http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=6244

Why is this team having such an awful season?  Skunk please don't tell me I recruited terrible players, i am not looking for recruiting help here, I am trying to figure out how to make what I have better.

I thought this would be a NT team for sure, but now the PIT isn't even in view for me.  I am at a loss on this crew.

http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=6244

Thanks colonels.  Maybe that's my issue, I don't know how to use a computer. 

Very interesting roster.  My teams rarely have 2 players that can shoot both outside/inside. You have a slew of them!

I set a lineup without viewing yours.  I had Costa instead of Morelli based on his better rebounding. But Morelli's doing quite well so it could be a 'wash'

You've primarily used 2 defenses.....0 and -3.    I only use -3 when I'm a big underdog and my opponents are strong inside. I  never use 0.   I range from -2 to +2 for most opponents, depending on their strengths.

What's your distribution?

never using 0 seems like a silly, incongruous move al. if your opponent warrants a balanced D, why would you eliminate one choice? 

Another thing to consider...team chemistry.   There's no setting for that, of course, but this  is a mathematical game. Sometimes one set of numbers just "work together" better than others.  I've had underperforming teams that improved through a simple lineup change. On paper the change didn't seem wise, but the new "group of numbers" just played better

Not enough ath, no true pg to distribute to your shooters. 

I don't like Wrobelweski starting at SG - his ATH is way too low for a SG. He is shooting poor, so maybe should have less distro. He also can't defend. Lawrence is, IMO , a better SG starter than him. If you are intent on starting him, move him to the point and move skoropski to the SG.

Solokowski should definitely be playing more....he's had great FG% for all 3 seasons, and has good LP.

No point in giving Whitfield even 10 minutes if your goal is to compete right now - he might have potential, but he's terrible right now.

Bad news - You don't have a PG that can distribute. You don't have much athleticism, meaning that you are not getting to the free throw line more often than your opponents (which is a bad thing, as you are playing a mediocre schedule.)  You also are not hitting your free throws that often.

Good news - You do have a TON of versatility, so use that to your advantage..try new things with these players. Move them around.

So, If I'm not happy with my team's performance (as was the case w/ last seaon's Longwood team), I experiment w/ different lineups. Last season I eventually settled on a lineup with 3 dominating bigs (the only one with P and BH started at SF), a primarily defensive PG, and a SG that was the main scorer. I benched guys that looked good on paper but didn't contribute. Eventually we made the sweet 16 after a very slow start. While our passing sucked, we dominated on the boards, and got to the foul line a whole lot.

You have such a versatile team, you should be changing lineups game-by-game to exploit opponents weaknesses.

2 options for lineups to consider would be

better defensive, ATH lineup
C - Costa (more ATH, better defender)
PF - Moretti
SF - Simmons
SG - Lawrence
PG - Skorupski

another intersting option
C - Moretti
PF  - Solokowski
SF - Lawrence
SG - Skorupski
PG - Wroblewski (with lower distro)

Also Your RPI will improve throughout the season.(10 human OOC opponents will do that). You played  Gannon close - but look at what he did (bvb is a good gameplanner) - he gave a lot of distro to his SG, who had a competitive advantage over your SG. Change around lineups to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen against good opponents.

Thanks all, the computer went off-line for almost 24 hours and I wasn't able to stay up to date.  Can't wait to try some of this.  Thanks.

+1 to everything al said. team chemistry is the name of the game. also, though it may be irrational or whatever, i personally hate running the 0 and pretty much never play it. why? i don't know. it just ****** me off.

YOu definitely can make your team better. Wroblewski should come off the bench and put Lawrencein the starting lineup. I'd start Moretti at SF and go with Costa and Sokolowski as my bigs. For the backups I'd mix and match at the 4 and 5 positions. If you look at my WVU team I've made an 8 man rotation work very well out of necessity, and in the past despite having 10+ schoarlship players I have gone with 3 man rotations at PF/C or even at PG/SG. It's about getting your best players maximum time on the court. Not trying to adhere to the accepted guidelines of having a 10 man rotation where you have a specific starter and backup for each position. I tend to go 3 deep at every position on the depth chart just to create different looks throughout a game. So my starting SG will often be listed as either my 3rd string PG or SF and which allows me to showcase many different lineups and possible exploit some matchups.

So if I were you my depth chart would look like this:

PG - Skorupski, Wroblewski, Lawrence
SG- Lawrence, Waller, Simmons
SF- Moretti, Simmons, Lawrence, Whitfield
PF- Sokolowski, Russo, Moretti, Costa
C- Costa, Russo, Moretti, Sokolowski

I'd also even flirt with starting Lawrence at PG and Skorupski at SG. I like bringing Simmons off the bench because you have enough guys who can score in your starting lineup so by bringing Simmons off the bench you can load up his distro and let him be a dominating bench scorer.

Well I decided to start from scratch and clear the distros and depth chart and start over.  Two things I learned- 1) I need to recruit smarter 2) I look at this game in too linear of a fashion sometimes and its hard for me to adjust my thinking.  We will see how things go with the new adjustments.

Also, one issue nobody mentioned is that I have a lot of international players.  The language barrier could be the problem.

who the eff is backboy and anyone tried clikcing on his link yet?

"Also, one issue nobody mentioned is that I have a lot of international players.  The language barrier could be the problem."

Hahahaha