A couple of questions- interested in the answer and ensuing discussion to see what other people think.  Some of the questions are a bit more intuitive that others.

Which is more important?

1. Increasing rebounding ability of your team -OR- increasing shooting percentges for your team?

2. Balanced scoring among many players -OR-  1 or 2 players to carrying the scoring load?

3. Decreasing turnovers on offense -OR-  increasing second chance baskets?

4. Lowering opponents fg % -OR- increasing opponent's turnovers?

5. Lowering amount of fouls your team commits -OR- controlling tempo of the game?

6. Recruiting 1 very good player, leaving scholarships open -OR- filling scholarships with guys of less quality, but at least serviceable?

7. Scheduling hard non-conference to test the team against very good teams -OR- making a 10-0 non conference schedule with an acceptable RPI?

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Which is more important to focus on when building your team:

1. Increasing rebounding ability of your team -OR- increasing shooting percentges for your team?
In this new engine, it is much harder to gain a significant advantage rebounding.

2. Balanced scoring among many players -OR-  1 or 2 players to carrying the scoring load?
No matter what offense you're running, having those dominant players is more important to me.  My most successful teams have had two dominant scorers and one or guy who usually does not score.  


3. Decreasing turnovers on offense -OR-  increasing second chance baskets?
Turnovers can kill you and if you can limit them your team is going to be very consistent and win games.


4. Lowering opponents fg % -OR- increasing opponent's turnovers?
It's much harder to increase TO's and it's much more inconsistent.  


5. Lowering amount of fouls your team commits -OR- controlling tempo of the game?
I don't really get this one, they don't seem like opposites.  If I had to pick one, I would lower the amount of fouls.  Fouls are extremely similar to TOs; too many of them and you will lose the game for sure.  


6. Recruiting 1 very good player, leaving scholarships open -OR- filling scholarships with guys of less quality, but at least serviceable?
Game changers (what I call them) are harder to come by and they are the ones who are going to win you games.  You'll be able to get serviceable guys next year, but you may not be able to get that stud next year.


7. Scheduling hard non-conference to test the team against very good teams -OR- making a 10-0 non conference schedule with an acceptable RPI?
I feel like you need to test your team against the best in order to be better later in the season.  The best teams will be able to expose your weaknesses and you could figure out how to cover them up.  I'd rather learn my weaknesses in the first ten games of the season than in the 2nd round of the NT.

I like this...got any more?

I'll have a round 2 eventually.  Some of the questions are not meant to be opposites.     

Which is more important?

1. Increasing rebounding ability of your team -OR- increasing shooting percentges for your team?
For guards, I almost always prefer shooting over rebounding. For SF's, I take the best available player. For PF/C, it all depends on what openings I have currently and what is projected to be open next season. Based on that, I may recruit a rebounder or a shooter. 

2. Balanced scoring among many players -OR-  1 or 2 players to carrying the scoring load?
I always lean toward balanced. I have had players that I could have pumped up to 18-20+ ppg but I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket. My approach is it is harder to shut them all down than to shut down 1 or 2 players. I have had teams where my 12th man averaged better than 3.5 ppg. I have also had teams where my 6th man was my leading scorer.

3. Decreasing turnovers on offense -OR-  increasing second chance baskets?
Ideally, I try to do both but I tend to play a lot of slowdown so I guess I would have to say decreasing turnovers.

4. Lowering opponents fg % -OR- increasing opponent's turnovers?
I have 2 Press teams, 2 Zone teams, and 1 M2M team. I don't really focus on one approach over the other on this one.

5. Lowering amount of fouls your team commits -OR- controlling tempo of the game?
I definitely prefer lowering the amount of fouls my team commits. As I said earlier, I play a lot of slowdown and the main reason for that is to limit fouls. There are plenty of games where we still commit more than 20 fouls but I believe that would be closer to 30 if I didn't play slowdown.

6. Recruiting 1 very good player, leaving scholarships open -OR- filling scholarships with guys of less quality, but at least serviceable?
I hate to admit it, but I generally go for quantity over quality. I have tried going after the superstuds but it seems inevitable that some A+ school will swoop in and knock me off like I wasn't even there. In most cases, it would have taken most if not all my cash to fight them and to me it's just not worth it. That said, there have been many times where I left 1 or 2 schollies open in order to use the money to secure better players but not to the point where I have to juggle depth charts because of it.

7. Scheduling hard non-conference to test the team against very good teams -OR- making a 10-0 non conference schedule with an acceptable RPI?
I don't schedule just to test my team. My team is what it is regardless of who I play. It has been quoted in other threads but I try to schedule the toughest opponents I think I can beat. I try to schedule against trusted coaches who I know will put out good teams, or I look for teams that I believe will win 15+ games with a decent RPI. I will vary the difficulty level based on my team's anticipated abilities and how tough my conference is.

1.  Increase shooting %s.  Same reason as tkimble mentioned - rebounding differentials just don't change fast enough to be worth prioritizing above effective scoring.

2.  Depends on the offense, but in general I prefer a fairly balanced offense with not only at least 3 good scorers and 1 decent scorer starting but also a good mix of perimeter and inside scoring.  You have to be able to punish any team that tries to double your best scorer or move their defensive alignment too far away from equilibrium.

3.  I would consider these approximately even.  Given that, as mentioned above, rebounding ability seems to make only a minor difference in offensive rebounding it's probably smarter to focus on minimizing turnovers.  A season's worth of growth in rebounding and athleticism might make a post player good for an extra .6-.8 offensive rebounds per game if you're lucky.  A season's worth of growth in BH, PASS, SPD, ATH, and IQ can be worth 1-1.5 turnovers and applies to a larger number of players if you spread the distro out as evenly as I do.

4.  Lower FG%.  I don't play any press and frankly I'd rather focus on building a defense that can slow down scorers and doesn't have to rely on creating turnovers.

5.  Decreasing the number of fouls.  No matter how much better your team might look, if your starters foul out you're in trouble.  There's also not a whole lot you can do to control the tempo of the game (other than offensive tempo, which is only mildly correlated to controlling fouls and not at all correlated to fouls/possession).

6.  Recruiting 1 very good player.  I often carry a walk-on, and again, since I don't play press (or fastbreak), even having a walk-on and a redshirt doesn't create any significant fatigue issues.

7.  Depends on your conference.  If I play in a very strong conference I want to make sure I win at least 7 or 8 games in the non-con schedule.  If I'm going to pick up a bunch of wins in conference then I need to pump up my SOS and hopefully pick up at least 4-6 wins in the non-con.

1.  Increasing shooting percentages
I used to be more about rebounding margins, but the new engine killed that, at least the way I did it

2. Not sure- I do both

3. Decreasing turnovers

4. Lowering opponents FG%

5. Control game tempo
Over the course of the last 3 seasons for my teams I watched this a little closer.  I found the game going at the tempo I thought was best for my team improved the game outcomes better than trying to decrease the number of fouls I committed (through various means including tempo, defensive positioning, recruiting)

6. Recruiting 1 very good player
At least at DI.  I find star power translates into better seasons. There has to be a balance though, as you need to find other players too.

7. Equal importance
Or, what Weena said.

1. Increasing rebounding ability of your team -OR- increasing shooting percentges for your team?
Shooting percentage...the new engine enables one to have a whacked-out shooting percentage (50+ FG%, 40+ 3-Pt%) for the season with relative ease. Rebounding, on the other hand, appears to be somewhat capped as far as achieving game-altering results. Not sure I've seen more than a +/-8 differential since the last announced tweak to rebounding.

2. Balanced scoring among many players -OR-  1 or 2 players to carrying the scoring load?
I've always aimed for balance, in part because that seems to me to be one of the underlying premises behind the motion offense my team runs. It also seems like its difficult in the game to actually maintain "dominant" players over the course of a season. Unless you really sell-out distributions and stuff, 15+ ppg is hard to see over the course of a season in my experience.

3. Decreasing turnovers on offense -OR-  increasing second chance baskets?
Decrease turnovers..again, rebounding seems self-regulated enough that there's not going to be a huge disparity by game's end.

4. Lowering opponents fg % -OR- increasing opponent's turnovers?
Force turnovers...get the ball back to the offense so it can use those high percentages we're trying to maintain. Although I often try to limit my opponent's 3-pt%

5. Lowering amount of fouls your team commits -OR- controlling tempo of the game?
Control the tempo. I run a zone/press hybrid most nights and fouls are seldom an issue to the point of impacting the game. It's extremely rare to see a player foul out and even needing one removed for a substantial chunk of the action is a rarity. Now that I've said that, I expect tonight's box score will just bend me over...

6. Recruiting 1 very good player, leaving scholarships open -OR- filling scholarships with guys of less quality, but at least serviceable?
Fill the scholarships. There's no difference between a walk-on and an empty chair, because neither one is ever getting on the floor and doing something productive in a game. The only reason I'd leave a scholarship open was to improve my distribution of player classes, but even then I'd probably roll the dice with a scholarship offer figuring unless the kid really pans out, I'm cutting him loose in a season or two. If a kid can give me 5-7 minues as just a defensive stopper, that's fine.

7. Scheduling hard non-conference to test the team against very good teams -OR- making a 10-0 non conference schedule with an acceptable RPI?
If you can get 10-0 and an acceptable RPI, go for it. ("acceptable" in my use here means an RPI that, with a respectable conference/conf. record [10-6+] and conf. tournament showing should get you into at least the PI). That said, you have to have a pretty special team to suspect a 10-0, so I usually try to get some hard games and all humans on the non-con and figure if I can go 5-5 or better, I'm still sitting nice for an at-large with a good conference run.

1. Increasing rebounding ability of your team -OR- increasing shooting percentges for your team?
In the newer game, I'd go with shooting percentage, because I don't really see rebounding ability consistently playing out to result in the rebounding advantage that it should.

2. Balanced scoring among many players -OR-  1 or 2 players to carrying the scoring load?
Not a big fan of one carrying the load, but if we're talking about two vs. balance, I think it purely depends on the strengths/weaknesses/makeup of your team. If you have a pair of stud seniors and a significant dropoff, you should absolutely feature them a lot in your offense. If you have a team with half a dozen upperclassmen who can all fill it up, I'd absolutely go balanced.

3. Decreasing turnovers on offense -OR-  increasing second chance baskets?
I'd go TO's, because again, I don't think there's a great way in this engine to do the latter.

4. Lowering opponents fg % -OR- increasing opponent's turnovers?
Tough question -- just depends how much are we lowering fg% vs. how many more TO's we're forcing.

5. Lowering amount of fouls your team commits -OR- controlling tempo of the game?
Fouls ... there's no such thing as controlling tempo in HD.

6. Recruiting 1 very good player, leaving scholarships open -OR- filling scholarships with guys of less quality, but at least serviceable?
How many schollies are we leaving open, and how much worse are the other players? In DI I'm more likely to say schollies, as long as it's not more than 1-2.

7. Scheduling hard non-conference to test the team against very good teams -OR- making a 10-0 non conference schedule with an acceptable RPI?
Purely depends on how tough your conference is. If you're in a very tough conference, the first strategy is not very smart. If you're in a very weak conference, the first strategy is a necessity.

couple of questions- interested in the answer and ensuing discussion to see what other people think.  Some of the questions are a bit more intuitive that others.

Which is more important?

1. Increasing rebounding ability of your team -OR- increasing shooting percentges for your team?
Honestly - I hate to say this, but I really base my teams around the skill sets of the best players in the area. I'm definitely a "best player available" style recruiter - I'm not often trying to build a team to fit a particular style. That being said, I would give a slight edge to rebounding - losing games because of 2nd chance points drives me crazy.

2. Balanced scoring among many players -OR-  1 or 2 players to carrying the scoring load?
I usually have 3 or 4 main scorers - again, I base it around the strengths of my team in regards to recruiting. I usually want at least one versatile defensive stopper at a swing position....he usually doesn't have to shoot that much. There's often only one guy on my bench that does the majority of the scoring, so you'll often see 4 guys in double figures on my teams, and others that score very little but make other notable contributions.


3. Decreasing turnovers on offense -OR-  increasing second chance baskets?
Probably decreasing turnovers, though they are fairly even for me. My teams always need to be able to rebound and shoot free throws. However, with the amount of full court press teams I see, good passing and ballhandling are pretty essential, and poor ratings in these areas can cause a team to lose often against a lesser FCP opponent

4. Lowering opponents fg % -OR- increasing opponent's turnovers?
Lowering opponents fg percent is more important to my style of D. I don't like to run presses at all - it's more of a personal preference for me

5. Lowering amount of fouls your team commits -OR- controlling tempo of the game?
Depends on the depth of my bench. With a deeper bench, I want to control tempo. With a shallower bench, I want to lower fouls. Again, I really take every team on a season-by-season basis and change my strategy depending on the strengths of the roster.

6. Recruiting 1 very good player, leaving scholarships open -OR- filling scholarships with guys of less quality, but at least serviceable?
I always have a place for role players if necessary, but I prefer them to be transfers if they look like a career backup (so I'm not stuck with said player for 4 seasons). I'll sometimes leave 1 walk-on if needed, no more than that.

7. Scheduling hard non-conference to test the team against very good teams -OR- making a 10-0 non conference schedule with an acceptable RPI?.
I always schedule a very difficult OOC schedule. I'm not comfortable with the volatility of the engine to expect a 10-0 non-conference run (especially when i'm still fiddling w/ my lineup, seeing what works). I believe that if I can go 5-5 non-conference with the tough schedule that I usually have, I can pretty much always make the NT.