I am a First Year Coach and I am looking trying to study successful programs to see what makes them tick. I have noticed that some programs (Dominican in perticular) can get their players to increase their ratings rather quickly. What can I do in my practice plan minutes to get better results?

ks,

I am by no means an expert. Hopefully some of the better, more seasoned vets will chime in on your thread and offer their advice. For me, looking at your squad, I see a team that is very capable of doing well this season. Your rpi, already, is very good and with your conference looking strong, should hover in the 20 - 50 range all year.

Your players appear to be developing on par with some of the other schools. A player's work ethic, as well as their potential, plays a huge role in the amount of improvement during the year. Your freshman and sophomores (until the sim engine is updated) will always show the most improvement. They will improve, usually, anywhere between 20 and 80 points in a given season. Once again though this is dependent upon their playing time, Work Ethic, and potential.

You should have gotten an email from your assistant coach early in the season (exhibitions) that talk about a player's potential. Limited, of course, means that that player is "maxed" out in the category. High Upside means they will be able to gain many points in that rating during the year.

As far as practice plans go, I just go with my gut instinct about a player. Rarely will I schedule any time for say a Center to work on their perimeter game or a point guard's blocking ability, unless they have an upside potential.

You will notice as you put some seasons under your belt the tendencies of the game. Prestige may also play a part in a team's ability to progress faster. The higher grade in prestige the better the vision is of that school. You cannot see the same recruits with a C prestige as Dominican can with their (I assume) A or A+ prestige.

Your team looks solid. When recruiting keep Work Ethic in mind as well as the other categories.

Good luck and thanks for joining the Whatif family.

Bigtex has some excellent advice. I would just add a couple of things.

- Don't put any practice minutes into any skill below 15 (some coaches say below 20).

- Only put 7 minutes into any skill you want to simply maintain except LP and Per where 3-4 minutes is enough. You need a minimum of 10 in FT to keep it from dropping. Some coaches have gotten away with less but 10 is safe.

- Only practice one offense and one defense. Most coaches put 20-25 minutes into each and use the rest for individual player development.

Good Luck and welcome.

Good stuff... I'll add this and take it for what it's worth:

After players reach limited potential in a category, I've had players lose points w/ it set to 7, so I set it to 8 when I want that category to maintain. Now if my assistant sends me an email that Joe Blow is maxed out in that skill, then I'll drop to 7. I treat FT the same... I set it to 8 at limited potential. As for PER and LP... I set those to 4.

Conditioning is where you put your extra points. If you can take it to 20, do so. It helps ATH, SPD, STA, and DUR. And remember ATH and SPD increases slower than other skills, so much the reason Conditioning needs maxed as much as possible.

Then stick to the cores for that position. I try to grow well rounded players and emphasize passing and defense (I have Passing and Footwork at a minimum of 12 for all my players). So 15 minimum for cores except for SF where 12-14 in cores is usually good enough to get them to where they need to be by their JR year.

Then get ready for your guards to practice LP and centers to practice BH in their SR years...