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07-26-2010, 01:46 AM
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#1 | ||
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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FBCB - The Northwestern St. Demons
Since the new version of FBCB was released, I've been very tempted to start up a new career, mainly due to the better history keeping and NBA drafts run in the new version. I just can't seem to abandon my Northwestern St. career, however.
It all started back in 2003 (real time) when I decided that, after a few longish fast-sim careers using Boston U. and Holy Cross, I wanted to try and actually coach each game rather than just recruit and set gameplans. If I'd have known how much real-world time this route was going to have taken up, perhaps I'd have reconsidered.  In this thread I'm going to chronicle the seasons I've played, and it will probably take some time to get it up-to-date. The main reason for me doing this is to see how much my style of recruiting and game-planning has changed over the last 7 years - from the "1 target" scorer system, to stumbling onto the "steal exploit", and more recently a volume 3pt shooting style of play - and to try and solve the current issues I'm having with success since hitting 100 prestige and, more importantly, updating to the latest version.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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08-05-2010, 08:51 AM
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#2 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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The Decision
It was 2003. I was a 28 year old with no coaching experience and only a 2 year Junior College basketball "career" at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa on my resume. I was a quick learner however, and after picking up The Dummies Guide to Coaching Division 1 NCAA Basketball real cheap on Ebay, I dedicated an inordinate amount of time learning it back-to-front (note: I created myself as a level 7 coach. In hindsight, this was far too high, and helps explain all my initial success), and felt confident I'd do well in the interviews.
Glancing at the list of teams with a head coaching vacancy, there were a number of options towards the lower-end of the prestige scale that I felt would happily take me on board, so naturally it was important to weigh all factors - location, history, current roster, etc. - and make an informed decision. So, of course, I ignored all that, and picked the team with the coolest mascot. I was taking my talents to Natchitoches, Louisiana, baby! The Northwestern State Demons actually weren't terrible. They were prestige 18, and had been to the NCAA Tournament 5 times since 1939 and last made it 11 years ago, though had never made it out of the first round. Over the past half-decade the Demons had made slight progress in the mighty Southland Conference, finishing last season at .500 in conference play before their coach retired, obviously feeling he'd achieved all that was possible at this school. Code:
And the roster he had left behind? Well, to be honest, it wasn't so bad. Senior combo-guard Josue Briggery averaged 16.3 PPG last season and is far-and-away our best player, but he wasn't going to have to go it alone. Inside we have sophomore Dana McCrary, a 6-10 monster who can chew gum and walk at the same time. Oh, and also score the hell out of the basketball, too. For some inexplicable reason he played just one game as a freshmen, but had the look of a dominant player at this level. Thankfully transfers were not in the old version of FBCB... The rest of the roster could best be described as "role players", with the possible exception of senior PG Dee Singer who has some skills. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 08-05-2010 at 08:54 AM. |
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08-05-2010, 09:17 AM
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#3 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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63 Years of History in a Single Post
In this universe, where John Wooden had put down the roundball at an early age to concentrate on academics, one coach stands above all others; the great Andy Crooks of Arizona university.
There are coaches with more wins, but no one has equalled the 5 NCAA championships he led his Wildcats to during his 25 year tenure as coach, including back-to-back titles in his final two seasons on the sidelines, '62 and '63. The Wildcats, however, can not lay claim to the title of most successful school in division 1 history. The Cincinnati Bearcats don't have any one coach that defines their history as the Wildcats do with Coach Crooks, but 10 NCAA titles since 1939 is an impressive haul, and well ahead of 2nd-best Michigan State, who have 6. Cincinnati's overall winning % of .794 is also a good margin ahead of the 2nd-best Syracuse % of .756. In more recent times (though Cincinnati's last title was only back in '95), the Miami Hurricanes have been a true power, wining 3 consecutive NCAA championships from '97 through to '99. With no conference movement (which would be enabled from my first season onwards) turned on, it was a fairly static universe power-wise, not too unlike our own. There were a couple of programs that had slid over the years - UNC is a 75 prestige team that, outside of a decade of dominance from the mid-70's through mid-80's, has struggled - but the overall landscape was fairly recognisable. Most of the big programs IRL were good, most of the not-so-big programs IRL were not-so-good. In our little Southland Conference, we were pretty much middle of the pack as far as overall win % and conference wins over the years had gone. The Texas-San Antonio Road Runners, Texas-Arlington Mavericks, and Sam Houston Bearkats were all historically the best teams, and the only teams in the conference to average above .500% each season. Prestige-wise, the Louisiana-Monroe Indians were a mighty 44 to lead the conference thanks to their recent successes, while Texas-San Antonio was at 42, Sam Houston at 38, and then there's a significant fall off.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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08-19-2010, 08:51 AM
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#4 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2003-04 Season
My first season, my playbook was quite simple - PG (Singer) brings it up court, 3 guys set screens for Briggery on the perimeter, with Briggery looking to jack up every half-decent look he gets from the perimeter.
I actually did more "coaching" in my first season than I do now - adjusting pace and motion to the opponent, not pressing or trapping much (that exploit was still yet to be uncovered), but always with just Briggery set as a Key Player. Defensively, we solely played M2M, something that has never changed. The results were... surprising. We scheduled mostly cup-cakes with a couple of tougher matchups, but our some-what rocky start to the season was negated by an 11-game winning streak that included the first round of the conference tournament, and earned us an impressive 23-8 season, equalling the previous best win tally in school history, and a trip to the NIT. The reason was, naturally, solely due to Josue Briggery, who was just insanely good. Looking back at his ratings now, he really isn't all that special, and despite being just a 8/10 for 3s, even now he's my career leader in 3PM and 3PA, and for the 3PM and 3PA in a season. I mean, look at this: Code:
He did get a little help though. Senior PG Dee Singer outperformed expectations, averaging 14.2ppg, and sophomore big Dana McCrary, despite modest numbers of 10.9ppg and 7.6rpg, gave no real indication of the monster he was to become in the seasons to follow. In recruiting we pulled in a couple of 3-star guys. The highest regarded was Chris Tejada, a 3-star undersized PF ranked #222 and a bit of a bruiser. 3-star SF Andy Smith, ranked #268, was a one-dimensional defensive specialist. Worried about the graduation of my backcourt and top 2 scorers, we also nabbed 2 JuCo recruits, something that I don't believe I've ever done since. 2-star Combo guard Juwan Leak was the better of the two and had potential as a scorer, while 1-star PG Phillip Giroux was pretty average across the board. We lost a couple of reserves to graduation, but being the first season I coached them, I didn't have any real attachment to any of them. Code:
Code:
__________________
Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 08-19-2010 at 08:52 AM. |
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