Especially at D1, can the press win consistently? I have several teams spread out between all three divisions. I have some success but can't really get over the hump in the tourney. I notice that most of the best teams run M2M with a few that have the combo. Have any of you really had a great pressing team for a consistent amount of time or is it just hit and miss? Thanks. 

Yes, the press can most definitely win and win big. UVA and Va Tech in Allen have both won titles in the last few seasons running press, and I see top-tier teams running it all the time in DI and DII. It just takes a little more strategy and planning to win big with it than it used to (and rightfully so).

A lot more planning, with little more strategy.  Stamina is now as important as any other aspect of the press.  The bonus?  It doesn't wear down the other team.  So basically if you can recruit a team that would win regardless of what defense you're running, you can do just fine with the press.

no

Yes, but you need stamina and can't have 2-3 walkons, and you probably need balanced classes.

new coaches - take EVERYTHING you read on these forums with a grain of salt - just because a coach has won a few titles, does not mean a short answer is anything near gospel - can the press win - indeed it can - I would wager the FCP defense won a couple of hundred games last night alone & of the last ten worlds, that is 30 national titles, probably one or more was won with FCP - I am too lazy to research that.

Now is it the best way to win?  I don't know.  I would have said 18 months ago yes, I am more inclined to say no these days.  If you held a gun to my head, I would say the best way to win national titles these days is m2m, with zone being the worst way, and press / press combos somewhere in the middle.

I think zone is probably the best way for new coaches or sim teams to play however.

Man gives the thinking coach who is trying to gain every possible edge in each game the most room to maneveur, zone and fcp tend to play defense on a team average basis - so a 70 def guy and a 20 def guy play 45 def together, while in m2m, that 20 def guy is exposed, while the 70 def guy should be a stopper.

The problem I see with changing positions around to find matchups, is I usually have a player I want playing PG, or C, of SF - in real life, I can put my stopper PG on the opposing team's PF if I want,  in this game I have to move my PG to PF in order to do that, then I have to hope the opposing coach does not move or hide is PF.  That is why I have asked seble to give the game the ability to match up defensively, if the software is too hard to generate, even just one matchup per game would be ok ... real life, that is sort of how it is done anyhow, you get your matchup, and then everything else sort of has to be a certain way, based on size and speed of your guys.

These teams seem to be doing fine with the press:

http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/IQ.aspx?tid=4191


http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/History.aspx?tid=4832

http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/IQ.aspx?tid=3778

Those are just a few examples, with the first one winning the NC last season in Rupp. If your team is superior in talent, you can pretty much beat win in any off/def. Personally, the press creates more variability, allowing you to upset better teams but also allows lesser teams to knock you around, which makes sense if you think about it in real life. Big problem for a press team is fouls and how your team offense is generated. If you are running on one offensive stud carrying you and he fouls out early, more likely than not, you lose. 

I think the press can win in D1 if you have a high-prestige team and you can get the high-level recruits. Winning with the FCP is much more difficult with lower-prestige teams in D1 that it used to be. The reason is the current recruit generation. It is now much tougher at the lower levels of D1 to recruit players who will have the speed and athleticism to play the press effectively, while also having the stamina and defensive ability necessary to avoid fouling like crazy.

I speak from some experience here: I'm in the process of pulling the plug on a fastbreak experiment at Air Force in Smith, which I unfortunately started just before the new recruit generation was implemented. The main roadblock I've run into is that, even attempting to recruit for speed alone, and ignoring just about everything else, I still wasn't able to build a team that had a sizable speed advantage over other teams. And against the high-level teams my squad was still slower. Not recruiting for defense and stamina caused the team to commit foul after foul, even playing zone with high IQs.

Speed does not seem to me to be as evenly distributed across the recruit universe as some other attributes are. You can build a great defensive team pretty easily at a low prestige level--it's much tougher to build a team that's as fast as the top-prestige teams, much less one that's faster. So I think competing in D1 with a low-prestige team using FCP is a very tall order.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and insight. 

Posted by tianyi7886 on 12/1/2010 11:40:00 AM (view original):
These teams seem to be doing fine with the press:

http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/IQ.aspx?tid=4191


http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/History.aspx?tid=4832

http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/IQ.aspx?tid=3778

All 3 of these teams have an A+ prestige and should be fairing well regardless of the defense they run. Just about anyone who has at least five or so seasons under their belt should be able to recruit well enough to run their defense efficiently with an A+ prestige. A better example would be say a B or C prestige fairing well with the press. I think prior to the new engine coming out, press was levels far above man and zone if you had the IQ's to run it. Nowadays, I am MUCH more comfortable running Man defense. I don't care too much for zone and press is too wishy-washy. I think press has been tweaked and improved since the intial release of the new engine, but for me, Man is still the way to go. You can effectively win with any defense and any offense as OR suggested. Zone is easier to run for newcomers though as OR also stated imo. Man is the way to go defensively.

I agree that man is the best defense but the press is winnable. And about the above teams, ldhope started with B+ prestige and built it into A+, which was done after the update. The other 2 teams did indeed have A+ or A prestige for alot of seasons so the recruiting benefits did carry over. 

I disagree with OR about the zone.  I have tried it and found it wanting, the new engine's FG% is way too high (against any defense, but much moreso against a zone) negating any potential advantages zone might have.  Look at the record FG%s being set in all worlds these days.  The teams I see winning with zone aren't doing so because their defenses are more efficient (in terms of PPP) than the press or M2M but because their offenses are fantastic.  

Press works extremely well if you have high STA and IQ, as others have pointed out.  With a good, veteran team I think the press has an advantage, all else equal.  But if you like large classes like I do, you know you're going to struggle for a couple season with young players in a press, whereas you might not lose as many of those games running M2M.  Man seems to work well with the widest variety of players.