What Schemes Do You Guys Run?

[rmoons24]

In my current save, I have been running primarily a motion offense (~60%), with a 5 Out secondary (~35%). I managed to get one very good year with it, but overall I have been struggling a little. I cant seem to get my team to play up-tempo like i want them too.

What schemes do you guys run and how have they been for you?

[Wildcat18]

In my current save, I’ve been running several different offenses trying to find out what works each season. First season was primary motion with high offensive freedom, 2nd season I ran Motion/Shuffle/Princeton with low offensive freedom, and this season I’m running a favor inside, look for 3s offense (which for some reason defaults me to 100% offensive freedom no matter the setting unless I’m facing zone) for much of the time, with some high Motion/Princeton low offensive freedom sprinkled in depending on the lineup/game situation.

The first season, nothing I could try was going to work, because nobody could shoot and nobody wanted to even try. The second season, the highly structured offense worked very well, with my star freshman SG and my bigs producing about 80% of my offense. The current season, some of my recruits who can hit 3s at great rates (for La Salle) have developed well to become the focal point of my offense, which is why I’m running “look for 3s” so much.

For some reasons I don’t know why look for 3s forces me to 100% offensive freedom though. I’d love to run Motion/Shuffle/Princeton, look for 3.

On defense, I run heavy man2man, with some 1-2-2 sprinkled in. I run a 2-2-1 press a significant portion of the time - I’m not looking to get steaks here, but kill some of the shot clock.

Edit: just to clarify, this is still in last year’s game.

[schlick7]

The shoot 3s option is only available in the 2d gameplay mode correct? If so I think that it's intended for the end of games when you are down. So it makes sense that they abandon the structured offense.

I would love to see the strategy have more options though, like you are saying with the more 3 pointers. The options could be: more/less mid range, 3, post, and drive. A type of play through or first/second scoring option would be nice as well. Even better would be to have these apply differently for each offensive set!

Same goes for defense as well, Intensity and press frequency just doesn't seem enough.

[Gary Gorski]

Look for 3s is intended as schlick7 said - it means go down and launch the first 3 you can because that is what you need to do to catch up.

If you want to run your structured offenses but tend to shoot more 3s than normal then on your strategy screen set the offensive focus to Favor Outside or Heavy Outside and then your players will be instructed to shoot more 3s than they normally would within the framework of the offense (assuming of course that offense does put them in position to do so)

[Wildcat18]

Look for 3s is intended as schlick7 said - it means go down and launch the first 3 you can because that is what you need to do to catch up.

If you want to run your structured offenses but tend to shoot more 3s than normal then on your strategy screen set the offensive focus to Favor Outside or Heavy Outside and then your players will be instructed to shoot more 3s than they normally would within the framework of the offense (assuming of course that offense does put them in position to do so)

Interesting, didn't expect it to be a situational setting, especially since I've had quite a bit of success using it as a major part of my offenses at times! Thanks for the clarification!

[Wildcat18]

The shoot 3s option is only available in the 2d gameplay mode correct? If so I think that it's intended for the end of games when you are down. So it makes sense that they abandon the structured offense.

I would love to see the strategy have more options though, like you are saying with the more 3 pointers. The options could be: more/less mid range, 3, post, and drive. A type of play through or first/second scoring option would be nice as well. Even better would be to have these apply differently for each offensive set!

Same goes for defense as well, Intensity and press frequency just doesn't seem enough.

Definitely agree. As somebody who wants to mold his team in Jay Wright's style, none of the base sets quite fit what I want to do. For example, running sets seriously limit how many shots the PG puts up and heavily favors having a "traditional" PG, which I don't like.

I like your idea of playing through certain players as a strategy. I also think maybe expanding the lists of sets you can run might be a good idea too - different types of Motion offenses (like the 4 out 1 in, for example, instead of just the 3 out/2 in motion offense already in the game.

[thenewguy]

I always run a 5 Out (61%) with a favor outside and a high (80 or above) set percentage. I target Outside Shooters almost exclusively. I run 2 other offenses usually as well (one at 28% and one at 11%) that I change depending on my team's structure. I usually do a motion as the 28%. If my C/PFs are also good inside shooters I use a 11% triangle. If they are good passers and handlers, I'll run a 11% flex.

For defense, I avoid man to man, and stick with Zones. I usually avoid full court, unless my team is really athletic.

We do fairly well, I'm started with a low prestige team and school that I've been for 20 seasons, and we've made one semi final 4, one round of 8, and 2 rounds of 16 with 11 total appearances. I think I started having better success as I've spend more time making my strategy follow the strength of my players. Now that I'm at a higher prestige, I try to get players closer to my strategy.

[Billdozer]

On offense, I run heavy inside focus with Motion and Shuffle. I keep my offensive freedom between 40-60% depending on the experience level of my team. I use Motion between 65-75% depending on how good my post players are at outside shooting and the inside shooting of the guards. I use a moderate pace.

On defense I use a soft man-man defense. If my team is weaker on defense that season I sometimes add in a 1-2-2 zone 10-20% of the time.

I also like to crash the boards hard and man-man press 50% of the time. I like to recruit tall forwards who can rebound and defend.

I am in my 7th season with DePaul. I am ranked in the top 25 right now 2/3 of the way through the conference season. Last season was terrible though. I made it to the Elite 8 a few years ago as 12 seed.

[RockossmosD]

I have a fairly athletic team of starters and I run above average pace 1. motion offense for that pace (65%). for my back ups I tend to run slower pace triangle. and 3 to throw them off I run Princeton in with bench and starters sparingly while using the starters pace when I call the offense. My offline team (i have stream team which is different on TWITCH) is not great inside or at free throws so i tend to go slightly outside unless we start dominating inside which then i switch to favor inside. Defensively I am a huge believer in man 2 man so i run that and begrudgingly run 3-2 vs bigger teams and to close out games. I crash boards defensively even though I tend to run a faster pace as well. on the offensive side I prefer to not crash offensive glass because of bad defenders, i need those biscuits to get back lol. being that I am very rigid with what I want to run I try to recruit for fit rather than talent.

One suggestion I think would be nice to have is influence the flow of the ball by suggesting the team to play through a certain player at times, though and depending on players discipline this could or could not happen so there is a check and balance. that would be nice.

[RGSchulzy16]

I could provide some insight from my scheme but as Gary knows all too well, my teams will regularly shoot 30% from the field and 15% from 3pt and win by scoring 45 points

But I generally use an offense that should suit my best scoring player