Who is the man behind the Beagle? Tell us about yourself.
I'm a computer programmer by day, father and husband at night. I don't think it'd be wise, legally speaking, to discuss what happens in the afternoons, other than I can safely say that I've never been convicted of smuggling alpacas inside my own rectum.
How long have you been playing BuzzerBeater?
I started playing BuzzerBeater for reals in March 2011, though I did have a team back in season 1 or 2 (Indy .500s) that I logged into once, made a fancy spreadsheet to track my training plans, and then didn't bother logging in again.
You have been doing some pretty unique things with your team recently, what do you hope to accomplish from it?
Mainly, I'm looking to see if I can create a truly unique outside team built from the ground up. Based on some of wozz' past analysis on the offsite, the theory is that jump range applies very little to open threes, but is much more important than JS on contested ones. So I figured the way to go is to set up my players so that, offensively, they'll look at jacking up contested three point shots as being their best option.
Do you think Outside Offenses will ever be able to stand toe to toe with Look Inside?
As things currently stand, no. I think there's a fundamental imbalance, not necessarily with the engine, but with the training and salary portion of the game, especially for guards. The simple truth of the matter is that if you're going to be training guards, you either spend a couple of seasons training JR (and JS, I suppose, if you're not me) or you punt that (and maybe spend the time instead on boosting IS). At the end, the player who is trained with JR and JS is likely to be in the SG formula, and so their salary rises significantly (since the OD cost in the SG formula is much higher), while the player who trained in IS has no noticeable increase in salary other than cross-training gains.
So then what happens when those players actually play? You find you have a more effective player with the LI guard, at a lower salary, with the bonuses that LI tends to improve rebounds and draw more fouls.
So, yeah, I don't see an outside renaissance how things currently stand. I think there's a decent chance some of this stuff changes in the future - it seems like the BB staff have tried to encourage outside shooting incrementally. I don't think it'll have a widespread effect unless the training situation changes, though.
Can you actually hit a three pointer in real life?
How many chances do I get to take, and am I being guarded? I was never particularly good at basketball, but my best shot was generally the turnaround halfcourt shot, which at one point in my life I was probably good on 15-20% of the time. Generally, the less comfortable I looked taking a shot, the more likely it was to go in.
That's not a high percentage shot, but it probably puts me above 90% of the guards in the NBBA, so if they want to pay me that weekly salary I'm down!
Which Outside Offense do you think is the most powerful?
It really depends. I think Motion is probably the best overall.
Please describe the BuzzerBeater community’s propensity to play Look Inside using a metaphor involving a kitchen utensil.
"My, where did you get that lovely spatula? At Spatula City! We sell spatulas, and that's all." Won't someone please think of the ladles?
If you could see one change implemented in BB whether it be a rule change or a change in user behavior what would it be?
I think an overhaul of training and the draft (if that's technically one change) so that the draft can provide some older but decently rounded and playable guys (like capped starter/star guys) and more 18-19 yo guys in the allstar - superstar range, and training can be rebalanced, so that 1v1 isn't the uber training it currently is, and maybe things like SB/JR/HA training can be more useful.