can anyone tell me why this team is this bad?  awful?  terrible?  stinking up the joint? i wasn't expecting to be great, but i was hoping to finish above five hundred and compete for the PT, instead of wondering if its even possible to reach 14 wins ...

A few observations...

- You have played a tough schedule to start the year losing some close games, I wouldn't consider the season over yet.
- Your team has extremely low ATH and DEF.
- You are turning the ball over a lot and a lot of it is coming from your big men. Why are you playing uptempo against teams that are better then you? 

Quickly - gvsujulius is correct, but just go to normal tempo against all teams.  Also, don't play +2 against teams that don't shoot more than 20 treys/game.

Go ahead and read aejones posting: How to win at D2 and D3.  That'll help greatly.

I posted to the CC. The above is basically on the money.

Also, the conference is off to a good start wins and losses wise, and just based on talent there is no reason why you can't have a decent run in conference play. Those two things together mean a good conference run could easily get you into PI contention. The season isn't over yet. And anyway, having no SRs means even with a bad season you'll just gear up and do it again with better IQs to see if you can get a prestige bump then and use 2 seasons of carryover money to bring in a big class.

Just what the others have said.  At D3, Athleticism is one of the, if not arguably, the most important stat.  The fact where you are playing uptempo with average to below average ATH is killing you.  Your having your players run wild without the ATH to do so.  Hypothetically, that means more TO's, more missed shots, and more Stamina issues.  Play within what your team is capable of and you should be fine this year.

Ok. New topic, sorta; if you have a metric ton of schollies to fill, is it better to wait until signings start and try to start jumping on players then ... Or go for it early?

If you have several schollies, go early. if I have only one to fill, I'll often wait longer.

Since you have 8 to fill, only 6 fo them can be freshmen.  JUCOs tend to be snapped up early so keep that in mind

Well, I was originally planning to just go for six slots to start with to get up to ten players then go for some bargains if I had money left act signing those. So I'd make sure I had enough money to secure a full roster. Also was thinking that right aft first signings there might be some transfers floating around from people making last minute cuts that could be used for a one or two year "rental"

I mean, if I have two slots go to next year, I think I can live with it; not expecting to win much this coming year anyhow.

(did try to put a number of winnable non conference games on my non conference schedule anyway so I could avoid the embarrassment of going winless and perhaps not punish my conference mates noncon as much in this unavoidable ugly year)

So other than the obvious ath/spd/def what would a flex/zone be best to target? Was thinking of boning up on perimeter skill and passing maybe.

(flex is not something I have tried much with)

Posted by uconnut on 8/26/2012 11:07:00 AM (view original):
Well, I was originally planning to just go for six slots to start with to get up to ten players then go for some bargains if I had money left act signing those. So I'd make sure I had enough money to secure a full roster. Also was thinking that right aft first signings there might be some transfers floating around from people making last minute cuts that could be used for a one or two year "rental"

I mean, if I have two slots go to next year, I think I can live with it; not expecting to win much this coming year anyhow.

Not a bad plan at all...I like it.

If you are going to exclusively play zone, then I would suggest that you plan on taking a walk-on (at most 2).  That will give you more funds to spend per recruit and won't hurt your depth chart at all.  You really only need 9 to play zone (maybe only 8).  Also, holding back some funds to vulture any late-drop transfers available just before signings is a great idea.   However, you might think about browsing transfers & calling coaches of JuCo players to see if any already know flex/zone.   You might find someone that is worth starting for a season or two that could really help you be competitive this season.

As for targets, here's what I have learned:  post players need to be very strong in REB & BLK to play effective zone defense.  In theory, the flex should require P and PE in virtually every position (as opposed to BH), but I don't think the simulation really demonstrates a significant difference between flex and other offenses in that regard.  Which is to say that you need guards with very good PE, BH & P to run the offensive effectively (and survive the onslaught of pressing teams that you face in Wooden).