FBCB: Advice Thread For Running The Team Game-By-Game

[Chief Rum]

Okay, I have been getting back into FBCB again, and having a great time.

The problem is that I am discovering I must be a simply awful coach, because it seems very difficult for me to find the right combination. My teams are always so inconsistent. I look carefully over the numbers and make changes I think will help in some areas and others and tinker as I go. I sometimes use spreadsheets even.

It boggles my mind when I will hit recommend and the computer (or my assistant coach, whatever) will throw out a lineup and settings that just seem like strange combos to me, and despite what seems to me to be obvious flaws, still manages to succeed to extent. It never lasts, of course--the computer's lineup is often as or even more inconsistent than the lineups I throw out there.

Anyway, here are the areas I am looking for feedback on:

Depth Chart: Any recommendations on how to set this up to produce the best lineup? What key qualities do you guys use at certain positions that work for you? How many positions do you click on for starters? For reserves? What play time settings do you set for starters and reserves, and have any of you come to equate certain settings with certain times?

Team Strategy: What do you feel are the effects of Pace and Motion? Is 3P Use even useful (my teams seem to take threes anyway, no matter what setting I put on them). What is your feeling about the values of going Inside, Balanced, or Outside? Do you use the Key Players settings? Do you use multiple defensive sets or just try and stick with one? What are the merits of the various defensive sets as you see them? How does everyone recommend using the special settings at the bottom (pressing, trapping, doubling down, etc)?

Game Results: What is most important to you as a coach from your team? Do you prefer high-percentage shooting teams, or rebounding teams, or less-turnover-prone teams or some other team measure? What matters most to you? What are big warning signs to you that you immediately try and find ways of changing? And how do you view things individually? What levels for field goal percentage, or turnovers, or fouls, for instance, do you accept from players without getting annoyed at them? :)

I wqish I could say I had a general philosophy for all this, but I don't because I haven't really settled on anything I felt was assured of working (given the right parts). I look at a bunch of things and have my pet peeves, of course. For instance, I hate ball hogs, especially bad shooting ball hogs. If a guy takes all the shots but makes them all (or a high percentage), I don't mind, but nothing makes me want to yank a guy from the lineup than when he has a 4-17 game from the field. I look at each box score and generally get a good idea of why I lost a game. If it stayed the same, I would know what to work on, but it never does. :(

Anyway, just looking for tips, hints, advice and general FBCB talk about how you guys run your teams, and hoping I might pick up something I am missing or not paying enough attention to that might help me get my teams playing with more consistency and in the manner I like.

I generally start off as a low-end coach of Level 0 or so, and work my way up the ladder.

Thanks in advance for any responses and/or ensuing discussions.

Chief Rum

[SirFozzie]

I love the high scoring game. When I'm recruiting, I love to see Centers with high insides, and Guards with High Jump Shot and 3 Pointers ratings.

Kinda like the old Loyola Marymount style. We are going to run gun and try to run the opponent out of the building. We shoot quickly, and press on just about everything, to try to make a lot of turnovers that lead to fast break points.

[Balldog]

I am generally the exact opposite of SirFozzie, I usually will play my best defensive players and try to play a slow paced half court game.

Strictly half court man to man defense with a balanced offense. Then again those both depend on my roster if I got one guy that can put up 30 points a night he will be getting the ball often. If I have real poor defenders inside I would reluctantly go to a zone. Yuck.

[SirFozzie]

Bah.

High Powered Press Man to Man or Zone Press, and get the ball to your gunners.

The best defense is a 8-0 run.

RUn em till they drop. Then Run em some more, then run em till YOU drop.

[Balldog]

Your 8-0 run happens in 60 seconds.

My 8-0 run happens in 6 minutes.

The result is still the same, kind of.

[SirFozzie]

Yeah, but that gives me 5 more minutes to put more 8-0 runs up ;)

I love players that can drive at the SF/PG positions, while the SG is usually my jump shot/3 pointer guys.

If you can get their big guys in trouble by driving to the hoop, it's doubly good, you get the points while the clock is stopped, and there's usually a bigger drop off between starting C/PF and reserve C/PF, then there is at any other position, and then your inside guys can dominate.

[Axxon]

I guess I'm pretty weird. I try and think in terms of +/-

First I look at who needs to be stopped on the opposite team and gameplan him by trying to rotate my best defenders on him. Remember if you have a guy that averages 5ppg but has a positive +/- that means he is holding his opponents to less than that. Of course, if you put him against a guy that averages 20ppg you won't hold him to 4 pts but if you hold him to 12 and you score your 5 then it's a win.

After this I plan my matchups based on endurance. That's right, I try to keep my better players available to play when the opponent is subbing in his worst subs. I try early to test MY subs against his best and if they're keeping up, I'm solid. If not, I try and minimize the damage. Still, if I can gain the sub advantage I'll milk it.

Lastly I'll try and look for guys who work well together and call these guys sub combo's. I'll try then and sub these combo's together and base the subs on the paragraph above.

All of this means that I play every game and of course it doesn't always work but it feels so good when it does and when it fails I blame the players. :D

Actually, after a few games this whole process becomes sort of automatic and doesn't require as much preplan but I often create the real plan in the first half when everybody is fresh and the initial subs are made.

I'm certainly no great coach but overall I don't think I suck too bad. :)

As for philosophy I generally am more like Don Shula, I try and tailor my game to the players I have and I recruit for academics and solid skills at their position. Once I see them, I adjust my schemes to their actual abilities. I really don't see the advantage to trying to force square pegs into round holes and I haven't found myself very successful finding the perfect round pegs.

In general though I look for:

PG - high assists and high shot %. I want this guy to find the open man and barring that, to take the high percentage shot.

SG - I favor one guy who can shoot lights out to use vs the weak subs and one guy who is a shut down guy vs the elites.

SF - I want the best guy possible but I look for a guy with inside and outside skills whether o or d. I want the second guy to excel where the starter is weak but I don't like platooning here really.

PF - I want a second center but if he can step back and pop the three I usually get good mileage from that as most of these guys don't defend the perimeter well. I don't need my guy to defend the perimeter either but I'll use a perimeter guy on O if his D is solid to good effect.

C - I prefer a D guy because I've yet to really get a good O center and I'm tired of really trying. This may be a me thing but this guy does more than play the opponents center he's the last defence against penetrating players and even if he's weak on O he'll score enough putbacks if he can rebound.

Hope this helps but I'm really not a pro so I may be doing it all wrong.

[Chief Rum]

Thanks for the help, guys. My only comment on them right now is for Axxon (thanks for the detailed response, BTW). You seem to have a good system down for yourself. The problem is I don't coach the games. In fact, I hate coaching games. I avoid it like the plague (were I to ever run into plague). So my general system and hoiw it works within the sim engine is absolutely critical.

Also, bump for more responses. I know we have other FBCB players here (not that that means Balldog, Sir Foz and Axxon can't respond again ;) ).

CR

[Chief Rum]

dola,

Is +/- for sure using the scoring of the individual player across from you (the player at your position on the other team), or is it your team's whole +/- while you are in the game? I would use that stat more if I knew what it really meant.

CR

[SirFozzie]

I'm pretty sure +/- in basketball is points you score-guy your guarding's score

[Chief Rum]

Originally posted by SirFozzie
I'm pretty sure +/- in basketball is points you score-guy your guarding's score

Is that just from your experience with the game, Foz, or did you read that somewhere? Maybe it's in HR's manual? I would love to get confirmation on that.

CR

[heybrad]

I've only been playing since Christmas day so take my advice as very limited.

I think I've been very basic in my approach, but its worked fairly well to this point. I play with Long Beach State and in my four seasons, I've won the conference title twice (losing the conf. tournament one of those years), gone to the NIT once and the Tournament once.

For the starting rotation, I go after the best available guy and really dont pay attention to matching ratings to each position. If my scout feels a PG is 3 star, but I think he's a little low in handles, I go with it anyways. Once I know my starting five are set (or returning), barring a superstar wanting to come to LBState (which hasnt happened yet) I look for specialities to come off the bench. I try to find that A handling PG who might not be a great shooter or a Center that can swat just about every ball out of the gym and jump through the roof.

I look at it this way in the fantasy world I've created.... I'm putting the 5 best athletes I have for their position to start the game and once I get a feel for how the game is being played, I adjust. Example... My starting PG is having trouble with the press, bring in the better ball handler and just make sure someone else is the key guy.

I always thought the +/- rating was for the entire time you were out there and not specifically up against the guy you were guarding. Can HeavyReign clarify this stat?

I've had a blast with this game. My one appearance in the big tournament I was excited that I got to play Michigan State. I ended up getting absolutely pasted. I've learned to hate Utah State and their star guard Barry Puleo. I was giddy when my star center Jonathan Jones made 3rd team All-American.

This game is great.

[korme]

Actually, heavy made it clear that +/- for each player is Team Points Scored When Player was in game (-) Opponent Points Scored When Player was in game.

That is how players have higher +/- than their actual PPG.

[HeavyReign]

+/- needs to be the team total because of the use of zones. In the zone the player doesn't have a direct defensive matchup so it would be tough to determine which points should be held against him.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I don't know much about basketball and have only played about ten seasons with the game so far, so this might be a better strategy to avoid, but here's been my general approach to playing the game so far. I'll be interested in coming back to this and taking a look to see how I change this approach over the next ten seasons or so of play.

1. I don't coach any of the games, but I watch about half of them at the "5" speed setting. Doing so gives me an idea of what my team is doing wrong and what they are doing well. I have no inclination to coach, as I think it would slow down the seasons too much and probably give me an advantage once I figured out what I was doing.

2. I'm playing a low budget team, so I don't have a lot of cash for recruiting. Also, I started at level 0 as a coach, and so my scouting abilities suck. Therefore, I'm exclusively relying on the national rankings in evaluating recruits. This has led to some disappointments, but my scouting is too inaccurate at this level to help, and I don't have a lot of cash to check out a ton of recruits. I generally screen out the very low interest recruits, then evaluate anyone with three-stars that has average interest in our program. I'll often dip down to check out guys with low interest if they live in-state. I've also been trying to redshirt players so that I gradaute about three scholarship players a year.

3. I use the computer recommended depth chart settings as a start, then tweak them as I go along, mostly using +/- ratings as an indicator of good play. I freely play players out of position.

4. I have no idea what defensive sets to select, and have pretty much just letting the computer handle it. Unless our defense starts to suck eggs, in which case I'll go switch it to something else.

5. I always keep an eye on my key players' shooting stats, as these guys seem to take 30-50% more shots than other players on the the team. I don't want to be feeding some guy who isn't hitting shots, and I want to make sure someone who is hitting everything gets fed more balls. I'll adjust as necessary, but generally I want my two best outside shooters and one best inside shooter to be my key players.

6. I tweak "pace" based on the stamina and depth of my team, leave "motion" alone because I don't understand it (although I assume it has something to do with passing and so far I haven't had strong passing teams), and generally lower 3-pt. shooting by about 2 points off the AI-suggested number because I seem to play more inconsistently when it is set high.

7. For position skills, I roughly look for:
Center: good rebounding, good inside game, good inside defense
Power Forward: good rebounding, good inside game, good inside defense, good jump shot
Small Forward: good outside shooting, good perimeter defense
Shooting Guard: good outside shooting, good perimeter defense, good handling
Point Guard: good handling, good passing, good outside shooting, good perimeter defense

8. Overall, I seem to think that tweaking the lineup/strategy has a significant impact on the team's performance. "Key players" seems to be a biggie.

[hollmt]

I coach every one of my games out on 2 speed. This way I have nobody to blame but myself if I lose and cant blame the A.I. for not subbing someone of switching up Defenses during the game. Plus, I identify with my team much better this way I think as I can develop an interest in what player does what and when. For example in my dynasty, I am getting rather excited about my 2nd string freshman PG who will become a starter next season based on what he has done in his minimal playing time so far this season. But anyway, I digress…to your questions.

Depth Chart: I have stated before I delve into the numbers quite a bit, maybe too much…but I usually do the spreadsheet thing and the math and all that jazz and put the best overall player at a position, unless one certain player has a glaring stronger ability at a key attribute for his position. For example, strong inside scoring along with good rebounding skills and post defense for my inside guys. Obviously I look for inside, rebounding, PD, for my inside guys and Jump Shot and handling and such for my guards. If you are only simming your games, I wouldn’t really let each player play too many positions. Maybe let your C/PF play both spots and on the rare occasion a SF can play in the PF or C spot as well if they have the key attributes you need. Same for the guards…keep them in their areas, and on the rare occasion maybe they can play in the SF spot if needed.

Team Strategy: I stick with one D for the first season im in and will expand from there. I play a man D because I have the guys to play it as they are strong in their Post D and Perimeter D. If your guys aren’t, then by all means, DON’T PLAY MAN! Play a zone and help out. You can scout the team you are playing next and decide if you want to go with a 2-3 or a 3-2 zone based on your opposition’s skills and key guys. Pace and Motion I usually go with a high pace of around 8 and motion of 6. For the 1st half I play fast, and with about 10 to go in the half I drop it down to 6 and 5. To start the 2nd half I am back up to 8-6, then slow down again at the 10 minute mark to 6-5 and keep slowing it down to use up the clock if im winning, or speed it up if I need to. I do notice a difference in the 3pt shots based on what I use. I usually start with a 3 in that area and notice if im not making any, then I will drop the settings and if I am making them, I will leave it alone. I usually play a balanced attack, but again, you need to scout the team you will be playing and find out where they are weak in the D. Absolutely use your Key players! Scout the opposition and see who sucks on D and kick some butt. Again, this is why I coach my own games, cause as I play, if I notice one of my players has the hot hand, I will make him a key player and let him run wild. I love to press and trap and again, I think this depends on your defensive ability of your players. Judge that for yourself.

Game Results: The most important thing to me is that I scouted well and win. I do think that coaching the game individually lets you see much more of the game and gets you more involved in taking advantage of something the A.I coach wouldn’t. I love getting turnovers based on my D and my press and trap. Rebounds are important to me too, but currently my team sucks in that regard.

[bigdawg2003]

Axxon

I was able to recruit a center who had an 85 in inside scoring out of high school. Training camp bumped that to a 95. I redshirted him and now he's at 97 with 4 years of eligibility. Just thought i'd brag.

[hollmt]

what do the rest of his attributes look like?

[MrBug708]

Hire the best O and D coach I can find

[MrBug708]

Dola

BD, he's gone after second year

[hollmt]

no, hed be 20 after his 2nd year and by then he is too old to enter the draft.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by bigdawg2003
Axxon

I was able to recruit a center who had an 85 in inside scoring out of high school. Training camp bumped that to a 95. I redshirted him and now he's at 97 with 4 years of eligibility. Just thought i'd brag.

Nice. Think he may be looking for a transfer??? :D

[Balldog]

Originally posted by MrBug708
Hire the best O and D coach I can find

The only problem with this is it costs you recruiting money and more than likely these coaches will leave after one year for a head coaching job.

[bigdawg2003]

Here he is

Jordan Cardwell
6'11, 235
Douglass HS, Douglass, KS

Inside Scoring: 97/A
Jump Shot: 5/F
Free Throw: 34/D
Three Point: 7/F
Handling: 17/F
Passing: 11/F
Off. Rebouding: 84/A
Def. Rebouding: 73/A
Post Defense: 55/C
Perimeter Defense: 24/C
Steals: 32/C
Blocks: 55/C
Academics: 76

And yeah, every season I have him after this one is a blessing IMO.

[lcjjdnh]

Another question, do you guys find that you recruit players for your game plan or base the game plan on the players. Personally I usually base my game plan off the players but I'm thinking about setting up a system and then recruiting players who fit into it instead.

[Balldog]

I always adjust my gameplan to my personnel, since it is college and you can not just get every play you want you have to adapt to your players.

[Chief Rum]

I recruit to my gameplan and my ideal team, at least when I don't have to target specific areas because of holes on my team.

Once I have my team, in whatever form it is, I play the scheme that adheres best to their abilities. If I recruited right and well, it will be my standard gameplan. If not, it is what it is.

CR

[korme]

Originally posted by Balldog
I always adjust my gameplan to my personnel, since it is college and you can not just get every play you want you have to adapt to your players.

If you do not play nitty gritty gluestick defense, you do not play for Huggs. I would say that is recruiting towards a general gameplan.