Lostmyth2’s FAQ for Veteran HD Coaches Topic

Please read the post below in its entirety before asking a question.

This thread is pretty simple in its premise. You ask a question, and I will answer it to the best of my ability.

However, I will only answer the question as asked. I am not going to spend much time going off on tangents.

The following things will significantly increase the probability that your question is answered:

  • it pertains to HD
  • it pertains to Division I
  • it has general value while still being specific*
  • it has a definitive answer (whether known or unknown)
  • it is posted in this thread


* i.e., no questions about specific teams

My answers will be about DI unless otherwise specified.

I'll post the name of the user asking the question, even if you have sent me the question via sitemail.

Also, just because I haven't provided an answer to your question yet does not mean I will not eventually answer it.

2/22/2010 7:23 PM
Are booster gifts a legitimate recruiting tool or are they a lose-lose scenario? - zhawks

I'll assume legitimate here means useful.

If you try to give booster gifts to a recruit who won't accept them, it's a lose-lose scenario.

If you can identify recruits who will accept booster gifts, they become useful in specific situations, depending on a lot of factors, such as whether you would otherwise be able to sign the recruit, the distance of the recruit, and the composition of your team, to name a few.

What is your estimate of the relative "value" in terms of recruiting effort of a grade level of prestige (B vs. C) in terms of a multiplier in effort for the better school (double, 1.5x, etc)? - reinsel

My best guess is that a full letter of prestige is worth around a 70% advantage (1.7x multiplier).

What is the relative effort between home visits and campus visits. Do you think 8 HV = 3 CV or is it something else or is it variable? - reinsel

It's not variable. I believe one campus visit is worth somewhere between 2.5-3 home visits.

What is your basic theory on Distro and do you change it on a game by game basis? - Fregoe

I give as much distribution to my best players as possible such that when double-teamed, the effect is neutral on offensive output. I give zero or the least possible distribution to players who have low IQs are otherwise not very good.

I generally do not change it on a game by game basis, although my distribution does vary by offense. I will tweak it slightly midseason if it is not producing the results I expect.

Also, do you adjust your distro based on what type offense you run? - dcy0827

Given the same team, my distribution would be slightly different for each type of offense. The reason for the differences have to do with what each offense values in terms of IQ and ratings.

It does not have to do with how each offense inherently treats distribution. I strongly believe there is zero or minimal difference between the four offenses in this regard.

Are boosters only useful at higher prestige programs? - brianp87

The higher the prestige, the higher the cost and the smaller the benefit one gets from booster gifts.

What is the best tempo to play against the slowdown? If the slowdown works so well for an underdog, shouldn't it work even better for the favorite? If you know your opponent is going to play slowdown against you (as it seems 90% of teams do when they are at a talent disadvantage) do you change your gameplan specifically to address that? - jamespastine

There is no best tempo to play against the slowdown.

It's basically irrelevant from a gameplanning perspective what tempo your opponent chooses to play. Either your team has a higher chance of winning (often, but not always due to a more talented team), an equal chance of winning, or a lower chance of winning. Tempo doesn't really move a team from one bucket to another except in certain situations (potential foul trouble due to a short bench being an example).

Increasing the number of possessions only increases the probability that the team with the higher chance of winning actually wins, and vice versa. This is 95% of the reason why slowdown is the best strategy for an inferior team. If your opponent makes the wrong choice in this regard, there is no reason for you to also make the wrong choice.

When you concentrate distro in a couple of guys, do you give any distro to the others or just let them get whatever the engine gives them with no targetted distro? - fd343ny

The only situation where the engine determines the distribution is when there are 5 players on the court all with 0 distribution. Most of the time one of these players will be better than the others offensively, so I usually don't let this situation happen.

On the prestige relative values question... do you think it's the same A+ to B+ as, say, B- to C-? - wronoj

Assuming the same numerical difference between the A+ to B+ and B- to C-, I don't think there's a difference.

However, there is no upper limit to prestige. The range for an A+ is much wider than any of the other levels.
2/22/2010 7:23 PM
What tool do you use to determine if a player will go pro early? How do you interpret it? How early in the prcess will you use it? Does it ever determine if you will continue to recruit a player? - colorblind79

Coach calls are the cheapest way to find out. I've found that a recruit's materialism seems to matter the most among personality traits for if/how early they decide to go pro. Mentions of "cribs" indicate high materialism and "recruiting perks" indicate very high materialism. With the latter the recruit will almost certainly go pro whenever they are likely to be drafted, including at the end of their freshman year. The opposite is true of a recruit with very low materialism.

I generally tend to try to determine whether a recruit will be likely to go early whenever I'm in a battle or deciding on whether to enter a battle. I estimate how much money I will need to put in the recruit weighed against how many years they are likely to stay and how much I need the recruit. So yes, it has affected my recruiting decisions.

How much is the "favorite school" advantage worth? Is it possible to quantify it in terms of other effors, say it's the same as 50 phone calls or maybe 1 HV, or something else? - cthomas22255

It's almost certainly like a multiplier to recruiting effort, the same as prestige. I don't think it's worth much, and is probably in the 10-20% range and more likely to be near the bottom of that range.

What is your take on out of conference scheduling you generally schedule a rather weak OOC group - it clearly is working, but what's your thinking in doing that? - metsmax

My take on OOC scheduling is that you should schedule to maximize your team's chances of getting an NT bid. From this perspective, a schedule that produces a 10 RPI when your team is good and a 40 RPI when your team is mediocre is significantly preferable to a schedule that produces a 1 RPI when your team is good and a 100 RPI when your team is mediocre.

Often times, a team is mediocre, if not bad, at the start of the season because it has a lot of new faces. With top tier teams, that's frequently due to unpredictable EEs. I've averaged around 2 EEs each season with my A+ schools over the past 10 seasons and have had 4-5 multiple times. I can't predict exactly which players will leave, nor whether I'll be able to successfully recruit the kind of players necessary to replace them.

Taking all of that into consideration, a weak OOC schedule that is still above average from an RPI standpoint makes the most sense for the situations I find myself in. If my team is good, I'll still win enough in conference to have a top RPI. If it's not, it'll still be enough to make the NT.

What should a DII coach look for when selecting a DI school to apply for jobs at? Assume the objective is to eventually make it to a BCS school. - _hannibal_

Eventually making it to a BCS school isn't difficult. If you aren't qualified for one after many seasons at DI, chances are good you'll also be fired eventually once you get there.

To answer the first question, there are a lot of factors if you want a decent low level DI job. It helps if the school isn't a bottom feeder (has D+ or higher prestige). It also helps if the previous coach was a human, since they tend to recruit non-randomly and it can be hard to tell what the potential of each player is. These both help in the short-term.

The biggest long-term thing I would look for is that the school is located in an area with a lot of DI recruits. This lets you pick up some decent one-, two-, and low three-star recruits with good potential cheaply while also giving you the opportunity to grab some 3 and 4-stars a few seasons down the road.

How much importance do you put on the Defense rating as it pertains to Man to Man and Press teams in Division 1? Would you consider it a core attribute that is more important than or as important as SPD for a guard and ATH for a post (especially as it pertains to man to man). - gbous134

For man to man, I think defense is the single most important attribute in a guard (from a defensive perspective, it's far more important than speed) and slightly above athleticism and rebounding in a post player.

For press from a purely defensive standpoint, I would still value it slightly above speed for guards and about equal with athleticism for a post player.

Also, you have built up small schools very quickly. Similar to a previous question, how many away games would you normally schedule, how many sim/human teams, would you play 2 or 3 very tough away games against traditional powerhouses and the rest winnable games if you were in a conference made up of at least 50% sim teams? (This is concerning schools that have a prestige of D- to C+ that do not have a good baseline prestige). - gbous314

All of this is from the perspective that you want to schedule to make the NT. If I scheduled a sim team it would always be away. I would never schedule a game against a traditional powerhouse or any other team in which the chances of winning are low to nonexistent. The best teams to schedule from an RPI perspective are against the top teams in weak conferences, given that you think you have a reasonable chance to beat them.

2/22/2010 7:24 PM
How much difference do you think there is in the +/- levels for Defenses in relation to your team's performance defending the 3? Defending teams with big concentration of their offense? How do you decide what level to run on a game-by-game basis? - wronoj

There's two main effects of the +/- levels. A +5 would both reduce the number of 3s the opponent's players shoot (assuming not all of their players are set at -2 or something ridiculous) as well reducing the opponent's % of 3-pointers made.

The magnitude of the first effect varies based on the opponent's distribution and individual +/- settings but is most often much more significant on the outcome of the game than the second effect if your opponent's team is lopsided. For the second effect, the difference from a -5 compared to a +5 is worth about 6-10% on 3-point shooting and about the same on 2-point shooting in the opposite direction. When it boils down to it, this really isn't worth much.

On a game-by-game basis, I have a quick formula I use. The baseline setting is 0 for press/man and +2 for 2-3 zone. The baseline would be 33% of shots from 3 and a 75% FG%/3FG% ratio. Less shots from 3 would mean a more - defense, and vice versa. A higher FG%/3FG% ratio would also mean a more - defense, and vice versa. For example, a team shooting 10% from 3 and a 70% FG%/3FG% ratio would call for a -4 or -5. 40% shooting from 3 and 80% FG%/3FG% would call for a +2. I also use judgment and do the approximate calcs in my head, so that it takes me about 5 seconds at most to set these each game.

Also, if the defense is a zone and the the opponent shoots more than 40% in threes, I would switch to a 3-2 zone.

What would be the ratio difference in recruiting power between the highest reasonably possible A+ prestige (for instance, 4 NT champs in the last 4 years, after already having an A+ before that 4-year run) and the lowest A+? - jskenner

Not ever having won 4 NT championships in 4 years, it would be purely speculation on how much that's worth. However, at the highest levels the draft would have a potentially bigger effect since baseline prestige essentially drags down the post-tournament prestige while each player drafted has an additive value. But I think it would be possible to reach A++++ish levels which would be worth about 70% compared to a true A+.

if there were a world full of veteran HD coaches (a kid can dream, cant he?) and every team had very similar talent level, year after year (players randmly assigned rather than recruited), so that gameplanning was the key factor determining success (assume they are all equally good at setting practice plans and scheduling is random)...

what type of winning percentage do you think the very best gameplanners could achieve? (in other words, is the effect of gameplanning minimal, as some suggest? or is it a vital component that can set the great apart from the merely good?)
- oldave

I'll assume the coach has control over the following: choice of offense/defensive sets and everything on the depth chart, team game plan, and player game plan pages. I'll also assume that while talent level is relatively equal across teams, that it's not equal within teams (i.e. the talent variance is similar to current recruiting pools in HD). I think the very best gameplanners could reasonably expect to win about 60% of the games.

If you had three teams, one motion pne flex one triangle

would you recruit any differently for these 3 teams?
would you gameplan any differently?
- oldave

Yes, I would and do recruit differently. A lot of times though the same recruit is the best recruit for each offense out of the pool of available talent.

Yes, I would and do gameplan differently.

I know how much you love the press. Do you feel that any team can really be *elite* without running at least a half-court press? Does this answer change for lower divisions? - ryanderson

Yes. No.

When does a shutdown defender actually matter? In DII or DIII as well as with all defenses. - swift1976

In DI, there is no such thing as a shutdown defender in any defense. There isn't enough of a talent difference between individual players that your guy is going to make the other guy he guards consistently suck. Obviously a better defensive player is still incrementally more useful than a bad defensive player. I can't really say about DII or DIII though. It may be possible to have a high potential beast who's much better than his opponents, but he can still only guard one guy.

There are also aren't specific types of mismatches in HD as in real life. Your 7'3" C shotblocking beast in HD isn't going to get 10 blocks on the 5'9" driving PG who gets half his team's shots.

However, it's possible to have a very good defensive team, which would require an entire lineup of good defensive players.

Do you think it is more difficult to win consistently with the FB offense than with one of the other three offensive options?? - oldave

With a high prestige, I don't think so.

Ginger or Mary Ann? - grecianfox

Both.
2/22/2010 7:24 PM
How much do you think each grade of homecourt advantage is worth? Do you gameplan at all differently for home and away? - colorblind79

An A+ is worth around 7-8 points if both teams play normal tempo.

Since home vs. away can potentially mean up to a 20-point swing in the average result, I might play slowdown away and uptempo at home vs. the same team.

What is the most important thing in regards to what players leave early? Is it the info you mentioned before in the coach calls and evaluations? Or is it team performance? Or Something else? - zhawks

There a lot of factors. The first prerequisite is that the player has good enough ratings to be drafted. The second factor is the player's personality. Some players will leave as freshman or if they are projected in the 2nd round based on their personality. From an individual player's perspective, these are more important than team success.

However, team success affects every player on your team that could potentially be drafted. So even though it matters less from an individual player's perspective, it could bump up the chances for every single one of your players.

What number do you use as your base for determining distributions? i.e., some people like to have 100 total, and try to have their players take a clear-cut percentage of the called plays. Others like to use a number like 8, set everyone to it to begin with, and adjust upwards or downward depending upon the player's role and talent. - colorblind79

I'm not sure what the point of using 100 is, especially as a percentage, since the only time it'll actually be that percentage is when you have 5 players on the court and you only gave distribution to these 5 players (i.e. all the other players are 0).

I look at it in terms of ratio. I compare two players and decide how much more often I would like the better player to shoot. My distributions will often look like the following:

Best player: 14
2nd: 8
3rd: 6
4th: 4
Offensive role players: 1 or 2
Freshmen/scrubs: 0

The exact distribution will vary based on exactly how many offensive options there are and what positions they're at.

In one of your answers, you mention that you adjust your distribution slightly based upon the offense being run because each offense values IQ and ratings differently. Can you explain this more and let us know what you think each offense type values? - andmoore1230

The Hoops 101 is a pretty accurate summation:

Hoops 101

So for example, triangle values athleticism the least, perimeter more than others except flex, and passing/low post most compared to other offenses. Flex values perimeter most of all the offenses, speed more than all but fastbreak, and passing more than fastbreak/motion. Motion values athleticism and ballhandling more than the other set offenses but not as much as fastbreak, which values low post/perimeter the least.

On the defensive side, press values speed, athleticism, and stamina more than the other defenses. Man values defense more. Zone values defense and stamina the least and shotblocking the most.

Can you please explain your reasoning for doing this? - tmacfan12

Why not?

Do FG% and/or GPA matter to you when recruiting? Would you ever pass over an otherwise qualified prospect because of poor ratings in either one? - Weena

FG% doesn't matter. GPA can be an indicator of recruit intelligence. It doesn't matter that much but can be a tiebreaker, especially if I need a freshman to play significant minutes. It's never a dealbreaker though.

Do you think that when you have the better team but play a bad/wrong defensive position to start the game and set halftime adjustment to if losing by 5 or 10, but at halftime the game is close or your winning. Thus your team makes no adjustment. Do you think this contributes to your team committing more fouls? - kkyutzy

I believe the +/- settings contribute to how many fouls a team commits, but I don't think choosing the "wrong" defensive position does.
2/22/2010 7:24 PM
Do you believe bigmen are inferior offensively to guards in today's sim? - kelby03

I don't think there's been a significant engine change to make big men worth less offensively.

With potential, however, the average athleticism, shot blocking, and defense have all gone up while the average perimeter and free throw shooting has gone down for big men. All these factors combined to make it harder for a post player to be dominant.

When deciding who is your best player (followup to the distro question from colorblind) is IQ or Ratings weighted more and what Ratings are weighted more, strictly lp for bigs, per for guards or a combination of ratings? - zhawks

I generally don't want anyone with less than a B+ IQ shooting a lot, especially against a press defense.

For guards, I would look at speed, perimeter, and IQ as the three biggest factors. Ballhandling and athleticism also play big roles. So on a ranked basis, it would probably be speed, perimeter, IQ, ballhandling, then athleticism (there would be differences across offenses, for instance, IQ > perimeter in fastbreak). Often IQ will be the differentiator even though it's third simply because speed and perimeter are going to be very high in a lot of elite guards.

For small forwards, athleticism, speed, low post, and perimeter are the most important. Ballhandling matters as well. On ranked basis it would be athleticism, perimeter, low post, speed, then ballhandling.

For big men, I would look at athleticism, low post, and perimeter as three biggest factors. Speed, ballhandling, and IQ would be secondary but significant. On a ranked basis it would be athleticism, low post, perimeter, IQ, speed, then ballhandling. Again, there would be slight differences across offenses.

do you look at high school stats when recruiting. - elvis87

It's generally meaningless except for FT% and there's nothing there that isn't already more accurately reflected in the ratings.

How much weight do you place on IQs and their development? Let's say you're deciding who to start b/w 2 kids on your roster who have the same ratings across the board, except player A has ATH and SP ratings 10 pts higher than player B, but player B has a full letter grade higher in Off/Def IQ, which player would you choose...and does your answer depend on the position? Or, more generally speaking, in this scenario, how much higher does a player's ATH and SP ratings have to be to compensate for a full-letter grade difference in IQ, all other factors being equal? - jdno

Let's assume we're talking about a B- vs. an A- for IQ both offensively and defensively. By position:

Guards: 7-8 points of speed vs. full letter of IQ, maybe 15-20 points of athleticism

Small forward: 7-8 for both speed/athleticism

Post: 5-6 points of athleticism, 15-20 of speed

If every player on your team has an A IQ in their off/def sets, how much, on average, do you think they would beat the same team that has a B in their sets, all other factors being equal? - jdno

I think it would actually depend on the offensive/defensive sets played. For instance, high IQ helps press and fastbreak the most. But let's say both are playing motion/man. The team with the A IQ would probably win 55-60% of the games.

How many minutes do you tend to use on team off./def practice? - jdno

Depends on the current team IQs. But generally I would use 27-28 minutes on offense and defense for a single offense/defense and might tweak it to 25/25 or 30/30 depending on the situation. For combos I usually go 25 on offense and 35 split between the two defensive sets.

And what are your thoughts at running your depth chart at FF vs. GT vs. Tired? Is there an across the board % decrease in effective skill level in going from FF to GT for a player, and if so, what do you think this number is? - jdno

Unless there's a big difference in skill levels I think running the entire team at fairly fresh makes the most sense. If your backup sucks, getting tired is probably better. If your backup is a walk-on I'd probably play the starter at foul trouble only.

The answer can also slightly change depending on the defense. If you're playing zone it's probably more often that you should set your starters to getting tired (this is due to the amount of time passing between deadball/substitution situations and the level of fatigue generated by the defense).

Fairly fresh vs. getting tired is probably worth about a 8-10% decrease in skill levels. This is usually enough that you want your back-ups in, if you also take into consideration deadball situations and how often they happen.
2/22/2010 7:24 PM
How much do you feel the close to home and far from home multipliers are worth? If you were over 500 miles from a good recruit and your opponent was under 100 miles, with the same prestige and same scholarship money, would it be to your advantage to go after him if he was far from home? - gbous314

I don't have enough experience with these to come up with accurate figures. But based on what I have seen, the close to home is probably worth around 15-25% while the far from home can be worth up to 50-70%. In the case you mentioned, it's probably a pretty even match-up.

In regards to late game settings, do you adjust from game to game, make changes at various points during the season, or "set 'em and forget 'em" at the start of the year? - emy1013

I don't adjust these due to time constraints.

But in theory, if you could figure out your opponent's late game settings, you would adjust yours in response to match and this could potentially have a very big impact on the game. For example, if you knew your opponent changed his 3-point shooting to +2 at 4 minutes while losing, it's to your advantage to match this exactly with a + defensive setting at 4 minutes.

For the three point frequency on the Team Gameplan page, when the time and point constraints are met, does the distro you set for your players still remain in effect? For example, let's say my setting is a three point frequency of -4 when losing by 3 or more with 3 minutes . When this kicks in, my team is basically being instructed to not shoot threes. Does this mean that the only players shooting will be my bigs (pounding the ball down low), or will my guards continue to shoot, just not threes? I guess my question is, do my distro settings stay in effect or does the engine adjust the distro based on these settings? - emy1013

I believe the distribution change gets applied to each individual player. I don't think your big men would shoot more with a -4.

I'm not 100% sure on this answer though. When I get bored, I'll test it out and get back to you.

I'm a new DI coach with a D- team. Should I strictly go after 1-2 Star recruits or set my sites a little higher? - bdixon

I would get players with really good potential, regardless of star rating. I personally don't factor in star rating when recruiting, but I know some coaches do even though they may say they don't, so you may be better off going after the players no one knows about.

Within a 70 mile radius do I have a chance at a top 10 recruit? If not, how much higher should I set mt sites compared to outside of 70 miles? - bdixon

I don't think you have a shot even with the 70-mile bonus. But even if you did, there's no way you'd ever sign that recruit unless he totally sucked.

How many minutes do you spend practicing your offense and defense and do you change it at all depnding on the Iq's of your team? - mbalding

See one of the answers above for the first part. If my team is generally maxed out in ratings I would bump up team practice.

When you figure out your distro do you look at your players offensive ratings, the other teams defensive ratings or a combination of both? - markg1710

My player's offensive ratings plays the biggest part. You can look at the other team's defensive ratings for a man defense, but generally speaking in DI, there aren't enough differences between defenders to build an entire gameplan around it. If it's far enough into the season you can look at the opponent's allowed 2FG% vs. 3FG% which is pretty good high level indicator.

Are promises a multiplier? What do you think is for the various promises? If it's not a multiplier, what's the value? - mccabemi

No, they're not a multiplier. My experience is that 30 minutes is worth around 2 home visits and a start is worth around a campus visit.

Regarding fatigue settings - how do you determine what settings you use for players? - andmoore1230

See one of the answers above.

how exactly do your distributions vary with different offensive sets? - colorblind79

This is really complicated but I'll give you an example. Let's say we have a point guard with 99 speed, 99 ballhandling, and 60 perimeter. In a motion offense, he would be a decent offensive option because perimeter doesn't matter that much. So he might get a 2. In a flex his perimeter would be more of a liability and his ballhandling wouldn't help as much so he might get a 1.

Can the personality test give you conclusive information (or at least a high level of confidence) that a recruit will accept booster gifts? Can the personality test give you conclusive information (or at least a high level of confidence) that you will not get caught giving booster gifts? Is the value of a gift equivalent to the value you get from recruiting dollars? Is giving $10K in cash (recruiting cost of $10) equivalent to 10+ CVs? If not, what are the relative values of booster gifts? - geoffrhodes

Yes, it can give pretty conclusive information that a recruit will accept booster gifts. I don't think there's anything that will let you know if you are more likely to be caught, although it seems that you are more likely to be caught if the recruit does not accept the booster gift.

It's hard to tell exactly how much a booster gift is worth, but my best guess is that it's worth the dollar value of a campus visit at the closest possible recruiting distance.
2/22/2010 7:24 PM
What offensive set do you feel works best with the press defense based on the various talent catgories and how the offensive set and press mesh with one another? - mtngoats

In order: fastbreak, flex, motion, triangle.

What use does the Personality Test feature have, and when, if ever, can it be cost-effective? - cornfused

You can use it to find out which recruits will accept booster gifts and their likelihood of being an early entry.

It's never cost-effective. You can find out the same information through other means, although there's a rare chance you won't get exactly what you need from those methods.

I'm wondering how much difference you think there is in a (DI) battle between an A prestige and a C prestige. 1.5x? 2x? 2.5x? 3x? - dalter

It's most likely just a linear multiple of the difference between one full letter grade (1.7x). So in this case it's probably around 2.4x.

The reason I think it's linear is that I lost a battle for a recruit I was trying to redshirt with an A- vs. D. I put in enough money that if it was non-linear to any significant degree, I should have won that battle, but did not.

Can u give me any advice running the fastbreak in Div I? - kevthekidd

IQ is extremely important in the fastbreak, especially since Tarek made engine changes to make turnovers more closely tied to IQ. If you're going to be playing fastbreak I recommend putting 30 minutes into offensive team practice.

When looking at recruits, athleticism and speed obviously are the priorities. Ballhandling is also extremely important, even at the PF position, if you want to minimize turnovers, which is the #1 weakness of the fastbreak.

If you're combining press with fastbreak you'll need 2 players per position with very good stamina (90+) or 5 players per 2 positions to be successful.

Do you have any experience battling a D/Di- DI sim w. a high prestige DII team (assuming Word on the Street listed the guy as not being a high priority)? - dalter

I don't have any experience with it, but I don't think it's a good idea in general. Lower prestige DI teams can put $15,000-$20,000 into a recruit and not have it show up as "high priority" under FSS, although it does vary with the level of the recruit (with lower level recruits requiring less to show up as "high priority").

Based on some of the previous errors in the past where low prestige DI schools on probation wrapped around to a DII A+ prestige, it looks like the difference between a DII A+ prestige and a D- DI prestige is about the same as the difference between D DI prestige and a C DI prestige. So in that case you're probably at a 1.7x disadvantage, possibly slightly more, to begin with. If you had a lot of money and nothing else to do with it, you could pull it off.

In answering the question about Personality Tests not being "cost effective" you stated you can find out the same information in other ways. When you say this do you mean through evals ? - indansrck27

Evaluations is one way, but that also isn't cost-effective. Coach calls are the most cost effective way to find out. You won't always be guaranteed the information and you'll have to interpret the message you get, unlike personality tests. See one of the answers above for more information.

Typically how much time do you put into the press especially in the first few seasons? - tbrown24

If you're transitioning from man or zone I would go from man/zone to combo to press. In the past I've generally put 10 minutes into the primary and 25 minutes into press for the transition. Once the press IQs hit around C+/B-s you can switch to the combo. Once they get to the B+ level you can swtich over entirely. This takes around 2 seasons to accomplish.

What are the main categories you look at when recruting players for the press? - tbrown24

If you're just looking for success in the press and are not taking into consideration offense, for guards, defense is number one, followed closely by speed, then athleticism.

For big men, athleticism and defense are the most important, followed closely by rebounding, then shotblocking and speed.

For forwards, athleticism and defense are equally important, followed closely by speed, then rebounding, and finally shotblocking.

How do you recruit so well, I feel like you always are able to come in and steal players away late, do you just have an abundance of cash or what? - tbrown24

Recruiting is probably the most complicated aspect of HD, so I'll be brief and point out at a high level what makes for successful recruiting.

Before I do that, I have to say I don't think I frequently come in and "steal" players away late. In most situations this is not the ideal way to build a class.

Moving on, successful and consistent recruiting basically comes down to information and knowledge. First, at a very basic level you need to know:

1) what all the various player messages mean
2) the relationship between various prestiges so you can properly estimate whether a battle is winnable or not
3) the best recruiting tools at each distance (home visits vs campus visits, etc.)
4) most importantly, the actual value of a recruit to your team (which most likely involves knowing the potential)

On a more advanced level, you would need to know:

1) who might be the contenders for a specific recruit based on distance to the recruit
2) how each of those teams would value the recruit given their specific situation (need big men, offense/defense, etc.), also taking into consideration past behavior from the coach, if known
3) how your team would stack up in a battle vs. each of these teams, and estimate whether the potential effort you need to expend is worth it given the recruit's value to your team
4) use the above to come up with a prioritized list of recruits taking into consideration the effort to value ratio of each recruit and the constraints of your budget
5) how information affects others' recruiting choices
6) estimate how much each team has in its recruiting budget based on FSS, changing considering lists, etc.

There are also some important psychological considerations:

1) don't become attached to a specific recruit, which leads to overspending; the goal should be to maximize the impact your signed recruiting class has on your team's chances to win, not to win battles or "own" a certain territory
2) assume a coach is rational, i.e. his goal is to maximize the impact of his own recruiting class, not to win battles for their own sake, until proven otherwise

I think that covers it at a very high level. There's obviously a lot more that goes into it.

2/22/2010 7:24 PM
You listed Triangle as the worse offense to play with a press, what is the reasoning? - kmasonbx

Triangle values athleticism the least out of all the offenses, which is one big negative.

It also values passing and low post the most. This means it's the offense that works best for the typical center in HD today (high low post, higher passing then PFs, no ballhandling, high shotblocking, lower athleticism than PFs). A typically good HD center does not work as well with the press as a typically good HD PF.
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Lostmyth2’s FAQ for Veteran HD Coaches Topic

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