As the country begins to go in quarantine and many newcomers will join HD because of the amount of time on there hands, I thought I would create a forum for newcomers and veterans to interact and for veterans to give some advice.

My advice for a newcomer would be to reach out to a mentor (could be me if you want), read through the guide bookmarked at the top of the HD forums, and read through the forums every so often. The best way I learned about HD though, was by going on google and searching "_____ Hoops Dynasty". The ____ represents a topic of the game I was curious about. For instance, I would look up "advice for newbies hoops dynasty" or if I was specifically interested in redshirting, "redshirting advice hoops dynasty" and I found a lot of great forums that talked about that stuff.

The biggest learning curve, in my opinion, for new coaches is realizing what a good player is. My biggest struggle was finding out what actual ratings are good, bad, and average. My teams generally are very athletic/speed focused because I follow these minimums mostly: For D3 I rarely recruit someone who's athletic/SP composite (sum of their ATH/SP ratings) will be below 120 for PG, SG, or SFs. For PFs and Cs, I rarely recruit someone who's athleticism is below 65. That's my 2 cents.

Hope this forum helps!

Has anybody noticing a "rush" of new players? I'm wandering if the #'s show this happening? Anybody looked at the worlds and if the Div III #'s have changed?

Posted by skinndogg on 3/26/2020 4:17:00 PM (view original):
Has anybody noticing a "rush" of new players? I'm wandering if the #'s show this happening? Anybody looked at the worlds and if the Div III #'s have changed?

Knight just started a few days ago, and has nearly 100 coaches in D3, which is higher than its been for a while. Tarkanian will start shortly, and we’ll see if it’s a trend or a fluke. Not necessarily a rush, but there are probably some new folks. It’s probably good for the forums to have threads like this at the top.

Advice for New Players in 5 Minutes:
1. Here's my crash course. Recruiting high ATH/DE players works really well. It affects so many aspects of the game. 1 bad defensive player can be endlessly exploited in a man (this game is very gameplanning intensive), but 1 bad offensive player you can just not give the ball. Think of basketball as a 4 part game: Offense, Defense, Ball Handling, and Rebounding. Look at some Top25 teams in your world and see what their seniors look like. Most guard starters on Top25 teams will be either good at defense and either scoring or ball handling. A point guard with high PA (and good BH as well) can be super useful for an offense. It's the most important position. A high ATH/SP/DE/BH/PA PG is the most useful player in HD.

2. Read this and this to learn the mechanics of the game. Gotta learn the mechanics before you perfect strategy, and it's maybe a little tedious but it is totally worth it.

3. Learn about how the ratings work together. It's often nice to start by looking at some formulas if you're a math/numbers person. Even if you aren't this post written by yours truly have some pretty good extensive stuff about that. I have a spreadsheet made for that. Don't just use it but understand it.

Posted by cubcub113 on 3/26/2020 7:05:00 PM (view original):
Advice for New Players in 5 Minutes:
1. Here's my crash course. Recruiting high ATH/DE players works really well. It affects so many aspects of the game. 1 bad defensive player can be endlessly exploited in a man (this game is very gameplanning intensive), but 1 bad offensive player you can just not give the ball. Think of basketball as a 4 part game: Offense, Defense, Ball Handling, and Rebounding. Look at some Top25 teams in your world and see what their seniors look like. Most guard starters on Top25 teams will be either good at defense and either scoring or ball handling. A point guard with high PA (and good BH as well) can be super useful for an offense. It's the most important position. A high ATH/SP/DE/BH/PA PG is the most useful player in HD.

2. Read this and this to learn the mechanics of the game. Gotta learn the mechanics before you perfect strategy, and it's maybe a little tedious but it is totally worth it.

3. Learn about how the ratings work together. It's often nice to start by looking at some formulas if you're a math/numbers person. Even if you aren't this post written by yours truly have some pretty good extensive stuff about that. I have a spreadsheet made for that. Don't just use it but understand it.

6.8.0

A+ post cub. Agreed with this.

Posted by skinndogg on 3/26/2020 4:17:00 PM (view original):
Has anybody noticing a "rush" of new players? I'm wandering if the #'s show this happening? Anybody looked at the worlds and if the Div III #'s have changed?

Well I'll be damned, Rupp D3 up to 83 coaches.

Local bars and restaurants are closing down. Major airlines getting gov't bailouts. Whatifsports.com THRIVING.

Don't forget about STAMINA either. Very important part of any position - especially if you're running a Full Court Press defense or Fastbreak offense. Basically a must on those teams. Sometimes I look at ATH/SP/DE so much I forget that it's all relative to how good the ST is. But a great ST player still needs those other important attributes too or they'll just be playing more minutes unproductively because of the lack of skills or physique. Hope that helps.

When I started I focused on shooting and Work Ethic. Like CubCub said, if you focus on Athleticism and Defense you will have a good team. Work Ethic is not that important as long as it is over 40. It just helps people reach their potential faster, but once they hit their maximum it has no function. I always use 20 minutes of conditioning on each player, and 20 to 25 minutes on the offense and on the defense.

Posted by chapelhillne on 3/27/2020 4:51:00 PM (view original):
When I started I focused on shooting and Work Ethic. Like CubCub said, if you focus on Athleticism and Defense you will have a good team. Work Ethic is not that important as long as it is over 40. It just helps people reach their potential faster, but once they hit their maximum it has no function. I always use 20 minutes of conditioning on each player, and 20 to 25 minutes on the offense and on the defense.

Really? Out of curiosity, why do you set those guidelines for conditioning, offense, and defense? For instance, some players may need very little conditioning improvement, but their PER, LP, BH, and P is green.

Here are my lowkey tips for more experienced players that are also super useful to new ones:
1. Stamina not only important for all players in fb/press but is also so important for your best 2/3 players in any system. I won a DI title--and this team dominated with 31-3 vs. #2 SOS--with only 2 truly great players. Clark and Hartman. And they were all I needed with 98 and 99 stamina. Hartman put up 19 points/4 boards/3 assists in 29 minutes on Fairly Fresh and was a 3rd team All-American. Clark put up 19 points/3 boards/5 assists/2 steals in 31 minutes on Fairly Fresh and was CPOY and 1st team All-American. And I ran exclusively slowdown. My next leading scorer had 7 and in the title game they scored something like 50 of my 65 points in a blowout win.
2. The most lowkey important core ratings are a speed or LP that exceeds the baseline for the position. Clark is a great example of that as he was a truly elite scorer with 46 LP at the 1. Meanwhile, this guy Kimmel is the most effective low post scorer I've ever had in DI: he scored 18 points on 53% shooting (with a massive .51 FTA/FGA stat as well) against the #1 SOS schedule. I've seen a lot of guys with 100 ath/ 96 LP never score more than 10 points with that efficiency at D1 (I have a whole list but here's one, another, this dude who either scored 7-10 PPG with decent efficiency or 13 points with poor efficiency who just didn't have the speed to be a truly great scorer). It's Kimmel's ridiculous 73 speed at the 4 that sets him apart. Note he had poor stamina so he could only play 24 minutes but still stuffed 18 PPG in the hoop. And this goes without saying but 95-100 speed at the 3 torches. I split Hanson and Parker at the 3 (just to keep people guessing with their doubleteams) and would give the one at the 3 maybe twice the distro of the other. It looks like they each scored 15 PPG but it was more like 20 PPG in 26 minutes whenever they were at the 3, and a little less when they were at the 2. And this is with ridiculous efficiency--538 PTS in 480 possesions and 501 PTS in 470 possesions. They're great players outside of the speed, but if they only had 80 speed each we wouldn't have won the title that year. So sometimes putting a true guard like Hanson at the 3 can be a really good idea. I did it in the title game and he scored like 30 XD. Note how bad both of their staminas are which is what prevented them from averaging 20 like Clark and Hartman, but I had a much better team around them so it was fine.

The only worry I have with a few of the things you mentioned is that newbies play D3 and a lot of this is very D1 centric. Like the example players you showed aren't even close to the caliber of player you'll get at D3, and another example, is in D3 you'll basically never have a 95 SP at the 3.

If a new player is reading this, chances are this advice is already too late, but IMO the biggest problem brand new players have - by far - is scouting efficiently. Recruiting is a lot tougher when you don’t know how to maximize your pool, and how to build it. So try to avoid pressing all the pretty scouting buttons until you know what you’re doing. Either get a mentor, or read through a thread like this one (D3 specific advice on top of page 3) before you start looking for next year’s diamonds in the rough. It isn’t the only way, and you’ll see some make a pitch for other methods in the thread, but it’s a good place to start.

Posted by shoe3 on 3/27/2020 10:06:00 PM (view original):
If a new player is reading this, chances are this advice is already too late, but IMO the biggest problem brand new players have - by far - is scouting efficiently. Recruiting is a lot tougher when you don’t know how to maximize your pool, and how to build it. So try to avoid pressing all the pretty scouting buttons until you know what you’re doing. Either get a mentor, or read through a thread like this one (D3 specific advice on top of page 3) before you start looking for next year’s diamonds in the rough. It isn’t the only way, and you’ll see some make a pitch for other methods in the thread, but it’s a good place to start.

+1. When I was a brand new played, I talked to shoe before I scouted and used that for the first few seasons, then I talked to other coaches and eventually found using public camps more effective. I would recommend talking to a mentor before you scout. At LEAST, read that forum.

The number one rule at D3, although it is counter intuitive, don’t scout D3!!!! Primarily as a newbie, scout D2 and some D1.

Posted by Sportsbulls on 3/27/2020 9:47:00 PM (view original):
The only worry I have with a few of the things you mentioned is that newbies play D3 and a lot of this is very D1 centric. Like the example players you showed aren't even close to the caliber of player you'll get at D3, and another example, is in D3 you'll basically never have a 95 SP at the 3.

In DIII its 25 LP in a PG not 50, and 70 speed at the SF not 95, and 86 stamina and not 99. I just have good player examples to support my point in DI.

Posted by cubcub113 on 3/27/2020 10:51:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Sportsbulls on 3/27/2020 9:47:00 PM (view original):
The only worry I have with a few of the things you mentioned is that newbies play D3 and a lot of this is very D1 centric. Like the example players you showed aren't even close to the caliber of player you'll get at D3, and another example, is in D3 you'll basically never have a 95 SP at the 3.

In DIII its 25 LP in a PG not 50, and 70 speed at the SF not 95, and 86 stamina and not 99. I just have good player examples to support my point in DI.

6.8.0

Yeah. Agreed. Just thought I would clarify a bit there.