Video Blog Series - DIII to DI - Depth Chart

In this video it is important to note that your Depth Chart is how you will determine who plays, starts, and really how your team will play in the long run. If you want to see the original post on the depth chart check below:

Click Here for Depth Chart Post!

Enjoy the Depth Chart Video and again post any comments or things you would like to see.

How To: Practice Plan

Practice! Practice! Practice!

Every coach in their right mind would say practice makes perfect. This is no exception with Hoops Dynasty and the number of options may be daunting. Follow this guide for some great tips on how to maximize your practice effort and get the most out of players. 

Team Practice

As a team it is important to note that you must be proficient in your type of offense to be formidable or at least decent in a few to be able to keep up with other teams. This part, when I started Hoops Dynasty, had my frazzled a bit since when I watch teams on TV they tend to change it up based on who they are playing and do not play just one style of defense in particular. Their offense kind of stays the same, but is more fluid so this part of Hoops Dynasty I am not a fan of. However, you will need to pick your favorite Offense and Defense. Now the number of minutes put into each needs to be at a minimum of 20. I do know there are diminishing returns after this number but I am sure that 20 is the sweet spot. 

I actually put 24 minutes in my own teams no matter what, I personally feel that this gives me a slight advantage when changing types of offense or defense as well as increases my players ability a little earlier than another team. I do not have any data on this but this is just a personal preference. 

Individual Practice

This is vital for your players and your team. This past two seasons I have had the best improvements overall for 2 of my players almost 100 point increase for both. This is huge because it makes an impact on the team right away as well as with that player and increases your teams overall ability. 

Potentials Matter

You must look at your players ratings and colors. 

• Green = Very High Improvement
• Blue = High Improvement
• Black = Average Improvement
• Orange = Low Improvement
• Red = Very Low Improvement - Basically NO improvement in this area

This will dictate your practice plan ALWAYS!

Study Study Study!

Players year in school is important as study hall is part of the practice plan. Your players if you are in DI and DII need to maintain a specific GPA. It might also be true in DIII but I have not played in DIII in a long long time, so I cannot remember, but I think that DIII is much lower than DI so if you follow my rules to this you will be fine. So with study hall I follow these principles and I have never had a single player be ineligible in over 20 seasons at DI.

**Update** I received some feedback from this area and am updating my personal findings as I tested other's information and it worked perfectly and allowed for greater improvement in my players. 

Follow these rules!

1. All players set at 0 Study Hall Minutes
2. If a High School recruit has a GPA below 3.0 for every 0.1 point below 3.0 add 1 to their study hall minutes. 
3. Check Mid-Term Grades, if any are low update their Study Hall Minutes accordingly, meaning add a few to each 2 usually maybe 3 depending on how low they are.
4. Once final grades have been posted - Put all Study Hall minutes to 0. This allows for optimal growth after they have finished their year and will not change their GPA whatsoever. 

**Note** That if you have a player with a low GPA coming in from High School this might change a bit and it always has to be fluid especially if you get to mid terms and someone is lower than they should be. Now if they are close I have never change their practice plan and by the end they were fine. Basically I only worry if at mid-terms they are below the required 2.5 GPA. If they have a 2.7 they will generally end with a 2.7 or higher and still be able to play. For some data here are the current GPA's of my team at the start of season 103 in Knight. 

As you can see all my players have a 3.1 and above GPA. So I never have to worry about them not being eligible to play. 

Recruiting the RIGHT players.

Ensure that you are looking at your players you are recruiting for the colors stated above. It is important to find players with a lot of green as well as what you need as a team. This plays into the next section in terms of each players individual ratings in each area. 

Please note that in HD 3.0 they have an optimize button - I personally tried it once and thought their ideas of putting in minutes was complete CRAP. But if you want to make it quick and easy click the optimize button. 

For me personally I generally put a lot of effort into green areas with the exception of PER and LP. This will depend on if they are a Guard or Big Man. Basically I do not care if my big man can shoot three pointers. The only exception to this rule would be if your Big Man has orange or red in all other categories and a Green or Blue in PER. This I would then focus on to make him more dynamic and shoot three pointers against other Big Men that cannot guard him on the perimeter. 

Summary

In all it will depend on your personal preferences however it is important to increase your players ratings as best you can in order to be able to improve your team to make the NT and PI each and every season. Again I am not perfect at this but I have learned from some of the best players in HD history including chapelhillne, who just recently had a user interview with WhatIfSports.

How To: Depth Chart

Here we go again, another season and yet another time to determine which player you want to start. There is no right or wrong here, but there are some things you can do to determine who is your best player at a specific position as well what strategy you want to use on a regular basis.

Offensive Ability

This has it's own section because you need to score in order to win games. Now this is important but would you give up defensive ability for an offensive menace? Probably not if you are a smart Coach. Determining offensive ability needs to be specific to guards and big men, because what is good for a guard is not good for a big man. 

Important Skills Guard: 

Athleticism - This is not as important but definitely helps all players. Not as necessary for guards as big men. Basically low numbers here make the player a slasher. 

Speed - Vital component of ability to get around other players. 

Perimeter - This is how well they are able to shoot jump shots, the higher the number the better shooter the player will be.

Passing - Ability to pass the ball to other players on your team. The higher this is the better they can assist other players in scoring. 

Ball Handling - Are they able to dribble the ball down the court without losing the ball. 

Important Skills Big Men

Athleticism - Vital skill for being athletic, jumping, squeezing between defenders etc.

Speed - Not IMPORTANT at ALL. These players do not need to be fast, it helps but doesn't matter.

Perimeter - Not important because they are interior players, however having a guy that can hit a jumper can be beneficial depending on strategy. 

Low Post - EXTREMELY Important, are they able to layup, make dunks, etc Basically can they shoot while down low. 

Rebounding - You MUST have this ability in terms of offensive rebounds as well as defensive. 

So while these skills are important, I personally would never put a guy that was an offensive menace in that had a low rating in Defense. I would give up scoring for a player that has a higher rating in defense because along with scoring I need to keep the other team from scoring as well. So these skills are vital but if I have a guy with lower ratings in these categories but a high rating in defense I would put him in over the offensive menace due to the fact that the offensive menace would either foul out, or allow more points against him. I would put the offensive menace second on the depth chart because it would allow him to go against their number two's or when the other teams players are tired so he can score more points. 

Defensive Ability

The main ability to look at here would be Defense for obvious reasons. The higher the rating the better the player is at defense. However you also need to look at Athleticism and Speed. These ratings are important to be able to get in front of other players and the ability to not draw fouls. This helps mostly with the guards but can be beneficial for the big men as well. 

I am not going to talk much about blocking or rebounding as those are somewhat separate, but having abilities in those categories will only bolster the devensive abilities for rebounds as well as blocking shots, but are not a major part of what you should look for when determining defensive ability overall. 

Always start players with high defense, athleticism and speed. These guys will do the best at their respective positions when it comes to defending, now if the other team has a guy that you can exploit in terms of offensive ability I would exploit that and change my lineup to have a guy that has the better offensive ability knowing that I will not lose out on the lower defensive ability of the player that I am attempting to exploit. 

Determining Who to Start - Strategy Matters Here

This is one of those sections that is going to utilize your own personal strategy. There are ways in which you can do well without using the offensive and defensive abilities above. However it is important to note that if you cannot stop the other team from scoring, YOU WILL NOT WIN, that is the plain and simple fact of the matter. I would give up scoring production to keep the other team from scoring. 

Utilizing a mixture of the above defensive and offensive abilities I would determine the best players at their respective positions edging on those that have better defense unless one players has huge offensive upside and is only slightly lower than the guy with better defensive stats. This also is based on position as well. 

If you like this post watch for the next post about game planning.