Road to the Final Four

by **fabfries** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:58 pm

Settings & Notes
This league is a league with custom conferences, default team logos & names, modified starting prestiges, modified first & last name lists, etc. for my own entertainment. It's a little different! I've already been doing this league for 8 in-game years. We started in 1975 and now we are in 1983, as coach of the South Orange Buccaneers (equivalent to Seton Hall). It's a fictionalized version of the NCAA, called the NCBO.
Players Declare Early: ON
Recruiting Violations: ON

Coach Info
Coach Name: Ronald Starks
Originally raised in Queens, Starks went to Cal-Riverside to play D1 Basketball. In his senior year, he was named 2nd-Team All-Conference. He became an assistant the next year, until 1975 when he was named the head coach. That year was a success, and the next year he took a job at Colorado, seeing an opportunity to coach in a big-time basketball conference. For five years, he coached at Colorado, earning 3 MNA appearances with a Round of 64, Round of 32, and Sweet 16 appearance each. He earned them on the backs of the trio of PG Dee DeVoe, SG Ricky Welch, and SF Michael McGowan. As of 1983, Welch is the 6th-highest scorer in NCBO history (with 2399 points), and the leading scorer of his conference, the Great Plains Conference. McGowan finished his career with 1749 points. After finishing #8 in the country in 1980 with a 112-49 record in his time at Colorado, Starks was given an opportunity to go back closer to his family at South Orange.

South Orange, although with a prestige of 54, was a losing program when Starks arrived. They had never made an MNA tournament appearance, had never been ranked, and had a winning percentage below .500. In his first season, the Buccaneers won 18 games, a program record. Also, he landed 3 consensus four star recruits, PF Dwayne Ash from Moorefield, WV, SG Roderick Coughlin (who would later transfer due to discipline concerns), and SF Derrick Roach out of Raleigh, NC. Although the Bucs were bounced out of the AIT in the first round, the future looked promising. In his second season, the Buccaneers once again won 18 games. Derrick Roach won Freshman of the Year, and was named to the All-Conference 2nd Team, with veteran C Bob Scales.

Starks once again landed three four-stars. PF Dennis Shoemaker, from nearby Neptune, NJ, SG Todd Townes, out of Mayodan, NC, and PG Raphael Horton, from Portage, PA, all signed on. This introduction occurs at the beginning of the 1983 preseason. Starks hasn't made the MNA tournament since 1980, when he took #3 seed Colorado to the Sweet 16 on the backs of SG Ricky Welch and SF Michael McGowan, the two best players in Colorado history. He has a team that could definitely make it, but we'll see as we start the dynasty!

Coach Stats
*As of preseason 1983
Record (W-L, PCT): 165-89 (.650)
Conference Titles: 1
MNA Appearances: 4 (1976, 1977, 1979, 1980)
MNA Sweet 16: 1 (1980)
20 Win Seasons: 3
Conference COTY: 1
National COTY: 0
All-Conference Players: 11
All-Americans: 0
National POTY: 0
Drafted Players: 2
Career Earnings: 2.504 million

by **fabfries** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 10:00 pm

League History
National Champions
1975 - Michigan
1976 - Oklahoma
1977 - North Indy
1978 - Winston-Salem
1979 - Cal-Los Angeles
1980 - Oklahoma (x2)
1981 - Syracuse
1982 - Tennessee
1983 - Syracuse (x2)

by **Magic Bird** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 10:41 pm

Looking forward to watching Coach Starks eventually make the Final Four! I'm also interested in learning more about how you customized your conferences and shuffled teams around.

by **PointGuard** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:56 am

Looks like you went to a lot of work setting this up and creating a unique alternate reality. I too hope you provide more info on conference re-alignment and significant prestige changes.

by **fabfries** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:45 pm

Yeah! So I made a list of teams and sorted them into conferences based upon my view of the current/historical NCAA basketball landscape. This was the final product: Conferences
For the prestiges, I made another list, and shuffled it based on a little bit of real life and a little bit of creativity. A screenshot of the top teams: Prestige

I then put this data into the default.dat file using MDBPlus, which allowed me to edit it by changing conference size, conference names, and assigning teams to conferences. I also did the same with names, recording names from 150 teams each from the 1975, 1980, and 1985 NCAA basketball seasons (thanks to college basketball reference) to get a sense of the popularity of names versus others and modified that slightly. I also did the same with surnames from the 2000 census, and factored in multipliers to reflect the ethnicities of NCAA college basketball players (more dominantly black surnames, less dominantly chinese and hispanic surnames, etc.) I also deleted all the history that the game comes with: resetting all teams win totals to zero, etc. This took a couple weeks for me to do, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist!

by **Magic Bird** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:04 pm

Fascinating work, fabfries! I've fiddled around with creating different conferences and changing many teams' prestige, but I've never made a final product with as extensive changes as you have. MDB Viewer Plus also requires some patience since one can't copy and paste records and columns and also because one has to export the data to CSV before one can view it in a spreadsheet program. Did you delete the historical data by moving from entry to entry and pressing delete? With MS Access you may have been able to reduce the time taken to do all this from a couple of weeks to a couple of days! Too bad Access is so expensive, even if one wants to use a version as old as the 2003 version (which would be capable of modifying the game's database files just as well as any of the more recent versions of Access). Maybe you know some things about using MDB Viewer Plus that I don't; care to give me some pointers?

Thanks for the information about the names as well (check your PMs if you haven't already; if you would like to tell me more, reply to me through PM).

by **fabfries** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:43 pm

1983 Summer
Over the summer, we bought the Atlantic East report and went to the Indy Elite Camp & the Big Apple Showcase. We had five scholarships to give, and ended up signing four - I don't like to sign more than 4 to a class. We aimed to get a consensus top-30 recruit -- a five-star guy -- as we were really looking to make a splash on the national stage. We targeted 3 top-30 recruits, but revoked our scholarships to two of them because I felt that they were not returning interest. One, however, showed interest - big man Dane Riggins out of Stoneboro, PA. Dane had a strong camp season, finishing in the top twenty five in the Indy Elite, meaning that he was among the best twenty five players in the country. This was only confirmed as he was a top five player at the Big Apple Showcase. After pursuing him heavily, we landed Riggins. We also landed three 3-star recruits (as of Nov. 1983) who we feel are all more talented than their ranking says they are - they all did well at the Big Apple camp.

Recruits - (Ranks as of November 6, 1983)
C Dane Riggins 6'7" 248 lbs (Stoneboro, PA - Lakeview HS) 2.9 GPA
// #26 overall // ★★★★★ //
Riggins is, simply put, an elite center prospect. He's not a one-and-done kind of player, but he will be very good during his career. He is an athletic passing center, who can rebound and score inside, steal, and block shots with the best of them - our scouts gave him A and Bs in all those categories. He really only needs to work on his defense (given a D by our scouts), as he is not long enough to guard bigger, stronger centers. He relied on his strength in high school, but that won't be enough against 7-footers. Overall, he is a sensational recruit who was a top twenty five player at the Indy Elite Camp. He will come in as highly-touted and very talented on day one - a true centerpiece of the team going forward (no pun intended).

SG Tim Mullins 6'1" 200 lbs (Reisterstown, MD - Franklin HS) 4.0 GPA
// #166 overall // ★★★☆☆ //
Mullins will come in as an all-around guard. He can shoot the ball pretty well, with his only A grade being in outside shooting. He projects as a guard who can score, pass, and defend the ball at an above average level. His ball-handling is weak, but we'll be looking to keep him as a secondary or tertiary ball-handler at all times. He should be a good addition to the team, bringing in exceptional smarts on and off the court - a 4.0 GPA is a lot better than I did in high school!

SF Daryl Warwick 6'8" 228 lbs (Toms River, NJ - Monsignor Donovan HS) 3.1 GPA
// #416 overall // ★★★☆☆ //
Warwick is an in-state guy who showed interest in South Orange fairly early on. It's safe to say he was easily convinced to come play here, as he only lives an hour from campus. He is a good shooter, with the athleticism and skill to score and pass the ball well. His defense and rebounding is average for a guy his size, but he is known to be a hard worker. Outside of ball-handling, there are no glaring weaknesses in his game, and he will contribute to the offense in a complementary role.

PG John Little 6'3" 194 lbs (King & Queen Courthouse, VA - King & Queen Central HS) 2.6 GPA
// #513 overall // ★★★☆☆ //
Little comes in as a true point guard - he's called a great leader by his coach and has the intangibles that a backup guard needs. I feel as if he's been underrated because his skill grades are higher than that of a player ranked at his level, but that is alright with me. He is a very good passer who can also shoot when needed, earning As in those categories. He also is an athletic, capable ball handler and scorer. His defense is just average, but with his above average size we can work with that.

by **fabfries** » Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:41 pm

1983 Preseason
Here's a rundown of my basic philosophy and the roster going into the preseason.

Philosophy
My two main offenses I run are the princeton offense (60%) and the triangle offense (40%). I try as best I can to recruit four-year guys who can learn the offense. On offense, I like a balanced and traditional approach - this way, I can modify the system to player's strengths and weaknesses instead of vice versa. My types of guys -- Big guys (the 4 and the 5) that are skilled inside (rebounding, scoring, inside defense), with a plus if they can pass the ball well. At the three, I like to get a well-rounded player that can rebound. On the outside, guards who can passing and handle the ball are a must - I stress that at the 1 but at the 2 I'll trade off scoring for ball-handling. Overall, my team must have solid defensive instincts. Unless he's a five star, a defender with a "D' grade will get dropped from the list. On defense, I run mostly man-to-man in the half court with some 1-2-2 zone. I occasionally press in a 1-2-1-1 set.

Depth Chart (In order)

Code: Select all: Depth Chart Pos No. Name Height Weight Year Hometown Overall HS Ranking PG #10 Raphael Horton 6'5" 207 lbs Fr Portage, PA 3.5/4.5 #74 overall / ★★★★☆ SG #22 Todd Townes 6'3" 194 lbs Fr Mayodan, NC 4.0/4.5 #63 overall / ★★★★☆ SF #32 Derrick Roach 6'5" 195 lbs So Raleigh, NC 4.5/5.0 #57 overall / ★★★★☆ PF #20 Dwayne Ash 6'7" 213 lbs So Moorefield, WV 2.5/4.0 #109 overall / ★★★★☆ PF #12 Dan Carnes 6'7" 203 lbs Sr Allentown, NJ 2.0/3.5 #1291 overall / ★☆☆☆☆ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PG #45 Trevor Brister 6'5" 171 lbs Sr Huntsville, AL 2.5/4.0 #397 overall / ★★★☆☆ SG #15 Penny Byars 6'5" 212 lbs Jr Dubois, WY 2.5/4.5 #52 overall / ★★★★☆ SF #21 Brett Mears 6'6" 239 lbs Sr Holmdel, NJ 2.0/4.0 #590 overall / ★★☆☆☆ SG #4 Brent Dudley 6'1" 196 lbs Fr Deptford, NJ 3.5/4.0 Unranked / Walk-on C #53 Jim Crumpton 6'7" 220 lbs Jr Hackettstown, NJ 2.0/3.0 Unranked / Walk-on C #40 Ernest Bussey 6'10" 261 lbs So Ewing, NJ 1.5/1.5 Unranked / Walk-on PG #50 T. Poloinsky 6'3" 181 lbs Jr Czech Republic 2.5/4.0 #521 overall / ★★☆☆☆ PG #23 Demond Barton 6'1" 181 lbs Jr Kearny, NJ 1.5/3.5 Unranked / Walk-on PF #30 Dennis Shoemaker 6'7" 211 lbs Fr Neptune, NJ 1.5/4.5 #49 overall / ★★★★☆ (Redshirted) PG #14 Chris Draper 6'1" 182 lbs So Dedham, MA 2.5/4.0 #276 overall / ★★★☆☆ (Redshirted)

Thoughts
We are very good on the outside, but we are not good down low. We'll look to Roach and Townes to be primary scoring options. It's a growth year, as our three best players are young and they will be better in the future as the learn the system. Both Bussey and Crumpton will be getting ten minutes each as I just do not have enough depth down low. A bright spot was the unexpected signing of Brent Dudley, a walk-on who tried out for the team. He went unnoticed as he didn't play basketball his senior year, but to me he can be a very valuable player to the team in the future and adds to our guard depth. I chose to redshirt Shoemaker and Draper. I know our depth is weak down low, but Shoemaker is too raw to and has too much potential for me to play him. I'm waiting to reap the rewards of his play. I also redshirted Draper, who played last year and was average in his role. With Dudley coming in, Draper's normal spot was taken so I decided to let him learn the system better for a year. Note: I didn't recruit any current juniors or seniors.

We're a good team, but a small team. We are going to win a lot of games if our inside guys can at least be somewhat of a threat. If they can require enough attention to allow our guards to get open to make threes, or drive in, we are going to be scoring a lot of points. On defense, I'm hoping our 4 underclassmen starters will be influenced by our veteran backups. We need them to make sure they know the system well enough to perform.

Key Players
SF Derrick Roach
Roach came in as a touted recruit, but I did not expect him to become this good this fast. He is a very good scorer and passer, as he averaged 16 points a game last year as a freshman. He is our best defender and has the potential to be a true lockdown defender. He's also a capable rebounder and excellent outside shooter. His only weakness is his ball-handling, which is masked by our depth at guard. He shot 40.4% from three last year on 141 attempts. He's an athletic two-way player who can be elite on both sides of the ball, who will play outside and in the mid-range game as his size makes him fit best out there. He is our best player and team leader.

PG Raphael Horton
Horton is just a freshman, but he's already going to be expected to carry a big load for this team. He earned the starting spot at point guard due to his well-rounded abilities. He is a protoype point guard - good scorer, passer, and adequate ball-handler; solid defender, and decent outsider shooter. His youth is a big factor in his game, and for him to improve this season he will need to be disciplined with the ball. He's also one of the bigger point guards you'll see, and his fair rebounding attributes will give him an advantage over many other guards.

SG Todd Townes
Townes is another well-rounded guard. He can play both spots, but due to his scoring prowess and proficient outside shot I'm electing him to play minutes at the 2. Like Horton, he doesn't have a glaring weakness. He can do all of the things that you need a guard to do. If he can improve all of his already decent abilities (defense, outside shooting, scoring, passing, rebounding) to just be a bit better in all of them, then he could be a special player. Once again, I can't stress enough the importance of him playing older than he is. I'm going to need him to be disciplined.

by **fabfries** » Sat Feb 23, 2019 3:28 pm

1983 Schedule

Code: Select all: ---------------- Non-Conference ---------------- WESTERN CAROLINA Hawaiian Shootout (vs. PITCHR) #14 WINSTON-SALEM EASTERN KENTUCKY @ #22 Ohio St. VMI TEANECK NEW BRUNSWICK ARMY @ #25 Spokane CAL-SLO @ Mississippi AKRON ---------------- Conference ---------------- QUEENS @ #2 Syracuse @ Villanova WEST D.C. @ #24 Pittsburgh CONNECTICUT @ Providence @ Queens #2 SYRACUSE VILLANOVA @ West D.C. #24 PITTSBURGH @ Connecticut PROVIDENCE

AP Poll Rankings are as of Preseason 1983

by **fabfries** » Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:30 pm

First Week
Our first week was a good one. We beat all three of our opponents:

W 91-75 vs. Western Carolina
W 98-88 vs. Pittsburgh Christian (Hawaiian Shootout)
W 83-78 vs. Stanford (Hawaiian Shootout)

The first game versus Western Carolina was a breeze once we got into our rhythm. We played very well in the offense - only 5 turnovers. Dan Carnes was the player of the game, with 18 pts, 6 rebs, and 4 ast. It was a warm-up game for the Hawaiian Shootout. In the first round, we played Pitt Christian - our scouts gave us a 70% chance to win. They run a high-tempo offense that tried to tire us out. It didn't work though, as we hit 52% from three and Roach, Townes, Horton, Carnes, and Byars all scored in double figures. Townes was player of the game. The next day, we played a tough opponent in Stanford - they were favored to beat us. In order to win, we had to stop their SG Paul Kirk, a junior who is averaging 27 ppg. Kirk put up 25, but on 17 shots, as we fought from 10 down to win by five. Townes, Carnes, and Roach scored in double figures as no one else scored more than 7. Townes, who has been very good so far, was the game's best and is averaging 19.3 points per game.

We're now ranked 13th in the country, the highest we've been since I've been here. Tomorrow, we play #18 South Carolina to for the tournament crown. They are favored ever so slightly to win.