Your New Job!

A few things happen after the end of the National Tournament. Many of these things will have already happened if you are just joining the world. First off (most of the time) your prestige changes, whether this means up or down it effects who you will be able to recruit right away. You’ll notice that when you search “All D3 recruits” With (lets say) your C- prestige inseason and then do the same with your C+ prestige after the season is over you will have more, usually better recruits available to you. So take a chance to rescan recruits and see if there is anyone new. (The “better” recruits may or may not be on the top of your list because they might have a lower “overall” score but have better “cores”)

Also players transfer. Players can transfer from a school due to a lack of playing time and/or due to a coach breaking a promise to that player. These players are available right after the conclusion of the NT and can be viewed then and added to your watch list.

Another good thing to do is to search up 1 division within 100 miles. Any player that is within 70 miles may take your recruiting effort if they normally wouldn’t because they are “local” to your school. So send these guys (If there are any you might want on your team) a phone call in cycle 1. You can judge by their response whether or not they are willing to be recruited by you or if it’s a lost cause.

Scouting

At the beginning of each season all the recruits for the next season are generated. This means you can look through them, add players to your watch list that fit your system.

(The recruiting Watch list has NO effect on prospective players, this is only for your benefit)

You can order these recruits by ‘High’ ‘Medium’ and ‘low’ or leave them at nothing at all. This is a good way to build a small (or big) list of players to keep your eye on. Also if you find an ineligible player that you’re interested in by adding them to your watch list you will get periodic updates as to whether or not they have reached the scores they need to become eligible to play for your team if you recruit them.

(Note: At D3 all players are eligible as long as they have a 2.0 gpa or higher, disregard the “Ineligible” at the top of their profile)

There isn’t anything more you can do inseason recruiting wise other then look for prospective players and build your recruiting watch list.

Ratings

These are the definitions of each category per admin in a Dev chat. Figured I'd throw them in here to make them more easily accesible.

Athleticism (ath): refers to physical skills/strength. In HD, athleticism is used on both sides of the ball. On offense, it plays a role in rebounding, positioning inside and how players finish around the basket. On defense, it plays a role in defensive positioning (especially inside), rebounding and shot blocking.

Speed (spd): refers to a player's quickness. Like athleticism, speed is important on both sides of the ball and the importance of which varies by position on the court, e.g. it's much more important for guards to be quick than for post players. On offense, speed is important for perimeter players to effectively be able to get to the basket. On defense, quickness is vital for overall defense, especially against guards and forwards but can benefit big men by giving them the ability to cause turnovers and it helps with shot blocking.

Rebounding (reb): refers to a player's rebounding fundamentals and his desire to rebound. Very few ratings stand alone - rebounding is an example of that - I may have a high rebounding rating which may make me a good rebounder but if I'm not also a good athlete, I'll never be a great rebounder.

Defense (de): like rebounding, defense refers to a player's defensive fundamentals and their desire to play defense. Again, knowledge of the fundamentals and having the desire are great, but you also need the athleticism and speed to be a great defender.

Shot Block (blk): refers to a player's understanding of timing and positioning when blocking shots.

Low Post (lp): refers to a player's ability to score inside the paint. Currently only applies to SF, PF and C positions on the floor.

Perimeter (pe): refers to a player's outside shooting ability. Applies to all positions on the floor with this skill carrying more weight for perimeter players (PG, SG, SF) but also plays a role for post players. The ability to score both inside and outside makes any player more difficult to stop. For example, I'd prefer a PF with 80 low post and 30 perimeter over a PF with 93 low post and 2 perimeter.

Passing (p): refers to a player's ability to know when and where to deliver the ball to their teammates. Applies to all positions on the floor but carries more weight as you move away from the basket.

Ballhandling (bh): refers to a player's ability take care of the ball. Like passing, applies to all positions on the floor but carries more weight as you move away from the basket. Ballhandling is important for players you want to be "slashers".

Work Ethic (we): work ethic impacts how hard a player works to improve.

Stamina (st): stamina refers to a player's endurance. The higher his stamina, the longer he can player without diminished skills.

Durability (du): refers to how a player deals with injuries - the higher a player's durability, the less likely they are to sustain a severe injury and when they do get injured, how quickly they'll be able to return.

Postseason Recruiting Monies

Recruiting monies are figured out this way:

Note: There is a maxium amount of recruiting monies you can have. It is equal to 6 open schoolies worth of money AND your conference post season earnings.

First if you fill all of your ‘ships the year before you get 25% of your remaining money carried over.

For every ‘ship you have open you get a certain amount of money depending on division, Division III: $3,000 per ‘ship, Division II: $5,000 per ‘ship, Division I: $15,000 per ‘ship

Also Postseason play comes in. You get the following money depending on how well your division did the previous year in the Postseason:

For the National Tournament:

• In Division III, conferences will earn $3,000 per game played by one of it's members schools
• In Division II, conferences will earn $5,000 per game played by one of it's members schools
• In Division I, conferences will earn $20,000 per game played by one of it's members schools

For the PostSeason Invitational:

• In Division III, conferences will earn $1,000 per game played by one of it's members schools
• In Division II, conferences will earn $1,500 per game played by one of it's members schools
• In Division I, conferences will earn $5,000 per game played by one of it's members schools

Recruiting Distances Breakdown

In Division 3 it is advised that you stay fairly close to home, there are exceptions of course but when you first start out it is key to bring in a solid class and the easiest way to not mess-up is to stay close to home (I’d say within 500 miles, although the closer the better)

Here are the changes in Cost for local and semi-local recruiting:

Miles	10	190	200	360	370
Scouting Trip	$152	$188	$265	$296	$531
Home Visit	$302	$338	$415	$446	$748
Campus Visit	$801	$823	$1025	$1044	$1264

Recruiting Methods

Type	What It Does
Watch List	Adds a player to your ‘Watch List’ No recruiting value
Call Recruit	Calls the recruit. Minimal recruiting value, Good to see if you are a ‘backup option’ or if you’re good to go to recruit. Note: Too many can annoy a recruit
Send Materials	Sends player materials on your school, pretty much the same as a phone call.
Call Coach	Calls players coach. You may receive information on what Offense and Defense the player played in High School and how well they know it. Minimal (if any) recruiting value.
Scouting Trip	You Scout the player during one of his games. You get feedback on the player’s skills and possibly what Offense and/or Defense they play and/or how good they know it. Can not be refused by the player. Great way to get a player to begin to accept HV or CV. Decent recruiting Value.
Home Visit	You go to a player’s house to visit them. Can be denied by recruit. May or May not receive the money that would have been spent on it back. Good Recruiting Value
Campus Visit	You bring a player to your campus to show them around. Can be refused by Recruit, may or may not get monies back. Maximum recruiting value.
Guaranteed Minutes/Start	You let the player know that you plan on playing them. Be sure you can meet these promise before you give them out. Players can transfer if you don’t live up to them. Solid recruiting Value. Note: Promises are only for a players Freshmen year.
Psyc Opinion/Personality Test	Were used for Dilemmas that are now not in the engine. Not refuse able by recruit, some coach’s say it works to help getting a player to take HV/CV. I have not used them.
Inform of Redshirt	Telling a player you plan on redshirting them. Although not needed to redshirt a player if you inform them and you sign them they will take a redshirt no matter what. Usually Negative recruiting value.
Offer Scholarship	Offering one of your open ‘ships to a potential recruit. In my opinion if you really want a guy its best to offer the ‘ship right away. Solid recruiting value.
Booster Gifts	Illegal way of recruiting (Can’t be used at DIII). Very High Risk, potentially High Reward?? I have never used them but I believe that most people that do use them don’t get away with them. If caught Harmful to your reputation and your program may not be allowed to play in the postseason and/or lose ‘ships.

Considering Credit

Considering credit is credit your team recieves for being 'considered' by a recruit. It is a sort of bonus for recruiting a player early and often. You start to gain Considering Credit on "Day 2", Customer Service has said they will not say when it exactly starts as to keep coaches from camping that cycle. Also, if a player has 2 (or more) schools being considered, each school is not necessarily getting the same amount of credit. Credit is based on not only being considered, but also how much recruiting effort you are putting fourth on said recruit.

Future Stars Scouting

FSS is the scouting system that WIS instituted as the 'New' Potential. There are many opinions on it and the biggest drawback being that it really has taken a lot away from being able to develop your players as you feel fit via your practice plan and has shifted that into recruiting (ie if you want to develop a high PER sf you need to recruit one with either an already high per rating or one that has good potential as opposed from just giving him 20 minutes in PER and seeing it improve around 8-10 points in a season (which was how it worked in the old system))

You have to purchase states via the FSS system to get the info on each player's potential and states vary in price based on the number of recruits the said state.

The biggest benefit of FSS, imo, is the 'Word on the Street' Info that you get twice daily (approx 2 am/pm est). This tells you where said recruit is leaning and/or how big of a target said player is for said team

Recruiting Against Simmies (D1)

Players 'Overall'?

A players “Overall” is a very deceptive number. It really only means the Overall number of ratings points and nothing more. Just because a player is “Overall” higher then another player does NOT mean they are better. It does give them a better chance of being a better player. What you really need to look at is the players “Core Values”. Core values differ by position and are very much so dependent on the sets you run (ie Defense ratings is much more important in Man to Man then Zone.) Here is my list of Core Values by position in order of importance.

PG: Speed, Passing, Ball Handling, Stamina, Athleticism, Work Ethic, FT%, Defense, Perimeter (In my opinion really only has to be improvable)
SG: Speed, Athleticism, Perimeter, Ball Handling, Work Ethic, Stamina, Passing, Defense, FT%
SF: Athleticism/Speed, Rebounding, Perimeter, Work Ethic, FT%, Low Post, Stamina, Defense, Ball Handling/Passing
PF/C(Are usable Interchangeably): Rebounding, Athleticism, Speed, FT%/Perimeter, Low Post, Shot Blocking, Defense. (At the lower levels any Ball Handling and/or Passing is viewed as a bonus)

Recruits do come into college with an IQ knowledge, Freshmen come in with anywhere from an F to a B- in a set. Most coaches take the IQ a player has as a bonus. You can find out where there IQs might be by calling recruits HS coaches and/or using Scouting Trips.

Low Post means absolutely nothing for any player playing at a guard position. Shot Blocking is pretty much meaningless for guards also.

Players High School stats do NOT mean anything! The only one that matters is FT%! The others are window dressing.

Some coaches will disagree with me on the importance of Perimeter in Big Men. I feel it opens up my game for all of my players and really helps when teams play negative D settings on me as my big men can step out and hit the 12-15 footers, along with the occasional 3-pointer.

Walk-ons

Walk-ons are not the end of the world. Unlike in GD, where you are stuck with the player for 4 years, walk-ons do not automatically get a scholarship. They are on your roster for 1 year, and when that year is over they leave. Giving you another 'ship AND monies to recruit for it. So taking a walk-on or two is a great way to balance out classes and have some extra money available. Also, Its adviced to take a walk-on over a scrubby player who will sit on your bench for 4 years.

Note: Taking more then 2 walk-ons gives your team a pracitce penalty, your players won't improve as fast as normal. So try to keep it at 2 walk-ons at the most! Or if you get in a bind, give your best walk-on a 'ship or just deal with the Penalty. (With the introduction of FSS, the practice penalty is almost non-existent).

D1 Recruiting Tip: During recruiting I find it very worth while when starting to build up a new program to recruit expecting to take one or two walk-ons. The added 15-30k that you will have to use towards other recruits to begin your rebuild can be very helpful.

Ineligibles

At DII and DI these players are not eligible for their Freshmen season, meaning they do not play nor do they practice. Put all Practice minutes into Study Hall (Really it does matter).

These players have a chance of being eligible for a 5^th year of eligibility. At DII they need a 2.0 gpa to be offered a 5^th year (They do NOT have to stay for 5) at DI they need a 2.7 gpa or higher to be offered this extra year.

Also ineligibles may or may not actually report to your team. If you sign them during recruiting there is still a chance that they might go JuCo. If this happens you will receive an email shortly after the CI top 32 Recruiting Classes mail. Then the next season you will have a small built up recruiting advantage for these players, sometimes they will even begin the recruiting period considering you.

Note: Once again all players are eligible at DIII.

Redshirting

First off it takes 1 recruiting cycle to see the results of your potential redshirt. (ie whenever a cycle would sim, you’ll get your response even if you throw it on 1 minute before said cycle)

Using the Redshirt button during recruiting is the only “For sure way” to make sure a recruit you want to redshirt will in fact accept the redshirt. What I have posted before is just a pattern I have noticed and something you can use to possibly not have to use the button. Again It is not 100% guaranteed.

Another way to get a possible recruit to redshirt is to put them on mop-up and leave them off your Depth Chart for the exhibition schedule. You can also keep taking the redshirt on and off the player may entice him to take it, or it could result in an even bigger Work Ethic drop.

It is possible to redshirt a player you promised minutes to as I have noted in the above link. Although its not guaranteed and really doesn’t make too much sense.

Practice Plans

Practice plans are the second most important thing in developing talent for your team (behind recruiting of course and, in my opinion, followed by getting your young guys a little playing time). Each player has 130 minutes of practice time. Each player has an Individual Practice Time of 130 – Team practice Minutes.

Team Practice:

For team practice you decide how much you want to improve your players IQs. The normal is 20 minutes in each Offense and Defense. It is highly recommended to only have one of each (although combo D’s are available at the lower levels players have to much individual improvement that its advised to only run one). Although it is your team so if you want to try having 2 different O’s go for it.

Some coaches change Team practice minutes based on how young/old their team is. With very large (possibly superclass size) freshmen and sophomore classes I advice to bump up the O/D at least a couple points. I usually run my D (I play mostly press where IQ is more important to cut back on excessive fouling) practice at 25 minutes and my O practice at 20. If you have a very big Junior/Senior class you could even possibly choose to cut out team practice altogether. IQ levels do not go down even if they are not being practiced.

Individual Practice:

Here is what each practice category increases:

Practice Category	Improves
Conditioning (C)	Stamina, Athleticism, Speed, Shot Blocking, Durability
Footwork (FW)	Defense, Shot Blocking, Low Post
Passing (P)	Passing
Low Post (LP)	Low Post
Perimeter (PE)	Perimeter Shots (both mid-range and 3-pointers)
Dribbling (BH)	Ball Handling
Free Throw Shooting (FT)	Free Throw Grade
Rebounding (REB)	Rebounding
Study Hall (SH)	GPA

Note: The point of diminishing returns is around 25 practice minutes in a single category. So anything over 25 will give you less then 1 minutes practice. It is ok to put more then 25 into a category, and is sometimes even the best thing to do.

Note: Players ratings are considered “Un-improvable” if less than 20 and over 90. The rate of improvement is very slow so it is usually advised to put nothing into categories under 20 and at least 7 (7 is used to maintain a rating where it is at with no decrease) into anything 90 and above, assuming you have other improvable ratings where the minutes can be used more effectively.

Free Throw Practice:

Once upon a time in HD you could get any player to an A in FT shooting, about a year ago WIS decided to take that strategy away from us coaches. Now a player will improve only 4% (On average, although that is pretty much the norm) over their ENTIRE career. (They did this because apparently the average improvement they did in a study of 1000 D1 players was 4%, I disagree and even found different results) In other words, maybe 2/3 of a letter grade is all your going to be able to get. (Depending on WE a little). So now i practice FTs at 12 minutes (12 is used to keep players from decreasing, I wouldn't go any lower then 12 as FT% decreases MUCH faster then it improves) for all of my players regardless of how good or bad they are. FTs is also now something I recruit for. (With the introduction of FSS players are once again able to increase FT% based on their potential not only 4%)

Also very important, You don’t want your players getting bad grades or they won’t be able to play and you’ll take a rep hit!

This is usually what I use when setting players SH minutes at the start of a season:

Freshmen: 7-10 depending on HS GPA
Sophomore: I usually start them at what they ended with Fr. Year.
Junior: 3-7 depending on Cum. GPA
Senior: 1-5 depending on Cum. GPA.

Note: Treat a Redshirted Freshmen as a regular Fr.

Note: There are 2 mid-terms and 2 final-grades. This gives you an opportunity to change your SH minutes if your players are in trouble of failing. Once you get your 2^nd set of Final Grades. You can take all SH minutes away from players and put them into other categories.

Note: If a player becomes ineligible during the season he will still practice with your team, he is just not allowed to play. So Do NOT move all his minutes over to Study Hall, just enough to get him eligible (Which could be anywhere from 10 to anything depending on his year and his gpa).

Offseason Improvements

These are random, based off a players Work Ethic. Meaning a player with a higher WE has a better chance of gaining more in the offseason. A player that has a lower WE has a lesser chance. Usually a player with under 30 WE losses points in SPD/STA/DUR in the offseason.

Depth Chart:

Here are able to set your starters your backups and where you’d like every to possibly play during a game. If a player is listed at a position on your depth chart he could possibly play that position at any point throughout the game. So don’t put a player somewhere you don’t want him playing.

Also players are able to move 1 slot away from their listed position without penalty. (ie pg to sg or pf to sf). There is a penalty for moving someone more then 1 spot (ie pg to sf) although it is not known how much it is and many coaches have been extremely successful doing it, so don’t be afraid to try new things out.

In my opinion to be a great team you really need to have 10 quality players that you can play with. A starter at every position and a backup that plays at one position (of course foul trouble can complicate that a little bit but for the most part). This is again my opinion, but depth can never hurt!

Playing Time:

You can select to get your players PT by either Target Minutes or Fatigue setting. Here is an overview of the systems

Target Minutes:

Using Target Minutes is the easiest way to make sure those promises you made to recruits come true. It also gives you the easiest way to know my best player is playing at least x minutes. The downside (And why I no longer use it) is that too much your players play late in games fatigued. If a player is in foul trouble early and therefore doesn’t play much in half 1 the engine will still try and get him his x minutes, even if that means running him dry in half 2. Seeing as how players don’t play as well when fatigued, I don’t like this.

Fatigue:

In fatigue setting you set your players by when you would like them to exit the game. Your options are: Fairly Fresh, Getting Tired, Tired, Very Tired, Foul Trouble Only, Mopup, Rest. When a player reaches whichever setting you have him at he is removed from the game (at the soonest dead ball and/or a timeout on some occasions).

First off I would never recommend having a player set at Very Tired or Foul Trouble only. Not only will they have an increased chance of getting injured they will also not be performing very well. Rest is used for an injured player. Mopup I use for those player I do NOT want to see any pt. (Usually Walk-ons). Mostly I have my teams set entirely too Getting Tired. My starters usually see 22-27 mpg while my backups get the rest. On occasion when I have a couple freshmen that I’d like to each get 8 minutes or there abouts I’ll put them both at Fairly Fresh at the same position. (Usually do this when I have an abundance of big men). In doing this I have found my teams to usually be well rested for the stretch run late in games and its why I have stuck with everyone set at Getting Tired. Although every team is different so this is another area where you are going to have to mess around with things to find out what suits you as a coach.

Player Distro

Player distros are your way as a coach of telling the engine how many plays you want to run for each player per game. Distro is a percent. So if your starting lineup looks like this:

Player A - 10
Player B - 10
Player C - 10
Player D - 10
Player F – 10

Every player on your team would receive the same amount of ‘plays ran for them’ in this case each player would get a play ran for them 20% of the time. If a backup came in that had only 5 distro then all the starters would get a higher percent of plays ran for them and the backup less then 20%.

Note: I prefer to run a balanced offense. Usually my teams run on most guys between 7-13 distro. Many times I have had backups recieving the most distro on my team. Remember distro is calculated by who is all on the floor. So even if a player is set at 20 distro out of 100 that doesn't mean that they will take 20% of the total shots for your team.

Note: Distro does not have to equal 100. You can have it add up to whatever number you see fit.

Note: Offensive rebounds do not go towards a players ‘distro’ because it is not a play ran for the player.

Note: You can run a team with All 0’s in the distro column. That allows the engine to determine when a player shoots. I and other coaches use this to see who our ‘play makers’ are. I have actually ran successful teams running all 0’s.

Also on the “Player Game Plan” page is the 3 point Frequency per player. This is where you can decide who you want shooting 3s and how often. To be honest I really don’t like any of my players above 0, except on rare occasions. Here is what each setting means:

• +2: Always look for the 3 pt. shot first
• +1: Take more 3 pt. shots than normal
• 0: Take a 3 pt. shot as part of the flow

of the offense. That is determined based on numerous factors, including a player's position, skills, the style of defense and the positioning of the defense.

• -1: Take less 3 pt. shots than normal
• -2: Never take a 3 pt. shot unless it's a desperation shot

Note: If you leave the offensive distro values at zero for all players the computer will decide each players 3 point frequency.

Also available is the “Foul Trouble” setting. This setting allows a coach to tell the engine how aggressive you want to be with your players when they are in foul trouble. If you have it set to More Aggressive the engine will keep your players in longer when they are in Foul Trouble. If you have it set to Less Aggressive it will pull them sooner and keep them on the bench longer.

Team Game Planning

In the team game plan page you set your offense to run, the tempo to run that offense at And the defense to run and what positioning.

Offense:

There are 4 offenses, Flex, Motion, Triangle and Fastbreak. I’ll refer you to ahausla’s thread on the “Compendium of HD Offenses”

Next we’ll move on to tempo. Tempo means only one thing, how much time your team will run off the clock before they take the shot. It in no way effects how good or bad the shot taken will be. Again if you run uptempo all that changes in the engine is less time comes off the clock each possession then if you were running normal or slowdown. This does indirectly effect fatigue, more possessions equals more fatigue, but running uptempo in and of itself does not wear out another team. It is mostly considered that If you are playing a team you are better then run uptempo, if you are playing a team that is better then you you have a better chance to win by running slowdown.

Note: I, personally, run uptempo with my press teams because I feel the extra possessions give my team an added advantage of having more chances to make the steal and the easy bucket.

Defense:

There are seven different D’s. Here I’ll quickly go over them.

Man to Man: Basic Man to Man D. A player matches up against a single player. Defense rating is most important in this defensive set. (I’ll throw out there 40-50ish as a solid number for a d3 player) Covered under the Man to Man IQ.

Zone (2-3 and 3-2):

Both are covered under the Zone IQ. 2-3 zone has 2 players guarding the perimeter and 3 players guarding the baseline. A 3-2 is the opposite, 3 in the perimeter and 2 on the baseline. Rebounding is big in a zone. If you run it you need to make sure you have a solid sf with good rebounding. If you run a 3-2 you need to have two VERY good rebounders inside. Any additional rebounding in your guards is a great bonus. Players D ratings are averaged in this D. So you can ‘hide’ a bad defender.

Fullcourt Press:

Covered under the Press IQ. You press the ball for the 1^st half of the court and trap for the 2^nd half. Speed and athleticism are big, the higher a players D rating the more steals they will have. Stamina is big in this D too as your players are continually running.

Half-court Press/Man to Man:

Covered under the Press and Man to Man IQs. Harder to have good IQs as you tend to be average in two rather then great in one. Need good Speed and Athleticism along with high Defense ratings.

Half-court Press/Zone:

Covered under the Press and Zone IQs. Again, Harder to have good IQs as you tend to be average in two rather then great in one. D is slightly less important then in HCP/M2M. Speed and Athleticism are Huge again.

Positioning:

This is where you tell your team what you would like them to take away. If you set your positioning to a + setting you will push into the perimeter in effect pressuring the ball more and taking away the outside shot. The higher you go into the numbers the more you guard the perimeter. On the otherside is the – setting, you pack into the interior and take away the inside shot, leaving the outside open. Obviously the faster your team the quicker your players can recover. 0 is ‘balanced’ where you don’t focus on either the interior or the perimeter.

Note: The more – you go the more fouls you will have.

Note: You are also given the opportunity to allow the Sim to change your positioning at half. You have a few options. Whenever your team is down 5 or 10 and Always or Never. The sim will never change you more then 2 points up or down. This is a personal preference thing. Personally I feel I am smarter then the Sim so I have mine set at ‘Never’.

Late Game Tactics:

Here you can set what you would like your team to do when winning late or losing late on either O or D. It uses the same principles as above. The only difference here is you can change your teams 3 point frequency on O by the team. So if you’re losing late and would like your team to launch 3s to try to get into the game then set it + or – for not doing so

Note: When changing your O or D sets for your team, make sure to change them here also!

Note: At the bottom of the page are options to give or not give backups time based on if the game is out of reach. If you have promise to freshmen players this can hamper you from meeting them. So beware of that when choosing whether to choose either of them.

Individual Game Planning

Here I am just going to make many bullets as to what other coaches and/or myself have said they do to game plan. Use any or none of these points, just a few things to get your mind thinking of how to deal with this nightly event!

• Where does this team score from?
• Do they play the same line-up every night?
• Do they change tempo?
• Are they a good 3-point shooting team?
• Any line-up weaknesses?
• Can I move around any players to give myself an advantage?
• What do their IQs look like compared to my team?
• Are they a good rebounding team, do they lack Ball handling?
• Do they change their O or D?
• Are their any individual matchups I can take advantage of? (Ie a bad defender or slow player)
• Can I make any defensive line-up changes to better contain them?

Personally, when looking at only scoring that can be misleading. Just because a team scores most with their big men does NOT mean that they are scoring from the low block. Many teams run with big men that can nail the mid-range jumper. So beware of that before moving to close down the interior just because their big men are the top 3 leading scorers.

Thanks to emgilligan, cbriese, daalter and oldave whose input was used from former threads.

Note: While I usually don't move my starters around as I like to keep the same guys playing at the same places. The most common thing I do is move around my starting Big Men to take advantage of a slower guy down low. My bigmen are always the fastest and most athletic and I do not differentiate between PFs and Cs. So If the other team has a slow C i might switch my PF to C to take advantage of that matchup.

Note: Many coaches (for one reason or another) find it hard to find a good sf. I disagree with that and think its very easy to find a good one, you just have to spend the time during recruiting. Anyway here is something to think about if you are a non-believer in the lower level sf. When you are playing someone out of position there always make sure that you like the matchup at that position. IE if you are playing a press team, having a pf playing the 3 might not be a good idea. So maybe you'll want to move a sg over there? Or maybe your usual starting pf is a better athlete and you want him playing sf for a game.

Reserve

Reserve

Reserve