So I do not know what I am doing wrong. My team was really bad last year so I got six new players, 2 jucos and 4 high school kids. Had a top two class in the conference recruiting wise. This year I have the fifth ranked team in the conference rankings wise and the most improvement during the year ranking wise but I keep getting smoked. I am running a fast break and a press and I do not understand why I am losing. My game yesterday was against the worst team in the conference and I lost by 10. Think it is cause I am running a press and my team is not great defensively? Am I playing too fast? I watch the game log and some of my players are tired at the end, would be be better if i switched to a press/zone?

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=18360688&tab=boxscore
Here is the box score of my last game (against the worst team in the conference...)

Posted by Fleck89 on 6/11/2020 9:37:00 AM (view original):
So I do not know what I am doing wrong. My team was really bad last year so I got six new players, 2 jucos and 4 high school kids. Had a top two class in the conference recruiting wise. This year I have the fifth ranked team in the conference rankings wise and the most improvement during the year ranking wise but I keep getting smoked. I am running a fast break and a press and I do not understand why I am losing. My game yesterday was against the worst team in the conference and I lost by 10. Think it is cause I am running a press and my team is not great defensively? Am I playing too fast? I watch the game log and some of my players are tired at the end, would be be better if i switched to a press/zone?

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=18360688&tab=boxscore
Here is the box score of my last game (against the worst team in the conference...)

Hey Fleck, your team has AWFUL stamina for an FB/Press team. You don't have a bad D3 team (I'd say you're squarely average) but you do have a team that really isn't equipped for success right now in the FB/Press. When executed well, FB/Press in D3 can be deadly though.

Other issues with your team:

• Your ATH/SPD isn't great but for a super young team it's not awful.
  • Most elite D3 teams that run FB/Press are at least 55/55 averages in ATH/SPD and preferably have an average stamina of 80+.
  • Depending on the players you've signed & their potentials/growth, your team should be more competitive in a season or two.
• Your average ballhandling is pretty poor - BH is also key to success offensively in fastbreak.
• You don't have any elite scorers on your team
  • Vern Forberg has a shot at being dominant inside depending on his growth in ATH/SPD/LP - but FB is going to kill him with only 63 stamina - find a guy with Vern's cores with higher ST (at least 70+) and some BH (35+) and you have an elite FB scoring forward/center
  • Sterling Zillman is the closest thing you have to a legitimate shooting/perimeter threat - not sure if Carl Barnes has only growth potential in PER but if he could be something like 65 ATH 65 SPD 70 PER 70 BH at his peak, you'd have a solid (though not elite) scoring guard
• You have very low offensive & defensive IQ's (no one on your team has higher than a B+ IQ in fastbreak or press)
  • Not sure where your practice points are allocated - but make sure you're only practicing one offense and one defense
  • Try to plop ~23 minutes into each (some coaches will say 25 to guarantee A+ IQ's, other will lean on 20 minutes, I like to land in the middle).
  • IQ can be a huge modifier for press teams, particularly if you skimp a little on defense and go all in on ATH/SPD/ST - I've seen guys with ~40 DEF and A+ press IQ's with 70/80/90 ATH/SPD/STA absolutely tear it up and the lead D3 in steals while keeping the FPG under 2.5

Other advice:

Recruiting wise it's hard to tell from the growth of your players but definitely lean towards having at least 10 guys with 40+ speed (a couple bigs with very high athleticism & lower speed is A-OK like Vern Forberg is good but his ST is definitely a red flag in an FB/Press setup). Guards you'll want at least a combo of 120 points between ATH & SPD and bigs you'll want at least 50+ ATH (some coaches will say at least 60+).

I'm no expert, especially at press, but based on your IQs I'm guessing that you changed defenses when you took over? It takes a bit of time for players to learn a new system. Also, your players are probably tired from playing so fast and not going deep enough on your bench. Others will surely help you more than me and can identify how your ratings stack up, but I would guess that those factors probably contribute.

EDIT: Much better response that posted before mine did!

Posted by sol_phenom3 on 6/11/2020 10:26:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Fleck89 on 6/11/2020 9:37:00 AM (view original):
So I do not know what I am doing wrong. My team was really bad last year so I got six new players, 2 jucos and 4 high school kids. Had a top two class in the conference recruiting wise. This year I have the fifth ranked team in the conference rankings wise and the most improvement during the year ranking wise but I keep getting smoked. I am running a fast break and a press and I do not understand why I am losing. My game yesterday was against the worst team in the conference and I lost by 10. Think it is cause I am running a press and my team is not great defensively? Am I playing too fast? I watch the game log and some of my players are tired at the end, would be be better if i switched to a press/zone?

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx?gid=18360688&tab=boxscore
Here is the box score of my last game (against the worst team in the conference...)

Hey Fleck, your team has AWFUL stamina for an FB/Press team. You don't have a bad D3 team (I'd say you're squarely average) but you do have a team that really isn't equipped for success right now in the FB/Press. When executed well, FB/Press in D3 can be deadly though.

Other issues with your team:

• Your ATH/SPD isn't great but for a super young team it's not awful.
  • Most elite D3 teams that run FB/Press are at least 55/55 averages in ATH/SPD and preferably have an average stamina of 80+.
  • Depending on the players you've signed & their potentials/growth, your team should be more competitive in a season or two.
• Your average ballhandling is pretty poor - BH is also key to success offensively in fastbreak.
• You don't have any elite scorers on your team
  • Vern Forberg has a shot at being dominant inside depending on his growth in ATH/SPD/LP - but FB is going to kill him with only 63 stamina - find a guy with Vern's cores with higher ST (at least 70+) and some BH (35+) and you have an elite FB scoring forward/center
  • Sterling Zillman is the closest thing you have to a legitimate shooting/perimeter threat - not sure if Carl Barnes has only growth potential in PER but if he could be something like 65 ATH 65 SPD 70 PER 70 BH at his peak, you'd have a solid (though not elite) scoring guard
• You have very low offensive & defensive IQ's (no one on your team has higher than a B+ IQ in fastbreak or press)
  • Not sure where your practice points are allocated - but make sure you're only practicing one offense and one defense
  • Try to plop ~23 minutes into each (some coaches will say 25 to guarantee A+ IQ's, other will lean on 20 minutes, I like to land in the middle).
  • IQ can be a huge modifier for press teams, particularly if you skimp a little on defense and go all in on ATH/SPD/ST - I've seen guys with ~40 DEF and A+ press IQ's with 70/80/90 ATH/SPD/STA absolutely tear it up and the lead D3 in steals while keeping the FPG under 2.5

Other advice:

Recruiting wise it's hard to tell from the growth of your players but definitely lean towards having at least 10 guys with 40+ speed (a couple bigs with very high athleticism & lower speed is A-OK like Vern Forberg is good but his ST is definitely a red flag in an FB/Press setup). Guards you'll want at least a combo of 120 points between ATH & SPD and bigs you'll want at least 50+ ATH (some coaches will say at least 60+).

I’d say 60+ especially in FB/Press which is more Ath dependent than other sets. Hell, when you get in the rhythm I’d say almost always 65+ but that’s a different conversation.

thats great advice from sol there. depth is super important in the fb/fcp, and its a combination of actual depth (12 men / even rotation), stamina (80+ team average), and def/ath/iq for foul avoidance. the latter bit is becoming more and more important in my eyes as i play fb/fcp more - but i kinda feel like in d3 - you already trying to cover so many fronts with such imperfect players, that its probably best to mostly focus on the stamina and getting to 12. if anything, you want to tolerate more fatigue in your bigs - if you have 8 guys who are really 1-3 types and 4 traditional bigs, that is *much* better than the reverse. sliding a sf to pf is ok, but not the reverse. like all press-based schemes, your #1 priority remains building an effective press, which is roughly the most powerful force in this game - and you can't do that if your guards are tired - no matter how talented.

the only thing i'll take exception to is the need for 10 40+ speed players. i have seen no issue running traditional bigs at the 4/5 with press alone, with fb alone, or with fb/fcp together. for a non scoring big in fb/fcp, speed is barely more valuable than durability. i know that the fb/fcp teams people look at, that are pretty successful, are a lot of times really guard heavy, really speed heavy - this tends to work because guards are just so much more important in that approach, and a team rocking 8-9 of them is usually going to have a pretty darn good set of their best 5-6 guards playing the 1-3. the idea that speed going to the 4 is part of what makes those teams good is a red herring, the idea that trading speed for reb at the 4 is 'not a big loss' is wrong. its merely a tolerable loss for those chasing great guards and great guard stamina - which is super important - so if they way you succeed there, is to have extra 1-3 type players, and you play some of them at the 4 while they are young or whatever - that's fine, its a reasonable tradeoff. but i hate for people to think trading speed for rebounding at the 4 in a vacuum is anything but a substantial loss.