I wouldn't mind if they had man/press, zone/press, man and zone as the four defenses and got rid of plain press alltogther though - or just made " intensity of press" like "frequency of fast break" just one more setting to normal offenses.

+1. As many others have stated there is no team in NCAA that runs a pure press the entire game. I know this is just a simulation but I do believe the press is just a tad OD in the game. I ran one of the 2 zone teams that made the S16 in Knight and I lost to a press team that actually committed less fouls than my non-fouling zone D. I think it's ridiculous that I would have so many more TO's as a result of a press but not benifit from the charity stripe. I'm not angry and this is not a rant just an observation. I also do think the zone can be a viable D if there is understanding in how to recruit for it and how to run it but it is definitely the least effective of the 3 but also the most diverse.

Press IS the strongest defense. Doesn't mean you can't win Titles with other defenses.

The success of most press teams is directly related to stamina.  The press teams tire themselves out more quickly than any other, but they also tire their opponents out more quickly as well. 

I feel like a lot of people who complain about the press don't pay enough attention to the stamina issue or try to combat it. 

You cannot just take a look at your opponents press team and say, "My team is more talented; I'm going uptempo." Not if you're redshirting a player and you have 11 guys with an average stamina of 73, and they're pressing you with 12 players at an average stamina of 80.  Your team will get tired.  And tired teams shoot worse, play worse D and foul more (which causes players to sit on the bench with foul trouble while their replacements play more minutes tired.)

The first thing you should look at when going against a pressing team is how many players are in their rotation and what is their stamina. If they're more likely to tire your team out than you are to tire them out, then you should probably slow it down. 

If a majority of teams you might go up against in the NT are press teams, then you should be building your team to combat that. Consider not redshirting. Don't set your players to "Getting Tired." Pay more attention to BH and PASS in Bigs than you think you should, and less attention to rebounding than you think you should. 

These adjustments will hurt you a little against M2M and Zone teams--and it hurts not to get that extra year with a redshirt guy--but will help against the press teams, and if the large majority of NT contenders are press teams then you should adjust to that in your recruiting.

Whatever other problems zone has now, it does a great job of negating the press's stamina-sucking advantage.  I'd still redshirt a guy every year if I had a zone team, but with M2M you often need that 12th body against a press.

Press does feel a little bit strong, at least at D3 level. There just aren't enough drawbacks compared to the advantages that are gained. Ideally press teams should be tiring a bit more, fouling a bit more, allowing a higher FG%, or rebounding a bit worse than they currently do(or maybe some combination of those four).

At one point I thought devs were discussing changing press to an "add-on" type option that could be used as an addition to your regular defense, and discontinuing it as a regular defense. Or maybe I'm just imagining that.

FWIW I also think zone should be buffed...they fact that so few NT teams are running it makes a good case for it possibly needing a boost.

I think the biggest reason there are very few NT teams running zone is because there are very few coaches running zone, but in this case the perception of a zone weakness may be much greater than the reality.

I think all three defenses can be very good, but at the end of the day a very good press team will win more games than any of the other sets. That's why fewer teams run MTM at the d2 and d3 levels and even fewer run zone. You can slow it down all day against press and still lose. You can set your players to fairly fresh and still lose. Even with a team of good ball handlers and passers you'll still get 15+ turnovers a game but may only cause 10. The advantage is in a press teams court because in many cases you have to adjust your team too much for the press . Most people playing against zone just try to shoot over it or they will adjust lineups and distro against a MTM. The only real weakness I have seen against the press is if you just have a stud player or two you can load distro on and they will murder a press team. But what other weakness does a great press team have?

So...

1. What % of teams run FCP?
     I should have specified "below D1".  Well, of a tiny sample of two groups of sweet 16 teams, 56%  I wonder what a larger sample, not necessarily just sweet 16 teams,  would show.  I wonder if the percentage, among human coaches, is higher among good teams or bad teams.

2. Wow, really? Why so many?
     I'm usually wrong about stuff, but it seems like there's a built-in advantage.  If two teams with identical players, fairly well suited to playing press or man, played a thousand game series, how would that turn out?

My opinion is the press team will win a higher percentage of the games.

MTM defense is a strong defense when the coach stacks his team with strong defenders.  A good example of this is pretty much any one of Rogelio's DII NCCU Knight teams.  Some of his teams you just could not score against.  He does a great job of recruiting stud defenders and always has a strong team.  FCP teams very often, at the DII and DIII level,  have mediocre at best defenders, but cause more turnovers and hold teams to lower shooting % than a studly MTM.  If a team throws out a MTM defense with even one weak defender they will be exposed and a good team will run up points against them.

A giant weakness to the zone is the lack of in-game adjustments.  If I play a 2-3, then the other team can load up on threes.  If any coach sees this in a real game you could bet they would change the defense to a 3-2.  I don't know how this could be implemented, just saying it is an obvious flaw.

Sorry for keeping this thread off topic, llamanunts.  I am going to have some time off soon, so maybe I'll start researching your questions more in depth and get back to you....

Posted by drsnell on 8/7/2012 4:22:00 PM (view original):
The success of most press teams is directly related to stamina.  The press teams tire themselves out more quickly than any other, but they also tire their opponents out more quickly as well. 

I feel like a lot of people who complain about the press don't pay enough attention to the stamina issue or try to combat it. 

You cannot just take a look at your opponents press team and say, "My team is more talented; I'm going uptempo." Not if you're redshirting a player and you have 11 guys with an average stamina of 73, and they're pressing you with 12 players at an average stamina of 80.  Your team will get tired.  And tired teams shoot worse, play worse D and foul more (which causes players to sit on the bench with foul trouble while their replacements play more minutes tired.)

The first thing you should look at when going against a pressing team is how many players are in their rotation and what is their stamina. If they're more likely to tire your team out than you are to tire them out, then you should probably slow it down. 

If a majority of teams you might go up against in the NT are press teams, then you should be building your team to combat that. Consider not redshirting. Don't set your players to "Getting Tired." Pay more attention to BH and PASS in Bigs than you think you should, and less attention to rebounding than you think you should. 

These adjustments will hurt you a little against M2M and Zone teams--and it hurts not to get that extra year with a redshirt guy--but will help against the press teams, and if the large majority of NT contenders are press teams then you should adjust to that in your recruiting.

Whatever other problems zone has now, it does a great job of negating the press's stamina-sucking advantage.  I'd still redshirt a guy every year if I had a zone team, but with M2M you often need that 12th body against a press.

I wish this were still true.  I have begun noticing that I can no longer go uptempo against press teams with equal or lower stamina and have any hope of tiring them out and getting the game sloppy.  I used to be able to do that at both D2 & D3.

In a recent game against a press team that goes 12 deep with better average stamina than my zone team that goes 9 deep - I have no problem with losing that game.  However, I also recently lost to a press team that ran 11 deep with an average stamina (w/o the RS) of 74.3 compared to my 11 deep m2m team's 78.4 average stamina (w/o RS).  I got smoked running normal against a slowdown press on a neutral site after getting smoked at home by the same team earlier in the season trying uptempo against the same slowdown press.  I don't even mind losing those games, but it begins to gall me that the press team doesn't even appear to get fatigued anymore.

Either something more recently has changed (perhaps unintentionally) or the 2/3/11 fatigue rate adjustment really did "nerf" the fatigue issues in favor of the press.  

Going uptempo to tire the press team out and get them in foul trouble used to be my favored strategy as well...and I agree that it does not seem to be as effective anymore.

And, by the way, the idea that breaking the press should fatigue an offensive team anywhere close to the degree pressing should fatigue the defensive team is absurd.

You can have people in poor shape pass the ball quickly and without much effort, while the press in HBD is literally double-teaming after every pass with the required rotations. Everyone on defense is constantly moving at top speed. On offense, players can cut to spots or find open areas, without running around continuously.

I should clarify my opinion just a little:  the fix is fairly minor.  IMHO, just walk back the 2/3/11 fatigue adjustment, in whole or in part, or take my suggestion to eliminate FCP team's ability to play slowdown.  Either way, as far as I am concerned, it isn't a matter of completely rebuilding the engine.

Posted by drsnell on 8/7/2012 4:22:00 PM (view original):
The success of most press teams is directly related to stamina.  The press teams tire themselves out more quickly than any other, but they also tire their opponents out more quickly as well. 

I feel like a lot of people who complain about the press don't pay enough attention to the stamina issue or try to combat it. 

You cannot just take a look at your opponents press team and say, "My team is more talented; I'm going uptempo." Not if you're redshirting a player and you have 11 guys with an average stamina of 73, and they're pressing you with 12 players at an average stamina of 80.  Your team will get tired.  And tired teams shoot worse, play worse D and foul more (which causes players to sit on the bench with foul trouble while their replacements play more minutes tired.)

The first thing you should look at when going against a pressing team is how many players are in their rotation and what is their stamina. If they're more likely to tire your team out than you are to tire them out, then you should probably slow it down. 

If a majority of teams you might go up against in the NT are press teams, then you should be building your team to combat that. Consider not redshirting. Don't set your players to "Getting Tired." Pay more attention to BH and PASS in Bigs than you think you should, and less attention to rebounding than you think you should. 

These adjustments will hurt you a little against M2M and Zone teams--and it hurts not to get that extra year with a redshirt guy--but will help against the press teams, and if the large majority of NT contenders are press teams then you should adjust to that in your recruiting.

Whatever other problems zone has now, it does a great job of negating the press's stamina-sucking advantage.  I'd still redshirt a guy every year if I had a zone team, but with M2M you often need that 12th body against a press.

Snell, this is a good point. The problem, in my opinion, is that the press team should need a big stamina edge for that to play out. Yes, a team being pressed should (and does) tire more quickly than they do against other opponents. But the team that's pressing should get a lot more tired, a lot more quickly, than their opponent. So if they don't have a big edge in stamina, they shouldn't be able to exploit it.

I have also noticed in the past few months that my teams foul a LOT more when facing the press, usually as much as 25% to 30% more than normal. My teams' seasons have rolled over, but I definitely noticed that the world leaders in fouls against were mostly teams running the FCP. Some of that ties back to stamina, but if you're pressing with 70-80 rated defenders, and you don't have an appreciable edge in ATH / SPD, your team should be fouling a lot more than your opponent, and giving up a lot of easy baskets. Right now it seems we've reverted to the days when mediocre teams could win games they had no business winning because the FCP gives them all the turnovers you would expect but little of the downside.