Philly Gym Rat (The Perry “QM” McMullin Story)

[Javakamp]

I’ve wondered that myself, Wayne. But it seems to me that the rate of fouls is related to the defensive pace(Sorry if this is obvious. I've only recently started playing out my games.). The higher the pace the more fouls.

Wayne you seem to get a lot of fouls. What do you start defensive pace at?

Something I’ve been playing with is setting the pace based on the refs. I’ll start at 5. Then if the fouls are not to heavy I’ll move it up if needed as the half progresses. This also allows me to keep the fouls low so I can pump up the pace at the end.

My current team has pretty deep bench. This means I can put in subs and not lose to much capability. This helps to spread out the fouls across players if the refs are whistle happy, and keeps fresh legs in the game. If the other team plays their starters a lot this can make a difference.

I did have one game recently where the fouls were 8 or 9 on me and one on the opponent in the 1st half. I was annoyed but we had managed to keep it close despite the fouls. So 10 seconds into the 2nd half We got another foul. I gave the ref a piece of my mind, which of course drew a T. They converted both shots to go up by two, but suddenly the fouls started to balance out and went slightly in our favor. It was probably just the random number generator balanced things out, but I like to think my tantrum got the ref’s attention to how one sided they had been.

[CoachC]

I begin to wonder if the fact, and it seems to be a fact, that many more fouls are called on the live player when playing games out is Gary's way of making up for the deficiencies in the AI. Thoughts?

Possible, especially with young teams. But I know with experienced teams the foul situation is usually in my favor if they have any semblance to defensive ratings.

[CoachC]

Higher pace WILL probably equal more fouls overall simply because of more possessions overall, but I've never seen any other connection. Defensive ratings and experience seem to me to be the biggest factors.. even more so than defensive intensity.

[Wayne23]

I start at 5, 50% man, 50% 2-3, and stay there until forced to up it, and/or go 100% man. With luck that's with < 10 min. left in the game. LOTS of experience helps, and simming seems to = far fewer fouls, but I still like to play out most games.

[PointGuard]

Terms seem to be a bit confused re offensive pace, defensive intensity, defensive strategies, and defensive strategy percentages.

With respect to offensive pace, it seems logical to me that a faster offensive pace would likely result in slightly more fouls (for both teams) but I have not been able to determine if that is actually the case in DDSCB2. With this team I typically set offensive pace to 7.

With respect to defensive intensity, it seems logical that the higher the defensive intensity, the more fouls against the team employing that, but again I haven't been able to determine if that is the case in DDSCB2. With this team I typically set my defensive intensity at 6.

With respect to defensive strategies, I've found that a 2-3 zone seems to increase the number of fouls on a PG. I am running a 2-3 zone with this team.

With respect to defensive strategy percentages, I've not been able to tell if altering this significantly changes the number of fouls in DDSCB2. With this team, I'm presently running 80% man-to-man and 20% 2-3 zone.

A 5th variable is rebounding (offensive and defensive crash). It seems logical that a higher setting for either of these would increase the number of fouls against the team employing such, but again, I haven't been able to determine if that is the case in DDSCB2. I typically employ both offensive and defensive crash at 6 for this team.

Although I do sometimes change the above 5 variables during a game, I tend not to do it a lot, but might alter any of them slightly depending on game situations and opponents.

I agree that generally more skilled players and greater experience should result in fewer fouls, although Wayne's experience with some very good teams doesn't seem to have borne this presumption out. I tend to coach schools without highly skilled players. Once I get a team of very good players, I usually move on to a new school with low prestige and some poor players.

Re whether Gary has skewed the fouls against the human who plays out games to equalize things for the AI a bit, I rather doubt it, but it's possible.

[Wayne23]

Interesting analysis.

[CoachC]

Interesting, PG. I find the point guard is a lot more vulnerable in a 1-3-1 (but still less than with man), which sort of makes sense, but the 2-3 the guards seem about as well protected as the big men when I've used it at least. And I don't believe that rebounding intensity increases fouls at all, as there are no rebounding fouls in the game, but it was high among the suggestions I had. Crashing the boards SHOULD generate more fouls. I've never seen any indication that it does however.

[PointGuard]

True, there are no "rebounding" fouls as such...and there should be. It's possible Gary just incorporated it into generic fouls, but probably not.

Interesting that you feel there are less fouls with zone that m-2-m. That would probably make logical sense and may be true, but I've not been able to get a good feeling about which defenses cause the most (or least) fouls.

Wayne, you crank up the defensive intensity to 9 fairly often...have you found that the foul frequency has increased similarly when you do that???

Also, I know that both of you sometimes run your offensive pace at 3 or 4...do you feel that you get fewer fouls when you do this???

[Wayne23]

I crank up to 9 often, yes, exp. during the last 10 minutes of the game. Interestingly enough, no, it doesn't seem to result in lots more fouls. Informally, since I haven't tracked anything, I'd say the fouls stay very nearly the same when I do that. BUT, I also feel like, often, perhaps more often than not, foul calls tend to lessen late in the game- not always though.

Yes, to slow pace, again, sometimes. A pace of 3 or 4 means I have the ball more often than the other team does. That alone reduces fouls on my team, usually.

[CoachC]

PG , i've always gotten fewest fouls overall with 2-3, but generally the only ones I ever use are 2-3 and 1-3-1. The AI seems to do frustratingly well in that regard with the 3-2 though as well. Depends a lot too though, naturally, on how well they've been trained in the zones.