For subs is it better to use the target minutes or fatigue method? I am a new coach and would appreciate any help

I don't think anyone really uses target minutes. go with fatigue.

Using target minutes is best for when you've promised playing time to a recruit.  I've found that to be a questionable idea depending on how badly you need a recruit.

If you look through your play-by-plays you might find that you have lost some games because your starters were tired and started missing shots or lost their man on defense.  When that happened to me, I switched to fatigue and haven't looked back. 

I use exhibition and the first couple of non-con games to adjust PT for any promises I may have made, but mostly I try to avoid making promises.

i think more people than you realize use target minutes, although the general sentiment (and easier one to use) is definitely fatigue.

ok thanks for the input so far. And i haven't promised anyone playing time so i tried target minutes the first game and this time i will try the fatigue.  And for my two best players would it be better to sub them when tired or getting tired?

too many other factors to really give you a definitive answer.  how many deep are you playing? how much better are your starters than your bench players?  how are your best players stamina?  will you be playing uptempo, slowdown, normal?  what is your defensive set? etc

realistically youre going to have to tinker with it all season until you figure out what combination of things is going to suit your team the best....that is what is so great about this game...there is no "answer" and there is no instant gratification.  the good news is once you figure out what is best for your team it will be a lot easier to recruit for those settings and figure out where to have your team set at in the future

ok thanks a lot

I use target minutes now and then - mostly to fulfill a promise if I cant do it with fatigue - for example, if you want to give a kid a start and just 10 minutes, target is the way to go

for me, it is rare

Fatigue is better, but I use minutes for almost all of my teams because I tend to sign a couple of recruits every season for the bare minmum of phone call, fr start, scholarship to save up cash. 

From what I understand, if you have to use target minutes (like when you promise a start to a freshman), make sure that the total amount of minutes that the players are playing is lower than 200. I understand that things get really screwy when a person sets target minutes for over 200 minutes. 

Posted by bow2dacowz on 5/9/2011 5:37:00 PM (view original):
too many other factors to really give you a definitive answer.  how many deep are you playing? how much better are your starters than your bench players?  how are your best players stamina?  will you be playing uptempo, slowdown, normal?  what is your defensive set? etc

realistically youre going to have to tinker with it all season until you figure out what combination of things is going to suit your team the best....that is what is so great about this game...there is no "answer" and there is no instant gratification.  the good news is once you figure out what is best for your team it will be a lot easier to recruit for those settings and figure out where to have your team set at in the future

What Bow said.  If you have a short bench or a lot of freshmen, you might want to play the starters until they're tired.  The ideal situation is to have enough bench that the most you have to play a kid is "Getting Tired".

Like I said, go through your PBPs after games.  If you find yourself losing leads late in games and the opponent didn't change his set or tempo, look at which of your players are missing shots more and the "tired" notations in the substitution notes to figure out  if you need to scale back a guy's minutes.  it's also a good reason to recruit guys with high STAM when you're playing FB or press.  On the flip side of that coin, you can make up a bit for excessive fatigue/low stam by playing slow down.

I used targets and it killed me in my first round NT game. I had a big man get 2 fouls in the first minutes of the half and he sat almost the entire first half. He ended up playing almost the last 10 minutes of the game at Tired/Very Tired and skewed my substitute pattern around. To top it off my PG ended up playing the last 10 minutes at Tired also ..... ended up losing to the 4th seed by 3 in a game that was very winnable.
Needless to say after reading through the forums on the subject, I'm changing to Fatigue settings for the upcoming season. Lesson learned.

Posted by ixolabrat on 5/10/2011 1:57:00 AM (view original):
I used targets and it killed me in my first round NT game. I had a big man get 2 fouls in the first minutes of the half and he sat almost the entire first half. He ended up playing almost the last 10 minutes of the game at Tired/Very Tired and skewed my substitute pattern around. To top it off my PG ended up playing the last 10 minutes at Tired also ..... ended up losing to the 4th seed by 3 in a game that was very winnable.
Needless to say after reading through the forums on the subject, I'm changing to Fatigue settings for the upcoming season. Lesson learned.

this can happen, but with the downtick in fatigue it is less common except in extreme situations like you described.

however, you can somewhat mitigate these kinds of circumstances by doing what was mentioned earlier and making sure that your total minutes allotted fall well below 200.  The leftover minutes at the end of the game will generally go to the starters, but odds are if a guy gets 2 quick fouls in the first 5 minutes of the first half and is set to 14-18 minutes instead of 24-28 that he probaby hasn't been playing the whole 2nd half and can probably handle being on the court for those last few minutes that are given to him. 

I use target minutes, but I wouldn't advise it, generally.  There needs to be a special set of conditions for it to work effectively.  If any of your key players are foul prone, it will not work well.  If you play a fast tempo, it will cause you problems. Target minutes is best suited  for half-court oriented defensive teams that don't foul much and play slow.  You also need to have a good feel for how the fatigue effect works and what results you will get with various stamina ratings, game tempos, and style matchups.  I find it enjoyable, but you probably have to be a micromanager to like it and get good results.