The Pack Line II (DDS: CB)

[NarratorC]

Let's try this again, shall we?

The last post of my Pack Line story explains why Pack Line II came to be.

Most of the ideas behind the story are the same as last time, so I'll quote from the first post of my previous thread:

"I became a Virginia basketball fan when I was in the third grade. A family visit to Thomas Jefferson's home and to the university he founded sealed my fate. My undergraduate and graduate alma maters play Division III basketball, so I could maintain my loyalty to the Cavaliers through my own student days. And I live in Virginia now, so it's even more natural to follow my adopted team. I've turned my daughter into a Hoos fan too, much to the amusement of her mom.

That's the motivation for the story I'm going to try to tell here.

"My character will base his coaching philosophies on those of Coaches Dick and Tony Bennett. He'll begin his career at age 35..."

But, this time he won't be starting out at Green Bay. The Phoenix have an average academic reputation (C), and in DDS: CB, these reputations don't change. I want to coach in a program where academics are a priority.

"My goal is to one day coach at Virginia, where [Dick's] son is currently adding to the family legacy. My coach's path along the way might take varied twists and turns, but Charlottesville will be his dream destination."

That aspiration remains the same. However, my coach must only take jobs at schools with academic reputations of B+ or better. Virginia's is A-, one of about forty programs at that level or higher.

"The Bennetts are known for their tenacious Pack Line defense. Father created it, and son won a national championship with it. I'll be running a man-to-man defense with my teams, the closest I can come to recreating the Pack Line in DDS:CB. They'll primarily run a motion offense; the blocker-mover offense the Bennetts have employed is that type of offense."

My coaching philosophies won't change, either.

I enjoyed starting at Green Bay, and I'm going to begin this story with a team that is roughly equivalent in terms of prestige.

There are 24 schools with prestige between 14 and 39 and academic rankings of B+ or better.

SCHOOL          CONFERENCE                  PR  AC
Northeastern    Colonial Athletic Assoc.    39  A
Harvard         Ivy League                  37  A+   
Yale            Ivy League                  36  A+
Pennsylvania    Ivy League                  36  A+
Bucknell        Patriot League              35  B+
Miami (OH)      Mid-American Conference     32  B+
Air Force       Mountain West Conference    30  B+
Santa Clara     West Coast Conference       29  B+
Boston Univ.    Patriot League              28  A-
Furman          Southern Conference         27  A-
Holy Cross      Patriot League              26  A-
Fairfield       Metro Atlantic Conference   23  B+
Colgate         Patriot League              23  A-
William & Mary  Colonial Athletic Assoc.    22  A-
Rice            Conference USA              22  A+
Brown           Ivy League                  19  A
Fordham         Atlantic 10 Conference      18  B+
Cornell         Ivy League                  18  A
Columbia        Ivy League                  18  A+
Marist          Metro Athletic              16  B+
Loyola (MD)     Patriot League              16  B+
Cal Poly        Big West Conference         15  B+
Lafayette       Patriot League              15  B+
Dartmouth       Ivy League                  14  A

I let a random number generator choose where our story begin. It picked #3, so it looks like Coach Ryan Bellamy is on his way to Yale!

[NarratorC]

Spring 2018

You can't place a higher emphasis on academic excellence than Yale does. Several of their Ivy League brethren, along with schools like Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, and Rice, also earned the deluxe A+ rating. Coach Bellamy should be able to emphasize academics with the players he recruits.



At least our assistants share the commitment to academic excellence. Coach Lilly and Coach Dixon will happily assume the "bad cop" roles, while "Uncle Phil" Barnes will be available to drape an arm around a dejected player's shoulders.

They're roughly as good as most Ivy League coaching staffs.

Here is our 2018-19 roster:



Do you notice anything interesting about our roster? Our only senior, James Telly, is a walk-on. I won't be doing any recruiting during my first season on the job!

In a way, that's a bummer, because recruiting is fun, and it might take a bit longer to shape the Yale team in the image I would like it to have.



As you might expect from a team that has no seniors, we have a fairly raw bunch of players. I'm excited about Jeremy Maybin, who has the potential to be the best guard in the Ivy League. Leon Evans's inside-outside game is intriguing. Joe Patrick is an athletic, physical guard.

Fortunately, it appears the players know the Motion offense and Man-to-Man defense I plan to use fairly well. They also know Princeton and 5 Out offenses, so those will be mixed in, too.

Since we don't have any recruiting tasks to perform, I'll be getting to the season fairly quickly.