Do I attack their starters with bad defensive ratings? Attack their lowest stamina? Attack their low speed/ath guys with my high speed/ath scorers?

I wish I knew. I continually lose against press teams at DII even though I consistently have faster guards (including one with 97 speed). All I hear is that it's about speed, stamina, and IQ but even when I'm better in all 3 I still lose.

The best part about playing against a press is that you can load up even more on your best scorers and there's nothing they can do about it to counteract it.  That's my advice to you.  Give a greater % of distro to your best scorers and let them go to work.

1) Almost never go uptempo especially on the road, the only time Id do it is @ home with clearly superior team; 2) Go small start 3 Gs with good BH/P and a PF and C or even 3 Gs with a SF at PF and a PF/C at the 5; 3) If your PG is uber talented up his disto; 4) Give more distribution to your highest IQed players on offense.

Posted by udm_mike on 12/9/2010 9:09:00 AM (view original):
The best part about playing against a press is that you can load up even more on your best scorers and there's nothing they can do about it to counteract it.  That's my advice to you.  Give a greater % of distro to your best scorers and let them go to work.

This. I usually go heavy inside, and give my good post players the lion's share of the distro. When I used to coach press teams it was what I feared the most, because the main way to counteract a team pounding you iniside--sagging the defense back--really reduces the press' turnover-generating potential. 

Use your depth, play at a normal tempo, and foul them out.  Set your sub rating to fairly fresh and move your guys in and out, and before you know it you will be shooting 30 free throws in the game. 

I agree with these things and would add I sometimes shoot less 3s.  It seems like the guards are always 'in a trap' or something... so this goes along with giving the bigs more love.  I think if you have the depth and stamina going uptempo is a good idea (makes them foul more, and foul out).  Of course I have one fastbreak team so it make a little more sense for that team. 

Thanks for the input. A lot of these things - using my depth, drawing more fouls, shooting less 3's, are things I try to do every game because that's how I built my team. I've been wary of going small, but I'll give it a shot sometime.

Posted by mmt0315 on 12/9/2010 9:26:00 AM (view original):
1) Almost never go uptempo especially on the road, the only time Id do it is @ home with clearly superior team; 2) Go small start 3 Gs with good BH/P and a PF and C or even 3 Gs with a SF at PF and a PF/C at the 5; 3) If your PG is uber talented up his disto; 4) Give more distribution to your highest IQed players on offense.

Not sure I agree with #1. Like brianxavier said, if I have equal or better speed/stamina/depth compared to the pressing team then I sometimes prefer to go uptempo...their guys will tire before yours will(assuming you don't run press too)and more possessions gives you a better chance of getting them in early foul trouble(and your team in the early bonus).

Press teams foul a lot and tire quickly, take advantage of that if you can.

i think the answer largely lies in what has changed about the press in the new engine. the damaging impact of fatigue went up a lot - although seble has given some cryptic message about tempo not affecting the fatigue of the other team, i would assume possessions still do. but the biggest change is their vulnerability to fouls, which was pretty much out of control for a while there, and now is still serious. uptempo is the obvious answer, but im not sure it works - when i ran press, i absolutely loved teams to run uptempo against me. so its hard for me to think that is the answer.

however, there is another approach implied by the above, that works in some cases. if the other team is not particularly deep inside, you can push it inside (i would not set my guards 3 point setting down, rather, give more distro to inside scorers). this will increase the fouls drawn by those players, hopefully getting at least one in foul trouble, which will impact the fatigue of the rest and hopefully lead to more fouls. IMO, if you are going to adjust off your normal game plan, this is your best bet for the press. one of the primary reasons i switched from all press to no press (which, admittedly, was a lot more screwed at the time - the fatigue change seble first came out with was just ridiculous, and his correction has gone far to once again make the press viable) was because i saw no good counter to an opponent who pounded it inside, except to have lots of bigs, which directly conflicts with the press's emphasis at strong defensive guards at the 1-3 with high iqs. i figured even though people weren't really playing the strategy yet, the change to big man fg% was so severe, that some would have to go that route eventually, and you would be heavily disadvantaged by such an opponent should you meet late in the NT.