regards to recruiting to help build prestige?

-redsox666666

A1: I would recommend coaching at both d3 and d2 before you take your first d1 job. You gain more experiance with the game and recruiting at each level and I do feel that coaching at d2 would you succeed faster at the top level.

As for recruiting, A D- is tough but can be done. You will need to look for guys that have solid cores and stay as close to home as possible. Look for the guys that have solid core potential and might need a year or two to develop. The first cycle can be very important when you are at an elite school in D1 but is not at the bottom. I would ignore the first 2-4 cycles and see where other schools go before you spend any money on players that you very likely won't have a chance at signing anyway.

A2: If looking to have the best shot of competing for a NT berth relatively quickly (once you actually arrive at DI), you might first develop a solid D2 program (of hopefully 4 years or more of solid NT runs). Then you can move to a C-ish prestige program. You'll be able to compete for better talent right away. Even with that, you'll need to do a good job of identifying players not highly coveted by the top prestige programs.

But in short, the lower prestige you have in DI, the more CAREFUL and less GREEDY you need to be in order to maximize the chance of success and minimize the chance of disaster.

At a D- or D school, first of all, you won't even be able to talk to top players, and most mid-line players will be backups. And backups at DI are pretty much off limits. This is very different from D2, when successful programs live exclusively off backups.

Finally, since you've just started your career, my advise is to learn the game a few years at D3, then at D2, then make the move to DI. There is no race to win currently, with all worlds well established. If you want to get to a good Big 6 program one day, there is plenty of time. Learn the game, ask questions of vets, and move up with care. Good luck.

-jskenner

Good thread. Regarding the class size issue, I've had the most success with a 2-2-3-5 structure.

It can leave you a little lean in the two seasons following the graduation of the class with the 5 seniors, but all in all it has worked really well and I won 4 NTs in 8 seasons using it (DII Wooden - Edinboro). For best results, you want to line it up so that the 5-man class has one of each position so that every fourth season you have a starting lineup with 5 seniors. The third season in the chain can also be really good because you have 2 senior starters and 5 juniors.

Category: Strategy/Gameplanning

Q: I have been playing this game a long time and there is STILL one thing I cannot get a handle on: controlling turnovers. I go through many seasons beating strong opponents only to lose to weaker teams because I gave up 20-30 turnovers. I have tried many different things but cant seem to figure out what creates/prevents turnovers. Are they completely random? That doesn't seem logical to me so I just keep trying to tweek here and there with no luck in figuring it out.

-nabermd

A1: The best way I have found to control turnovers is to get the guards IQ up as soon as possible and then by playing the best tempo for your players talent level. If I have inexperienced or lesser talented G's then I will run more Slowdown. Lately I have also ventured into playing a SG at SF against good pressing teams in DII and DIII but I'm not sure if this is the answer yet as I don't have a large enough sample size to make the determination yet but it does seem to help.

-khook19

A2: I have trouble with this as well. It seems semi-random. Sometime players with high BH will just lose the ball unexplainedly to defensive players with lower D ratings. I am not sure if it is in the RNG formula which seems to determine the outcome of a play then, make the determination of who turned the ball over.

-glen87