Preparing for a “Most Wins” Draft
The Draft. It’s the most exciting and important day in the life of fantasy fanatics like you and me. Preparing for a “Most Wins” draft is a little different from your usual drafts. We are dealing with factors that are important to you and who you’ll pick. We are not concerned with the USA today or the AP top ten. Of course those teams will be good but will they fill our need for Most Wins. An example in football season would be Hawaii. They went in the first round of all Most Wins drafts because they probably won’t lose a game. Basketball has sleeper teams just like that and we will help you find them.
It is a fact that if you are in a league like ours with 10 owners drafting 15 D-1 teams if you have all 20+ game winners you will definitely be near the top of your league. Obviously you want to avoid taking too many chances on long shots as any team under .500 will kill your chances. Last year Winthrop-29 wins, Davidson-29 wins, VCU-28 wins, or Texas A&M CC-26 wins, taken in the middle rounds were just a few of the steals of the draft.
There are many factors that you should consider before your draft. Big conference teams versus mid-majors, returning players, new coaches, program history, and the one that I think is the most important, The Schedule.
As in football some teams open the season with cupcakes and some use the non conference games to play tough teams to prepare them for league play. Games played are important. Check to see how many tournaments a team plays in. Do they go to the Alaska Shootout, Puerto Rico tournament, or the Pre season NIT? Do they have their own tourney with a couple of easy schools coming to town? Two years ago teams played 27 games plus any games out of the continental United States. Many teams complained that the same schools get invited to these tourneys. As of last year all teams were allowed to add a pre season tournament at their home court. This resulted in the bigger schools getting 2 more easy wins. Check your tournaments!
Let me give you some examples of the schedules you will be analyzing.
Georgetown—this is very good team without looking at their schedule. Roy Hibbert returns in the middle and he’s the best center in the Big East. Now add to that fact G-Town plays Jacksonville, Radford, Wm&Mary, Ball St., Fairfield, American, Fordham, and Old Dominion in the first 6 weeks of the season and you can see why they will be a first round selection.
Syracuse—Jim Boeheim has his usual classic schedule.The first 14 of 15 are at home. Syracuse can always be counted on for 22+ wins because of this. Listen to these toughies. St. Rose, LeMoyne,Siena, Fordham, Rhode Island, Colgate, Cornell, and Northeastern are all before January and all wins.
Pitt--Here’s Another big east school that stays at home for 9 of the first 10. Houston Baptist, Buffalo, Boston U., Lafayette, North Carolina A&T, and Mississippi Valley State are some of the cupcakes coming to Pittsburgh.
In the middle and late rounds some diamonds in the rough small schools can be found. Be careful to check their schedules too. Fang Mitchell at Coppin State always tortures his teams. This year is no different with road games at Az.St., Ohio St., Marquette, Indiana, Missouri, Xavier, Hawaii, and Dayton. They should all be losses and you don’t even think about taking Coppin State.
Try to judge which teams will win all non conference games but lose in the league. Clemson won 17 straight last year then went 4-10. They did finish strong in the NIT.
Gonzaga will be an early selection in most drafts but will play St.Joe, Uconn, Wash St, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Memphis before sweeping through the WCC.
Finally enjoy your draft and don’t be afraid to take a few chances. Just make sure you look at the Schedules!
Chuck Donahue