I hate posting these in the forums but I have tried just about everything I can think of except some very drastic options, and all have failed. So now I am seeking the wisdom of the forums.

My N. Central team in Iba DIII is struggling mightily. It is too late to make the NT but with a little luck I might be able to sneek into the PT. However they are performing way below expectations, and I can't figure out why.

Some basics: 
1) Trent, Kardos, and Sneed are set to a 3pt of 0 everyone else is at -1 or -2 (all bigs are at -2)
2) I run Motion/Zone
3) I know my Def ratings might be a little low but I doubt that is playing a big factor in my performance.
4) Ward is RS making my front line thinner than I would like.

Here are my teams ratingsaAnd stats (to make your lives easier)

Brent Sherburne	Jr.	PG	55	79	1	60	2	1	65	71	64	70	90	99	B+	657
Fred Trent	Jr.	PG	33	84	3	22	3	19	95	51	48	70	81	37	B	546
Harold Kardos	Fr.	PG	42	72	7	28	2	1	64	58	63	33	72	53	B	495
Jeremy Steiner	So.	SG	51	68	10	48	18	10	46	60	60	52	80	74	C+	577
Richard Haden	Fr.	SG	54	40	13	43	15	43	41	24	16	65	79	63	C-	496
Aaron Sneed	Fr.	SG	36	52	11	35	9	10	61	52	46	45	75	45	C-	477
Michael Morgan	So.	SF	28	37	49	16	43	60	46	30	12	60	75	49	B-	505
Merle Henderson	Sr.	PF	50	40	85	37	72	76	5	6	8	48	86	33	B+	546
Tim Carlson	Jr.	PF	40	38	66	38	41	70	26	11	33	50	74	73	B-	560
Jonathan Aquino	Sr.	C	37	22	92	38	82	96	8	2	20	57	74	69	C-	597
Kelvin Leeds	Fr.	C	47	18	62	29	53	66	12	7	21	44	63	68	D+	490
Caleb Ward	Fr.	C	50	13	48	47	30	71	19	10	33	44	54	37	C-	456

Any help with regards to lineup and possible distro would be greatly appreciated.

I think starting Steiner would help in a number of ways. Defense along with his ability to handle the ball would be the biggest gains. Do you run uptempo much?

The only one I would have set to zero would be Trent. Kardos, Sneed, and Sherburne I would have at -1, and the rest at -2. I would set the lineup like this from looking at your Player Rankings above.

PG - Sherburne, Steiner
SG - Trent, Sneed
SF - Kardos, Haden
PF - Henderson, Carlson
C - Aquino, Leeds

Other than the low Defense Ratong for a few players you mentioned, I think the extremely low BH/Pass for your Bigmen might be killing you more than anything.

I think this team is performing on par to what I would expect. You are running out 4 FR and only 1 player rated above 600, in a pretty competitive conf. 

OK tianyi, I can accept that, but can you give me some feedback as to why you think that.

Posted by pajamainc on 9/22/2011 8:39:00 AM (view original):
OK tianyi, I can accept that, but can you give me some feedback as to why you think that.

You have 4 FR playing some serious minutes, with only 2 SRs so you are behind in IQ. 

You are behind in player ratings with only 1 player rated above 600; generally good D3 teams have at least 4 players rated above 600, maybe even 1 or 2 over 700. 

You also didn't seem to focus on def when recruiting. I understand you run zone but only 1 defender rated over 60 with 8 players rated sub 40 in defense is simply a disaster in a making. To counter this defense deficiency, you would have needed superior ath/spd, which your team lacks.

And as I said in my first post, your conf is competitive. In an all sim conf, you could have gotten away with the weaknesses I mentioned above, but not in this conf and not with the non-conf schedule you put up. 

Thanks for the feedback. I know that my defense has been lacking in recent seasons but it has been a focus to try and improve in that area. As has been my Ath and Spd, however not at the expense of too many other categories. I have had a couple of bad recruiting seasons, but this past one I am very happy with and should help turn me in the right direction.

Why do you have Trent at 0?  I'd have him at +2 for sure....not many players with better than a 95 in per, and he's shooting so well from 3 (44%) that his PPWS should be very high.

Posted by jllanter on 9/22/2011 1:02:00 PM (view original):
Why do you have Trent at 0?  I'd have him at +2 for sure....not many players with better than a 95 in per, and he's shooting so well from 3 (44%) that his PPWS should be very high.

Obviously he believes that 0 means the player will take the open shot and won't force 3s. I personally would have set him to +2 but there was a long winded thread about this before. 

Interesting thought jllanter. I do look at it like tianyi says, don't want him to force the 3. But maybe since he is shooting so well it would be a good idea. Maybe I will experiment with it a bit.  I will take a look at that thread as well.

BTW for the life of me I can't figure out what PPWS means.

BTW for the life of me I can't figure out what PPWS means.

Neither can I... Points Per World Series??

bigtenwonk.blogspot.com/2006/11/ppws-points-per-weighted-shot-ppws.html

"Points per weighted shot"

Very interesting. by that token Trent is at a 1.308 my next closest guys is Henderson at 1.144. Maybe I should just ride Trent some more. Go crazy and give him 50% of my distro or something. See what heppens. Not sure I have much to lose at this point. And see what he can really do.

Trent and Henderson should both be shooting more, and Sherburne should be shooting less.