Interview with
rocksolid33
Who are you?
I am 39 years old, I reside in New Jersey (near Philly, not New York) with my wife, 16 year old son and I am employed as financial crimes investigator with a large bank. I attended Delaware State University on a track and field scholarship (shot put, discus) graduating in 2001.
Did you play any sports growing up?
Growing up I primarily played basketball which is my first love but I knew I didn't really have a future in it, I just loved competing. As a junior in high school the throwing coach (Jon Kalnas) suggested I try throwing the discus, I picked it up pretty quickly, won two NJ Group 1 state championships and off to college I went.
How did you get involved in this game?
Actually, a guy I knew introduced me to the game about 8 years ago. We always had similar interests, such as sports SIM management games, I don’t know how he learned of WIS but I am happy he shared it with me.
How many seasons have you played?
Tough to know at this point but I’ve been at Bowie State since season 17 and now we are starting season 104, so that’s 87 seasons!!! Wow that’s a long time… I few seasons ago I thought about leaving Bowie St and start over at another D2 school, I think it might be time...
Congrats on your runner-up finish last season, tell us about your squad, and how you were left to face the juggernaut that was W. FLA (West Florida with coach ab90 went back to back)
At what point did you think you could make an NT run?
Thanks, I knew West Florida had a tough tough team, almost too good. My team last year was special, I knew we were going to make a run after the non-conference schedule was finished. We won a few close games on the road against a few good teams which are typically harder due to the home court advantage. My philosophy is pretty much the same season after season, “scheduling tough non-conference games, can give you an idea of how your team will play in the NT”. As the season progressed, my players ratings kept improving beyond where I thought they would go and we ended up with a 60 or 65 point increase from the beginning of the season. I knew we had a shot to win it all.
My team from season 103, was special as we had my version of the big three Dan Foulk (all around great player - thousand point scorer); Bernardo Russo - pretty good player, could have been a starter but better coming all the bench, great outside scorer - thousand point scorer); and Alexis Bruno - excellent SF, could do it all - fifteen hundred point scorer).
These three guys led my team all the way to the championship, ultimately we could not overcome ab90’s great squad.
Best advice to a new player?
Experiment will all of the offenses and defenses, to try to get an understanding of what type of players you need to be successful and recruit the best players for your particular style of play. Read the forums, use sitemail, as the other coaches are always willing to help out and give you a little insight into their philosophy.
Favorite player you've coached?
By far my favorite player was Arron White from seasons 27 - 30, he was a beast! 2000 pt scorer and 1000 rebs during his career, lead us to the championship and final for during his Jr and Sr seasons. I believe his distribution never exceeded 20, he was very efficient.
If you had to pick five bullet points on what makes a successful team what would they be?
In this version of the game I would say:
#1 Defense - All of the team who have been having success lately have had a team defensive rating of 60+. Not to say that you can stack a team with great defense players and you can win a championship but being a defensively strong team is now a requirement.
#2 Passing - This might seem a little strange but having a good passing team could easily get overlooked as we are recruiting but this is essential to having a winning team.
#3 Bench Scoring - I am unsure whether other players feel the same but having a really good go to scorer coming off of your bench makes game planning much easier as you can count on a guy (or two) to get double figures every game, which is hard to game plan against.
#4 Offensive/Defensive Balance - You never want to shoot too many three’s and yet you never want to shoot to few… It’s easy to game plan against a team that shoots 30 three’s a game or a team that shoots 5 three’s a game. Finding the correct balance is the key to not having those dreaded scoring droughts which tend to result in losses at the end of the game.
#5 Talent - This is easier said than done… Recruit the best players that you can find because in the end a 550 rated team will rarely, if ever beat a 700 rated team,
What users do you enjoy competing against the most?
As I feel like I have been playing this game forever, I have played against a lot of the older legends who have since retired or moved on to D1 (davisdynasty, viddy, kylesleem, garmansouth, sharrow, etc.) and the current group of guys who enjoy competing against such as pretty much everyone in the Rocky Mountain Conference but more specifically aaronwins, 1peat, crushthebean, notoriousopp and last but not least, Matt Starks.
Matt Starks is a really really good coach, he has won three title with two different teams and he is already making Regis a contender after only three seasons. He doesn't always have the best team but he knows how to game plan and win. I specifically mention Matt Starks because I have never beaten him, I think I am 0 - 21 which is ridiculous but he is a far better coach than I am.
I also enjoy coaching against aaronwins, I used to beat up on him, early in his career at Elizabeth City St. but he has grown into a very impressive recruiter and coach. Most recently he beat me this year in our annual non-conf match-up but I hope to get another crack at him in the NT.
What keeps you playing?
Very simply, I like to compete…
I like recruiting, building a team to see how the players mesh and play together. I like to see players grow and look back at their actual vs. expected ratings.
I like the challenge of building a team, not with the best overall players but players that I think compliment each other and will play well together.
What is on your whatifsports coaches bucket list?
At this point, I wanted to win another championship at Bowie St. before moving on to another D2 school to attempt a rebuild. I am not interested in D3 and I have a moderate interest in D1 but I don’t I would ever make a permanent move to D1 in Phelan.
Most painful loss?
This one is easy, I lost in the championship game of season 58 against Grand Canyon which was coached by Viddy. I believe we were up by 15 points at half-time and had the worst collapse of my career, losing the second half by 25 poiunts and ultimately losing the game by 10. This loss still bothers me to the day.
What type of offense/defense do you run? Why?
For years I ran the triangle/full court press but as the game has evolved, I now fun flex/man to man.
I feel like the flex offense is better for the types of players that I like to recruit and with the man to man defense, I can better predict defensive performances from game to game as opposed to erratic results from full court press.
How do you recruit for your style of play?
I “try” to recruit good defenders first but when I am trying to anticipate a player’s offensive capabilities, I tend to let other factors become less important and end up with a bad defensive and offensive player.
Favorite Sports teams/schools?
I am a big Florida State fan, I loved the Charlie Ward ear. I also enjoy the NBA and NFL but I don’t really have a favorite team, I like to see good games.