Per and LP are still very important to FB teams.  I try to keep 1 high per and 1 high per on the floor at all times because when the other team does manage to slow you down you still need to be able to work in the half court.  You essentially are a motion team at that point.

Here is my tips.

I have yet to have a long established program with a high prestige as I have been constantly moving up. I have consistently been building FB/FCP on my way up and have done well with this formula.

In my opinion the strategy for the FB/FCP is too combat other popular strategies in HD, Example many top teams will take on 2 to 3 walk ons so they can get that 1 stud and then use the walk ons next season as a cash cow to get another stud.. Those teams end up with 5 stud starters and a bad bench. If I want to beat them I need them to use their bench.

 My goal is too build a team that when gameplanning you say to yourself in this matchup I should be playing uptempo.

The most important thing with the FB/FCP is IQ. For that reason I don't take walk ons.

I target Stamina. I am looking for players who will end their career with a 80+ stamina. This allows me to play Uptempo and force teams to use their bench, this strategy also hurts opposing teams who recruit low stamina players.

I want my players to be able to shoot. 3 pointers because its a valuable tool in a uptempo game as your players will be shooting early in the shot clock.. Before a players career ends  I want my SG to be at least 80+ in PER and PG at least 70+ in per. You need to have a few LP players or teams will camp on your PER. I find 3 point shooting to be valuable in the FB. The perfect situation is your SG, PG, and SF all have 80+ in PER. I never list my 3 point above 0, I don't want my players forcing low percentage 3 point shots.

I am looking for defense that will eventually be 70+ preferably 80+. In the FB and FCP you need to create turnovers. If you can't create turnovers your probably going to lose.

I am not high on high ATL/SPEED players if they can't shoot. Those guys in my opinion are role players and should never be starting.

Your guards are going to foul a lot so its a good idea to have depth at the guard positions.
  
In general your games will have more free throw shooting so the teams who shoot well at the free throw line will have a advantage.

I am finding that most people think Fastbreak is the worst offense in the game, for that reason I want to try and succeed playing Fastbreak. I have never played at a school with a prestige over B - and my current prestige is a C+. I have always moved up before I was able to take advantage of a B prestige. I am finally at a school that can attain a prestige in the A'S. I am in my 2nd season with this school and I don't expect to be competitive until my freshmen are seniors. I am curious to see how my strategy will work once I am able to acquire the talent to compete at a higher level.

Is there a certain percentage of points that should be "Fast Break Points" when running a fast break offense?  In my last exhibition I beat a (gruesomely bad) D1 team 93-57, but only had 10 FBP (10.7%).  This got me wondering if a fast break team that doesn't score many fast break points, but still scores efficiently, is a problem.  My first thoughts are that this is indicative of a team that doesn't have the ATH/SPD to score in the fast break, and instead relies more on LP and PER.

When your team doesn't score on the fast break and they have to fall back on their "motion-like" secondary offense, do we know what IQ they are running this secondary offense at in relation to their fast break IQ?  Surely it can't be the same, as then there would be no reason to run motion as opposed to fast break.

ignore the fast break points, i grappled with that years ago and gave up, its just window dressing IMO. i could be wrong but i never could find anything meaningful there. 

they are running the half court IQ with FB IQ, for sure. no other IQ (such as motion) will help you in your half court offense. fastbreak IMO is a great offense because it allows you to be great in the half court while focusing primarily on defense. it also seems to result in slightly more possessions in a game, like the press does, which corresponds with a fatigue hit - which is an advantage if you are the better team, and a disadvantage if not. as long as you recruit quality ath/spd for your defense and make sure to get one or two guys who can hit 3s (which is even somewhat optional), you will wind up with enough lp/per to be successful. ft% is valuable too, a good fb team should draw lots of fouls by nature of their high levels of ath/spd and just by nature of the fb offense. its kind of like motion but with more flexibility when you set your distro.

I think plague's advice is pretty good overview, though he said one thing that caught my attention:

"I am not high on high ATL/SPEED players if they can't shoot. Those guys in my opinion are role players and should never be starting. "

I'm squarely on the other side of this statement.  Superior ATH/SP is what will make the FB (and really the FB/FCP combo) will work, almost regardless of LP or PE.  If you can shoot 70%+ on FT's and have superior ATH/SP and good DEF, you can go a far way with FB/FCP.  Being able to drain 3's certainly helps, but I'd rather shoot 35/45 on FTAs each game.  The fatigue, foul, and rotation issues that creates for the other team is a devastating combination in your team's favor, and is more consistent from game to game.  IMO of course.


Also, he said IQ is the most important component of FB/FCP combination.  While that's important, I'd put stamina right up there with it, esp. if the goal is to run the other team until they fall unconscious and get into their bench.  He mentioned targeting stamina, I just wanted to re-emphasize that part and probably even rank it a bit higher than where he was placing it.  IMO of course.

I think Stamina is only important if you run a 10 man rotation.   If you play all 12 guys, Stamina becomes less significant.   I am not scared of guys in th 60's if I plan on playing 5 bigs and 7 guards.

As someone who switched from Flex/Press to FB/Press a few seasons back, I would agree with the "ST is critical" view.  It took me a few seasons to build up the team ST and we were very susceptible to 30+ point blowouts during the transition.  We'd just have games with what I call the fatigue death spiral.  Some of them I knew going in it would happen, but couldn't do anything about it (i.e. no slowdown option).

I feel pretty strongly that a FB/Press team needs to have team ST of 80+ to beat quality opponents.  Having multiple starters with 90+ ST goes a long way too.

edited to add: I've had a 12-man rotation over the entire period I'm talking about.

Well, that wasn't my experience in my 30 seasons or so running it in RUPP.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 7/24/2013 11:18:00 AM (view original):
Well, that wasn't my experience in my 30 seasons or so running it in RUPP.

If you don't mind me asking, did you have many deep NT runs during that time?  My experience has been that sub-par ST is really a problem against the type of teams you start facing around the S16/E8.  Particularly if they're also FB and/or Press. 

None.

I think I got to the elite eight once and sweet 16 twice (maybe three times) but the majority of the time I was at Princeton.  I went DIII, DII, Princeton, Rutgers.

I never really noticed a fatigue penalty, what I noticed was I no longer has a speed and athleticism advantage,   I had 90/90 (at Rutgers) in my guards but so did the other teams I played in the NT and there players were better than mine elsewhere.

FCP/FB only worked for me when I had a significant (5-10%) advantage in ATH/SPD.

I think that's why FB/FCP is more viable at D3 or D2.  You can get that separation in ATH/SP/DEF that it takes to make it work so well a lot easier than at D1

Yeah, that's what I am saying.   I think jdno's Illinois team knocked me out of the playoffs twice in Rupp.   His guards are 95/80, i couldn't get my teams to that level, nevermind better than that.   There were always 6-10 teams on that level, all the time.   UConn was the only top 10 team I was ever able to beat with even a little consistency and I think it was because he always lost EE so his IQ's were lower.

I mean, my teams were good but they were top 20 talent good not top 10 talent good.

Thanks for the input guys, thats really good stuff.

Posted by jdno on 7/24/2013 10:09:00 AM (view original):
I think plague's advice is pretty good overview, though he said one thing that caught my attention:

"I am not high on high ATL/SPEED players if they can't shoot. Those guys in my opinion are role players and should never be starting. "

I'm squarely on the other side of this statement.  Superior ATH/SP is what will make the FB (and really the FB/FCP combo) will work, almost regardless of LP or PE.  If you can shoot 70%+ on FT's and have superior ATH/SP and good DEF, you can go a far way with FB/FCP.  Being able to drain 3's certainly helps, but I'd rather shoot 35/45 on FTAs each game.  The fatigue, foul, and rotation issues that creates for the other team is a devastating combination in your team's favor, and is more consistent from game to game.  IMO of course.


Also, he said IQ is the most important component of FB/FCP combination.  While that's important, I'd put stamina right up there with it, esp. if the goal is to run the other team until they fall unconscious and get into their bench.  He mentioned targeting stamina, I just wanted to re-emphasize that part and probably even rank it a bit higher than where he was placing it.  IMO of course.

I think the reason I value IQ is because when rebuilding even when I had quality players my teams could not be competitive without a high IQ. Does not seem to matter how good the players are I would not do well with a IQ in the B'S.

Luckily you can do both practice IQ and stamina so debating which is more important does not matter. I just think you have a better chance of winning with players IQ'S in the A'S and stamina in the 70's, than players with a IQ in the B's and stamina in the 80's and 90's.