I am in my 12th season at CMHMS in Rupp and took over a decent team at first, my first HD team ever. I had a good mentor and was able to get a good start in recruiting.

I had three straight 23+ win seasons followed by a rebuilding year and then reached the final four the next year in a 30-4 campaign. However, since then things have gone tremendously downhill and I have barely made the tournament the last three seasons.

I am wondering if I should switch my offense or be targeting different types of players? I have shifted toward a faster guard and higher ath lineup, but that will take one more recruiting period to finish getting the guards I want. I am open to any suggestions as I am tired of being mediocre.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=4169

So. Cal is a tough, tough, Conference to play in. I may not be the Coach to advise you, but with that group of Coaches (and their teams) that you play against it COULD just be a cyclical problem and you will bounce back.

Posted by wvufan76 on 7/30/2018 10:28:00 AM (view original):
So. Cal is a tough, tough, Conference to play in. I may not be the Coach to advise you, but with that group of Coaches (and their teams) that you play against it COULD just be a cyclical problem and you will bounce back.

You're telling me.. Been with the same group of guys since I started and it has become one of the top conferences in D3. I had one down recruiting year and it has been a struggle to get back to the top 25 since. Sometimes my guys will go out and beat a top 10 team and then other times we will get steamrolled by a middle-tiered team. Can't get any consistency.

Couple things I noticed at a quick glance:

1. Aim higher for defense. I generally shoot for 70 but will go down to 50 if a player breaks a lot else to the table. Those 20's and 30's are pretty much to low to be successful in the NT.

2. Rethink your 3FGA settings. When speed+BH+PER gets to about 210 I usually move guys off -2. There's a couple other factors but your guys with 30's and 40's PER rating shouldn't be shooting many (or any) 3's.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 7/30/2018 10:35:00 AM (view original):
Couple things I noticed at a quick glance:

1. Aim higher for defense. I generally shoot for 70 but will go down to 50 if a player breaks a lot else to the table. Those 20's and 30's are pretty much to low to be successful in the NT.

2. Rethink your 3FGA settings. When speed+BH+PER gets to about 210 I usually move guys off -2. There's a couple other factors but your guys with 30's and 40's PER rating shouldn't be shooting many (or any) 3's.

I adjusted my individual player gameplan dealing with shooting 3's. How much of an impact does player distribution have? Along with that should your best scorers have the highest distribution, or your best playmakers?

Distro has a big impact. It basically decides who shoots.

Your best scorers should have the highest distro, not playmakers.

I might rethink the press defense once you can recruit better defenders. You're not causing enough turnovers to justify the huge number of free throw attempts your opponents are getting. Plus, it looks like you're not going uptempo to take further advantage of the fatigue factor of the press.

If you can grab some better defenders like TJ mentioned, maybe try M2M and stay between -2/+2. Your rebounds should skyrocket and your fouls should drop.

To one of TJs earlier points about poor defenders-a guy like Giles can be a solid backup for 4 years at D3 because he can shoot the 3 and would be instant offense off of the bench. The trick is you can’t really have more than 1 or 2 players like that on your roster at any given time because of the lower defensive ratings. Similarly, in my opinion, players like Tony Hunter (high ath, high def, but aren’t good at anything else) are guys I don’t like on my team. If his speed was 65+ it might be a different story because he could get to the FT line, but even then you’d have to weigh the risk/reward with how many TO’s he’ll have because of his poor bh. When recruiting every player should have two clear strengths, two definitive traits they bring to the table and ath and def count as one. Just my two cents.

"To one of TJs earlier points about poor defenders-a guy like Giles can be a solid backup for 4 years at D3 because he can shoot the 3 and would be instant offense off of the bench. "


I agree with this.

"When recruiting every player should have two clear strengths, two definitive traits they bring to the table and ath and def count as one. Just my two cents. "


And this.

In my advanced roster construction management series podcast, I spend two lectures on the value of the high speed, bh, pass, per PG with low DEF/ATH. To be honest, it's one of my better efforts and can be purchased for a mere $19.99 a month. It's a steal if you ask me.

I've previously underestimated the importance of things like defense and athleticism which is something I will look more into when recruiting in this cycle. I am going to change my defense to man to man and target players with higher defense in recruiting. Having the lower defensive ratings is is something I have overlooked in the past.. no wonder my guards have continually been fouling out because they have low defense and I have been running a press defense.

That's a solid plan. Just be careful, there are a lot of ATH/DEF whores on the boards who will tell you "so and so is unplayable because his ATH is <insert number less than 90 here>".

ATH and DEF are important.
ATH and DEF are probably the easiest way to build a decent team.
But ATH and DEF aren't the only way to win
and
Recruiting for ATH and DEF is harder because the majority of people look for those.

That's in episode 7, "How to Moneyball Recruiting like a Champ!"

" there are a lot of ATH/DEF whores on the boards"

Oh my!

I'm an ath/de whore!

I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing....it's the old profession strategy around.