Does anyone use combo defenses like man/ press or zone/ press.  Is this worth it or does IQ never get high enough to be effective? 

I personally think it would be too hard to get the IQ high enough, but I have never tried. If you could get the IQ high enough, I think that the players would not get enough minutes to develop fully.

There are a few coaches around who do this. I used to do it because I loved the absolute flexibility the zone/press combination allowed for when game planning and doing late-game sorts of things, but as chapel noted, it was difficult to get players to develop fully. When I used them, I was very careful to make certain that all my recruits were experienced in one or both defenses so that they were off to an early start in at least one element of the defense. I also took a very "pick your poison" approach to player development and ignored the fact that kids might be losing points in non-core areas the first couple years so as to maximize the most important skills. 

Ultimately though I gave it up when the engine changed years ago and the impact of the press was deflated. It didn't seem to me that the combo defense was creating enough turnovers at that point to justify the additional defense minutes one needed to devote in order to run it. My two cents. 

I run press/zone. We made DII championship game last year, so it's possible be successful. Like any gameplan, it's got advantages and disadvantages. Flexibility is a big advantage, as rednu said. Another advantage is that not many players run it, so it can be unfamiliar (FWIW, I very much dislike gameplanning against it). From a game standpoint, I can compete in all three phases of the possessions game - steals, rebounds, and FG% - without surrendering any of them.

You make some sacrifice in terms of IQ and/or development, but it's not actually that huge. You can decide for yourself how many minutes to plug into the press, but I personally use a bit less than I put into my offense and the zone. I don't use that much more total on IQ than I use to use in basic sets. 

I don't know how well it will work .. I am trying it for the first time on my St. Thomas Aquinas team sometime next season.

I am currently running zone with that team and I started also practicing press sometime during the current season to be able to run zone/press in the future.

This is my only zone team and I don't really like zone, so I may end of converting the team to press or I may play press/zone .. not really sure yet.

I think man/press isn't worth that much help.  Zone/press makes more sense IMO.  I have seen that work a few times @ D3 (Emory, coached by phalla, in Rupp won a few titles).

I have used combo defenses for a while now. I've had both good and bad experiences with it. I've had some very good teams lose early in the NT and some teams that I thought weren't very good make a long run. It feels like wasting free IQ when many recruits have some level of press ability. It doesn't take much practice time to get it in the B range which makes it effective (at least somewhat). You can take a zone that doesn't produce many turnovers and get some easy buckets. You don't have to have great defenders to be effective which opens up more recruits that you might not consider with a man defense.

I have had no problem getting my guys to max out their ratings, unless their work ethic is too low.

I have never tried it but to me it's the most intriguing aspect of the game but basically doesn't get used too often, if a coach was a really thorough game planner it just seems you could really disrupt any team as long as talent levels didn't vary to much. I also agree that press/zone if done right would be a nightmare to play against!! Makes me want to switch one of my teams or pick up a new one, specially with the new info on how the zone really works out there now. It'd be something new to try out anyway!!

Barretchap did you run a combo back when your Tusculum won the NT?

I have done it a few times: first, when I am transitioning from one defense to another - and second every now and then, my some fluke, I'll for example be playing zone as my defense but have a goodly number of people who also have decent to good press iq's due to flukes of recruiting. In that case, late and trailing, might throw in a combo d.

I don't think I was running the combo for the initial 2 titles, but the last 2 I was.

I have tried it and found that in the case where I used it the cost in terms of minutes was too high.  Never got my guys to top IQs and fully developed potential.

I might try it again in some circumstances - like for some teams I tend to max out now.....

I'm just starting to try it at Chaminade in Naismith-- theory being maximum flexibility for Hawaii recruiting, combined with my boredom in HD in general... experiment time. 

I am strongly giving some thought to switching my Georgia Tech team from the pres to the zone/press. The thinking is that i could take advantage of stud ath/spd recruits in press while having a defense that protects me from stamina issues in those seasons that i lose a recruiting battle or two, etc.
I would like to hear some ideas on how to distribute the practice minutes given my current scenario if anyone is game.

Depends on how quickly or how high you want the IQs to be. I use 15 minutes in offense, 15 minutes in main defense (zone or man) and 10-12 minutes in press. I've also gone slightly higher (17-18) in the main off/def if I can go on the lower end of press time. I typically end up with B to B+ IQ in press depending on where those players began. Offense and main defense typically reach A- or better. I still am able to get most players to max out their potential, unless their WE starts too low. I don't know how successful that would be at DI since I've never run it there, but it seems to work well at DII.