Hoopla Help!

[ISUbballfan]

I'm sinking fast in Hoopla and need help. How does everyone pick their teams? Do you pick a basic team and stick with it? Do you pick basicly from our own school? Do you pick who ever is playing against a certain team? Any help would be appreciated!

[RaiderPower1]

Well...I uh...it's a secret. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif

No, just kidding. I started picking teams based on who was playing who and some matchups, but then twice in two sessions I ended up picking the same players so I have pretty much stuck with them.

[elfdenmom]

I usually pick team matchups. Then I select the players most likely to benefit from the defense (man 0r zone) of the opposing team. Of course now it has gotten more difficult with the post/point guard requirements.

[swok34]

I typically pick a few OU players...I'm a homer.

I'm not doing so well myself, but I have a couple of things I keep in mind.....

I typically don't pick post players playing against ISU, I do pick 3 point shooters against ISU....against Texas, I pick guards and don't pick opposing team post players.....I would pick a 3 point shooter against OU. Stay away from some post players vs Baylor....hmmmmm.....I think I probably have a few more....I picked different this week because OU is not playing, so it was a little more of the rules/matchup game...when OU is playing, I pick them first and fit others around them.

[schooner2]

Originally posted by ISUbballfan:
I'm sinking fast in Hoopla and need help. How does everyone pick their teams? Do you pick a basic team and stick with it? Do you pick basicly from our own school? Do you pick who ever is playing against a certain team? Any help would be appreciated!

You had an amazing run of bad luck this week ISUbballfan. You picked:
F Wecker - KSU - 20.9
G Perkins - TTU - 16.1
PG Wilson - ISU - 17.3
G Ross - OU - 13.3
P Greenwalt - TTU - 12.3

Looks decent to me - either they all underperformed or even didn't play.

For strategy I usually only pick games that are not expected to be real close. Although you do have to be careful because if it's a blowout, then some players end up not playing as many minutes as they usually do.

I stay away from highly variable players. Ross for Oklahoma is one of them. She'll give you 27 HPLA points one night, and 2 the next.

I personally have been staying away from KSU players cuz I thought they were "due" for a loss, and bad play, just cuz they are young. Just something I've always seen happen in the past. But now that they've lost to OSU, I may grab a Wecker or Ohlde next session.

Also look for the up and coming players that are playing better and better and more consistently. Usually these are lesser known players. For instance, look at Skibbe for OSU and Banahan and Moore for TAMU. They've been very consistent lately.

Usually I'll just go with the most consistent players. Welle and Caufield are the two most consistent in this league. Several others near the top are just about as consistent. All the boxscores for all sessions are saved on the Hoopla! page. If you have time, go back and peruse the Hoopla! point output for each session and see who is consistently near the top. Then pick 3 or 4 of them and 1 or 2 with a lot lower Hoopla! scores (to make it under the point limit) that may have good games cuz of the team they are playing.

[ChipperF1]

Chipper's 15-step guide to Hoopla!

1. Pick at least one player from the Fox Sports Net designated TV game.
2. Pick any player who's first name ends in an "e", "y", "ie", "ey" or an "a"
3. Always take at least one player with 20 Hoopla! points.
4. Opal Fleer Rule: "The sun doesn't shine on the same dog's butt every day". If a player has less than 10 Hoopla! points and they have a big night in the last round do not pick her thinking lighting will strike twice.
5. If Barry Manilow wrote a song about her, picking her is a pretty good idea.
6. If Tommy Tutone wrote a song about her, be careful about picking her.
7. Pick any player who hales from any town with the word "Center" in the name of the town.
8. Always take jump shooters named Amber, and penetrators named Jia..and whenever possible, take 'em both
9. Never take a player whose name shows up in red in the interactive stats.
10. be wary of selecting a big gun player when they play against Nebraska or Kansas.
11. Never take a player from Nebraska or Kansas.
12. Never be afraid to take a suprise "pick to click" in games between two top teams in the league.
13. Always take the big gun player in games between cellar dwellers
14. Take one "do-it-all" player, one dead eye shooter, one heavy rebounder, and two multiple threats.
15. Have fun, most of Hoopla! is just dumb luck http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[HoopScoop]

Originally posted by elfdenmom:
I usually pick team matchups. Then I select the players most likely to benefit from the defense (man 0r zone) of the opposing team. Of course now it has gotten more difficult with the post/point guard requirements.

Hmmmm, I thought it would make it easier. We've always had the rule that you have to have a post (plays some post) and now we make sure you have someone that plays point at least some. Besides that anything goes as long as you don't have two pure point guards or two pure posts. Was hoping it would be easier to understand and give you more option in making your lineup.

Has it been harder for people to construct your lineup or given everyone more choices for your lineup? It's too late to change any more rules, just wanting feedback.

[HoopScoop]

Originally posted by ChipperF1:
Chipper's 15-step guide to Hoopla!

1. Pick at least one player from the Fox Sports Net designated TV game.
2. Pick any player who's first name ends in an "e", "y", "ie", "ey" or an "a"
3. Always take at least one player with 20 Hoopla! points.
4. Opal Fleer Rule: "The sun doesn't shine on the same dog's butt every day". If a player has less than 10 Hoopla! points and they have a big night in the last round do not pick her thinking lighting will strike twice.
5. If Barry Manilow wrote a song about her, picking her is a pretty good idea.
6. If Tommy Tutone wrote a song about her, be careful about picking her.
7. Pick any player who hales from any town with the word "Center" in the name of the town.
8. Always take jump shooters named Amber, and penetrators named Jia..and whenever possible, take 'em both
9. Never take a player whose name shows up in red in the interactive stats.
10. be wary of selecting a big gun player when they play against Nebraska or Kansas.
11. Never take a player from Nebraska or Kansas.
12. Never be afraid to take a suprise "pick to click" in games between two top teams in the league.
13. Always take the big gun player in games between cellar dwellers
14. Take one "do-it-all" player, one dead eye shooter, one heavy rebounder, and two multiple threats.
15. Have fun, most of Hoopla! is just dumb luck http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

Very good - I'll have to include this in next year's manual on How to Play the Game. Agree with point 15.....from what I've seen there is some skill to picking the teams, but a lot of times you just never know who is going to have the break out game and who is going to fall on their face.

But one thing I have noticed, playing Hoopla! quickly alerts me to players that are pretty decent in this league that I would never have known about otherwise; like Banahan and Moore of Texas A&M; Unrau, Bright, and Fisher of Missouri; Bohman of Colorado - etc.

[Zo31]

Opal Fleer Rule! Don't worry I'll keep that in mind.

I am a Homer for the most part and usually will always pick Lambert and Crockrom on my team because I know how explosive they each can be. Then, I really consider team match-ups, who has had the hot hand, usually a player with a high Hoopla average. Homecourt, performance against similar teams, etc... and a lot of luck. You can see I'm in the middle of the pack. So far, I have not bombed out and I seem to be pretty consistent. Over the past couple of weeks I did not really feel overly confident until this week and it backfired with Koehn having a lousy Hoopla total. Go figure. I really look forward to seeing the results. It is alot of fun. And thats what counts.

[RaiderPower1]

Originally posted by Zo31:
I am a Homer for the most part and usually will always pick Lambert and Crockrom on my team because I know how explosive they each can be.

I think all of us can be accused of that. I typically pick Amber Tarr and Jia Perkins. Can't go wrong with them like Chipper said in his rules. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif Good job Chipper for knowing a good strategy. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Cory]

I had a rule, but I just broke it.
5 players from 5 different teams.
The trick is to pick players that are due for a BIG game.

Thank you Mr. Obvious.

http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif

[two cents]

ISUbballfan:

I have to agree with schooner. You just had some really bad luck this week. Hard to summarize my approach to the game.

Some players are particularly consistent and I use them to try to assure a decent overall score. I think players who get a chunk of their points from rebounds tend to be more consistent than scorers (especially if they rebound their own missed shots).

I also look for match-ups that are advantageous for particular players or teams. If I guess right and the players outperform their averages then an above average score is possible.

Another thing to consider is that for some teams the minutes are distributed more widely during non-conference games than in conference play. Players who settle into roles requiring them to play more minutes in the conference season have an opportunity to outperform their averages if they maintain their level of productivity. As well, some teams played relatively weak non-conference schedules enabling their players to accrue hoopla point averages that are difficult to sustain in a rugged conference.

I do think fans are most familiar with the teams they follow, and can make better guesses about match-up advantages and coahes' adaptations, so it probably helps to be a little bit of a homer. I tend to use two or three players from Tech (maybe not next session).

So far I've been moderately successful. I haven't finished first in a single session, but I've finished in the top half for each session. This has kept me in contention. But luck is extremely important; every lineup is risky. I used Greenwalt in every session except the last one. Lo and behold, in that game she doesn't even play a single minute!

Those are some general thoughts. If you want any more specific reasoning or examples of why I made certain choices, just ask. I am competitive enough to want to do reasonably well, but not competitive enough to harbor any secrets. I've never played a fantasy game before, so I'm doing this by seat of my pants! It's alot of fun.

Looking through old threads, I noticed elfdenmom won last year's contest. Any specific advice you can persuade her to yield up would probably be more valuable than anything I could offer.

BTW, I had checked the paper, bulletin boards, and listened to radio shows to see if Greenwalt was held out for disciplinary reasons or for a minor injury, which would allow you and YCN to use the reserve players, but found no evidence of those problems. On her radio show, Coach Sharp seemed to suggest it was just a match-up deal, that Cisti understood and handled the situation well. She has made similar manuevers in previous years, but it was still very surprising.