This is fastbreak/zone D3 team.   I plan on running a 3-2 most of the time, adjusting the +/- on the opponent.   How do you think these guys will pan out as a the starting front court:

Name	Pos.	GPA	FG%	FT%	A	SPD	REB	DE	BLK	LP	PE	BH	P	WE	ST	DU	TOT
Henry Ireland	C	2.67	66.3	66.1	40	40	86	40	75	75	11	20	40	28	90	40	433
George Rozek	SG	2.95	47.6	65.2	80	40	30	85	25	60	11	25	25	39	80	74	453

 All opinions are welcome.

I don't love either player in the front court, but Henry Ireland is definitely the better player, IMHO. Rozek's athleticism and defense are intriguing but his rebounding will just kill you in a 3-2. You'll end up giving up way too many second chance opportunities.

Rozek is a trap player. He has some eye opening attributes for DIII but the total package leaves him without a position. He is slower than I would like and doesn't pass or handle the ball well enough to be strong at small forward and his rebounding is to low to be all that useful in the front court. If I had to choose a place for him, though, I would rather play him at power forward than I would at small forward. But that isn't really the question, so see paragraph one.

That looks like it came from the recruit comparison - these guys are incoming freshmen, right?  Are you starting them this season?  Did you leave out potentials intentionally?  You're confusing me, TJ.

they are feshmen he has signed... i think the numbers are his projections of thier potential.

teej, i have a similar player to rozek on my gboro team.  (also 3-2 zone)
i have struggled with how to use him, and more than that... to evaluate his impact.  ive  used him mostly as sf and backup at pf.  i think i may have started him once or twice at pf to bolster interior d against a weaker rebounding team.

also,  i grabbed an even more extreme kid at whitter... similar type player,  but 1 pa  !!!  will 1 pa kill me  and my motion offense?  i guess well see.
and, like you, ive contemplated whether that player could play pf in my press D

Posted by llamanunts on 3/4/2014 11:56:00 AM (view original):
That looks like it came from the recruit comparison - these guys are incoming freshmen, right?  Are you starting them this season?  Did you leave out potentials intentionally?  You're confusing me, TJ.

The #'s are what they project out to be.

I am no longer confused and you can just lump me in with milwood.

hmmm...  im still not sure...
the rozek players are either

• a player without a position (trap player)  and is really not worth the scholly
• or
• moneyball

the tricky thing is that sometimes its hard to isloate the impact of his defensive skills,  especially in a zone.  
at least for rozek he does bring some offensive abilty that you can evaluate and also you should be able to evaluate his impact on rebounding to some extent

sure would be nice if you had a 99re center to pair him with.

I had a hard time finding post players I like this recruiting period so I tried to use Rozek as a a balancer.  The premise was that his high  ATH and DEF would average out lower scores from my to look for post players  with only high REB and SB.

Defensively, I think the pair will be okay.  They aren't elite  but I think they are acceptable.  Averaged they are a 60 ATH, 62 DEF, 50 BLK.  I think they'll both be able to score a little as well.   I have had some success with post scoring in the FB recently and I want to see how effective these guys are in that offense.

I knew Rozek was going to be a bad rebuilder (he is probably the equivalent to a 50 ATH 50 REB)  so I wanted a high REB center.     The mistake I made (I think) is Ireland's ATH.   If I could have snagged a truly elite rebounder (60+ ATH, 90+ REB)  Rozek's weakness would be diminished.  I think.  Of course, I couldn't find any 60/90 guys, that's what started this!

Anyway, we'll see.  The pair will be backups for 2 seasons, maybe by the time they are JR's I'll have added a better big or two.

Thanks for the input guys.

gotta have great rebounders and shot blockers in a zone.......def is nice but gotta get the ball back protect the rim

I never understood why it would make sense to play any other defense except press when you already run a fastbreak.  Once you're already bringing in the speed you need for the fastbreak, you might as well put it to good use in the defense also.  And if you run press, you can play a 3 guard lineup and dont have to worry so much about rebounding because you'll be getting steals.
I'm curious to know what other people think about this.

I do to minimize fatigue issues.   In the fastbreak/zone you can get  more minutes out of your starters and you don't need to play 11/12 players.  

With that being said, I am not having a ton of success with the combo.

To echo Dan2044's point: Fastbreak requires speed. Zone requires rebounding. SPD and REB are negatively correlated. So, the more you load up on speed for your offense, the more difficult it is to get the rebounding you need to succeed with the zone.

TJ, I'd play him a SF. His reb will be a liability for you at PF or C in the zone. He will probably draw lots of fouls at SF vs PF and that Ath combined with that LP will make him a dangerous scorer regardless of the lower BH and passing. I've had a guard with garbage BH and pass, but looked a lot like rozek (more speed less reb) and he was a beast of a scorer at SG.

Can't help you with the fastbreak combo question as I've never run it.