I am of the mind that the best way to defend inside offense is somewhat counter-intuitive: you need high perimeter defense to disrupt flow and prevent good inside shots from happening. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on this one, but my own experience, including playing against monster post players while my own centres are sub-$6k salary guys, is that you can use strong perimeter defense to lock down inside scoring.
re: playing against a 2-3 zone
Run and Gun has been more successful for me against 2-3 zones than motion is. My theory is that you get a lot of good but not great looks on the outside against a 2-3 zone and taking those good shots is better than having your players wait for a better shot until the end of the shotclock. I have nothing but intuition to back this up.
I think Base offense or Push the ball are viable strategies as well. I do not think that 2-3 zone does a good job of stopping inside shots so either of those tactics will still produce lots of good looks. If your best scorers are low post guys then I'd definitely consider using PTB or Base. (I think Base will produce more inside shots against a 2-3, but I am not certain)
Finally, the key to winning in Div. 3 and 4 (and presumably five) has very little to do with what sort of in game tactics you use. The key at those levels is to get everyone who is playing up to proficient (or at least strong) game shape and to manage your enthusiasm. If you play base/man and have the players you started with but manage minutes and enthusiasm properly then you should be able to promote pretty easily.
re: Playing against Look Inside
Man to Man or even 3-2 are as good as 2-3 in my opinion. You really want to try to disrupt the offensive flow and 2-3 doesn't do that. It seems totally odd, but my own theory on it is that man to man is far, far more effective defensively than 2-3, and I suspect that 3-2 is at least as good as 2-3 but I am not totally sure. I do think that 2-3's rebounding advantage helps a bit, but I would not play 2-3 in a game that matters.
re: Fan Happiness
As far as I know it has no effect on the game results, but is used only for merch/attendance numbers. 0.5 is bad.
re: Cup
It seems to happen a lot with Div 1 and Div 2 teams in later rounds of the cup since there are fewer games played and a higher percentage of the teams are in the top divisions, but since most Div 4 teams are gone before the round of 64 it seems pretty improbable (but certainly not impossible) for it to happen to most teams. I am sure someone with some math skills could give you an actual number if you really wanted.
Last edited by chris902 at 1/6/2010 2:39:14 PM