Video Blog Series - DIII to DI - Practice Plan

This post is all about the practice plan and getting the most out of your players. To check out the post that this video follows please click here!

Happy Coaching!

How To: Gameplanning

How To: Game planning

Each game is slightly different because of the team dynamics, makeup, strengths and weaknesses for both your opponent and your own team. It is important to note that if you have not looked at the Depth Chart post I highly suggest taking a look as it relates to game planning. 

Player Distribution

This area is quite controversial depending on which coach you talk to in Hoops Dynasty. Some coaches and rather successful ones use the 0-3 system, which I will discuss a little later after this and other also successful coaches say that it is better to use a system that equals up to 100 total on the player distribution tab of the game. 

0-3 System

In this system, you determine which of your players are the scorers usually a Senior or Junior and set them at a distribution of 3. Then the backups or guys that could score but are not elite get a 2. Then the players that are backups at their position but are just average get a 1 and the guys that are complete trash get a 0. I will say that even a guy that has a 0 will attempt shots every once in awhile just not very often. 

100 System

In this system, you again determine your players in terms of elite, average, good, great or whatever you determine and then you give the highest number to that player taking into account all the players on your team to equal a distribution for all players combined to 100. This from what other coaches have told me allows them to control more of the outcome of the game in terms of possessions for that specific player when they take a shot and do not leave anything up to chance so to speak. 

Team Play Style - Per Game or Season Long

This section might get rather long but please do not disregard this section as this is probably the most important section you can read if you even read this post. It is important to note that relates to the Strengths and Weaknesses sections below. 

Every game you play you will end up changing something in terms of how you play. Let's say you look at the other team and they generally shoot a lot of 3 pointers and do rather well with that but do not take many inside shots in comparison, you will change your setting on defense to a + value generally do not go above +2 as that will allow too many inside shots and those are higher percentage shots. 

On the flip side, let's say they do not shoot outside at all or maybe up to 10 total a game, you would want to defend inside. In this case, you would put a - setting. Up to -5 now putting a -5 would defend inside consistently but this also creates an issue - FOULS. You will foul more when you defend on the interior which could be good or bad depending on the other team free throw shooting. This is more of a preference in terms of where you set the interior, I generally do not go higher than -3 but usually, go between -2 and +2 when I set my defence setting. 

There is more to go into in this section, but I ALWAYS set my preference of style Motion, Man to Man etc based on my practice plan setting or overall team ability in a certain area. So if you just took over a team but want to change the defence do not change the setting in the game plan until your team has developed the skills necessary to effectively use that Offence or Defence. This means utilise practice time for a full season prior to setting it as your offence or defence. Your assistance coach will get mad at you but it will help to not lose a ton of games right off the bat that season by changing everything right away. 

Find Strengths

Determine your team's strength. Is it stamina? Is it outside shooting? Is it taking high percentage shots and slowing the game down to decrease possessions? Whatever the strength you need to exploit it against the team you are playing. For most of my teams, it is going to vary each year and against each opponent, but generally speaking I usually plan one way for the entire season unless I see something or somewhere against a specific team that I can exploit. 

Find Weaknesses

Determine your opponents weaknesses. Is there a single player that they play that has low defence, speed, athleticism? Or something in between. Also, most coaches do not look at their own team often enough. Look at your team determine what you would do against your own team if you were the opposing coach to attempt to win. This way you can change your depth chart or adapt the player distribution to adapt to what they might try.

If you liked this post please check out the next post on practice plans!

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.