Slight Card Updates to 9 Great Teams - Reggie Miller Gets Ball on 4-PF & 8

One reason we try to play each team at least once is to double check any possible mistakes on the player cards to fix before you use them in the Value Add Basketball Game. We just updated cards for the nine teams we've played so far in our tournament of the final 26 teams with one of the 75 greatest players of all-time not yet in the game.

Below are the 9 teams as updated in the game now. You don't need to reprint the cards, it just requires a couple of notes on the bottom for suggested playing time. You are free to; 1) use the rotations we add as suggestions, 2) make up your own rotation – just keeping in mind that if you use a player for more than possessions than their “Stamina” number then every roll of any kind is shifted one number against them because they are out of endurance, or 3) for the easier version just use the whole bottom row for the first 7 possessions (44-38) then the top row for the final 37 possessions (37-1).

We put the team in reverse alphabetical order because UCLA and Santa Clara at the end of the nine had the two additional significant changes we caught by playing the game - beyond just the suggested playing time.

UCLA 1987, featuring Craig Jackson, Reggie Miller, Pooh Richardson and Trevor Wilson.  

This is the most complicated rotation, with Jack Haley (bottom middle SF) playing four positions of the bench. However, the biggest change on these cards is we did catch a bit of a miscalculation that was giving Reggie Miller the ball too much - his card originally had the ball going to him on a 4, 7 or 8 and it should only be a 4 or 8. Figuring out the possessions in the 20th century is more complicated since possessions were not tracked until www.kenpom.com. 

Miller getting the ball on 2 of 8 rolls means about 11 possessions per game, and with his 1-5 range on the 20-sided die he gets the ball that would mean he would hit almost three 3-pointers per game, but some will be lost by the defense having a steal or blocked shot so that would keep him closer to his normal 2.2 three-pointers per game that year.

Pooh Richardson was the one getting shorted, and he now gets the ball on a 1 & 6 instead of just a 1. This was the first year of 3-pointers in the Pac-12 and Richardson had only 0.1 made per game that year, but two years later in his senior year he made 1.5 three-pointers per game.

Santa Clara 1996, featuring Steve Nash. 

Two catches on this team were important as well - starting with their only being 8 players when we had typed 9 players at first. That means even if each player starts the game with their normal 2 points you need four extra points to get to the 20-20 start of the game. You can either start Nash with 6 points on two 3-pointers made, or give both him and Marlon Garnett and extra buck to start them both at 4 points. Only three players off the bench, and two of them play half the game (22 possessions) at multiple positions.

The bigger catch though is that we had left the foul ranges off the cards originally, so every player except Nash now had a 35-36 range. Nash does not foul on his own card, but keep in mind players with "None" there can still foul based on the foul drawn of the player he is guarding.

          

North Carolina 1965, featuring Billy Cunningham and Bob Lewis. Just possessions added at the bottom.

Michigan 1993 featuring the Fab 5 including Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose and Chris Webber.  Just updated suggested possessions. Only two players come of the bench in our suggestions, so three do not enter the game. Four of the players play at least 41 of the 44 possessions. Advanced to our Elite 8 of this tournament.

Louisiana Tech 1985, featuring Kelvin Lewis. Karl Malone and Wayne Smith. Just updated possessions, and only one player comes of the bench.

Georgetown 1989, featuring Jaren Jackson, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo. Charles Smith and John Turner. All but one bench player gets in the game. Every opponent possession a 32, 65 or 66 is a blocked shot, whether Mourning or Mutombo is in the game. Advanced to our Elite 8 of this tournament.

Florida St. 1968, featuring Dave Cowens . The only changes are possession rotations, and they are pretty simple. We did put them on the wrong list google sheet, so the team was also moved to Google List B, Page 21.

Connecticut 1996, featuring Ray Allen, Travis Knight and Doron Sheffer. We just updated the possessions, but we also had the team out of order on List B, so moved them up in order to Google List A, page 27, the page after Colorado 2021 and before Connecticut 1999. Advanced to our Elite 8 of this tournament.

Centenary (LA) 1976, featuring Robert Parish. We only updated the possessions by player for the school that Parish put on the map.

These changes have been made both on the one set we did of only the new 22 great 20th century teams, and where they are listed alphabetically.