SSC

SimSportsConsole Tutorial

Introduction

After repeated requests, I’ll try to throw together a tutorial for the SimSportsConsole (“SSC”) that outlines some of its features and capabilities. SSC combines three tools into one: you have the base SSC, which tracks player stats, program history, and provides solid information for gameplanning; the Recruiting Assistance Tool (“RAT”), which allows you to customize your approach to evaluating recruits; and the StatViewer (“SV”), which lets you watch PBP files while customizing the dialogue. This tutorial will walk through each of these subprograms and give you an idea of how to utilize all of them.

This tutorial will break down information about each individual subprogram, and we’ll go from there.

Getting Started

SSC is the base of the entire program. It keeps track of stats, program history, recruiting success (or lack thereof), and the rest. To get started, click on SSConsole.exe. Click “New Team” to create a new SSC Database (.sdb) to get started. Choose a name for your file (I usually go with “L-whateverTeamName.sdb”—L-27Memphis.sdb), then input the new team information. You will need to list the current season number, as well as the two most recent power rankings for your program. These power rankings are important in calculating recruiting preferences.

Importing Games

Have you played games already this season? Go to PBP-->Download PBP (you’ll need an active internet connection). This will look to see what games you’ve played on your schedule, and which have PBP files to download automatically. Select the ones you’d like to download, then click “Download Marked.” Once these have finished downloading, click on the “PBP Viewer” icon.

It will take you to a PBP folder for the current season with your PBP zip files downloaded. Select the file you’d like to view and hit “Open.” The SSC runs some checks and tries to set your lineup, but it might get it wrong. In that case, set the lineup yourself to get ready for the game. If you’d like to watch the game in the PBP viewer, click “watch Game in PBP viewer.” If you just want to parse the stats, unselect this checkbox. Similarly, if you’d like to see other scores scrolling on the bottom while you watch, select that checkbox as well.

This brings up the StatViewer. You can adjust the viewer speed with the slider, then hit “Start” to begin watching. If you’ve decided to see other scores, they will scroll on the bottom. If you’d like to view the box score for one of those games, double click on the score and it will open a new browser window.

While watching the SV, you can hit pause at any time. You can also click “Stats” to view the total stats of the game so far. Or if you’d just like to check for an individual player, move your mouse over the player’s name and let it rest for a second. That will bring up a tooltip that shows the current stats.

Once you’ve finished watching the game, the post-game menu will come up. If you’d like to import the stats into SSC, click “Import Stats.” Set the season and game. If this game was particularly memorable, save it as a featured game. If this was a PBP of a team not your own (that is, you were just watching two different teams play), DON’T IMPORT THAT FILE. Hit continue, and the stats should update.

Changing the Text

While you’re using the SV, you’ll notice that the actions are different than what you read in the typical PBP viewer. They’re fully customizable. Go to PBP-->Edit PBP Text (or just hit CTRL-E). This brings up a menu that lets you edit the text you’d like to see so that you can customize your feel for the game.

Viewing the Stats

You should now be at the main SSC window. You can select whether to view the stats by total, per game, or per minute. You can also select what seasons to view, and whether to include exhibition games in the totals. Finally, you can select a variety of different stat windows.

The following stats are available:

Box Score

G: Games

Min: Minutes

FGM: Field goals made

FGA: Field goals attempted

FG%: Field goal percentage

3M: 3-pt field goals made

3A: 3-pt field goals attempted

3%: 3-pt field goal percentage

FTM: Free throws made

FTA: Free throws attempted

FT%: Free throw percentage

Reb: Rebounds

Ast: Assists

Blk: Blocks

Stl: Steals

TOs: Turnovers

Fouls: Fouls

Pts: Points

Shooting

shrtM: Short field goals made

shrtA: Short field goals attempted

shrt%: Short field goal percentage

midM: Midrange field goals made

midA: Midrange field goals attempted

mid%: Midrange field goal percentage

longM: Longrange field goals made

longA: Longrange field goals attempted

long%: Longrange field goal percentage

TS%: True shooting percentage, PTS / (2 * (FGA + 0.44 * FTA)).

Defense

aFGM: Allowed field goals made

aFGA: Allowed field goals attempted

aFG%: Allowed field goal percentage

aF3M: Allowed 3-pt field goals made

aF3A: Allowed 3-pt field goals attempted

aPts: Allowed points

Blk: Blocks

Stl: Steals

crTO: Created turnovers

aPt/TP: Pointed allowed per team possession

Ball Control

OReb: Offensive rebounds

DReb: Defensive rebounds

aOReb: Allowed offensive rebounds

aDReb: Allowed defensive rebounds

aTReb: Allowed total rebounds

Reb %: (OReb+DReb)/(aTReb)

LostP: Lost passes

LostD: Lost dribble

crTO: Created Turnovers

PUs: Loose ball pickups

t/TP: Touches per team possession

aPT/TP: Points allowed per team possession

PT/TP: Points scored per team possession

Efficiency

FD: Fouls drawn

t/FD: Touches per foul drawn

FT/FD: Free throws per foul drawn

Ar: Assists received

Ar/FGM: Assists received per field goal made

shBlkd: Player shots that are blocked

shBlk%: The percentage of a player’s shots that are blocked

crTO/TP: Turnovers created per team possession

t/TO: Touches per turnover

+/-: On court team plus-minus when player is in the game

SVx: Prof. Factor’s SuperViewer statistic:

((((FGM+(FG3M/2)+Reb+(Assists/1.5)+(blocks/1.5)+steals)+(FTM-(FTA/1.4))-(FGA-FGM)-TOS-fouls)/mins)*100)

Analysis

Eff: Efficiency -- Pts/(FGA+TOS)

aEff: Allowed efficiency -- aPts/(aFGA+crTO)

+/- Eff: The difference between the player’s efficiency and allowed efficiency.

Ast/TO: Assist to turnover ratio

Tendex: ((PTS - (FGA-FGM) -(FTA-FTM)/2 + 0.5*fg3m + 1.25*stl + 1.25*ast + blk + reb - 1.25*tos - fouls/2)/mins*30)

SecTendex: Secondary Tendex -- (1.25*reb + 1.33*ast + 1.5 * stl + 1.25 * blk - 1.5*tos)/mins

Shot%: The percentage of the team’s shots the player takes while he’s on the floor

Rating: Effectiveness Rating --((.75*Oreb+.25*Dreb+.5*Ast+Stl+.33*blk)+pts)/((1.5*(FGA+(.44*FTA)+TOS+gs/2+mins/4)))

NBS: Ninja Bovine Score --(2*fgm)+(1.2*ftm)+(1.6*fg3m)+(0.9*reb)+(1.5*ast)+(3*stl)+(2*blk)+(0.9*ballsrecovered)+(0.2*PlusMinus)-(fga-fgm)-(fta-ftm)-(1.5*tos)-(0.4*fouls)

What if there aren’t enough stats?

You can add in custom stats. Go to View-->Add Custom Stats (CTRL-A). This lets you select particular customized stats to add in to SSC. They will show up under “Custom Stats” on the Stat Categories popup menu.

History

Click on the History icon. This will bring up your team’s yearly success. You can view regular season, postseason, particular tournaments, or the like. Click on “Head to Head.” This shows you your record against particular opponents. Click on “Leaders.” This lets you view stat leaders in particular categories. Click “Awards.” This shows you the players who have won awards over time. Click on “Featured Games.” This lists games that you have marked as “Featured Games” when you import them into SSC.

Click on “Recruiting.” This shows each class you’ve imported, as well as its statistics so you can track recruiting for the future. Finally, select “Hall of Fame.” This runs a formula on your players and ranks their contribution to your program over the years.

Current Season

Click on the “Current Season” icon. This shows you a list of games and information about your current season. If you double click on one of the games, you will see the box score for that game. In the box score, if you have saved a box score or PBP text file for the game, you can view that now.

Player View

Click the “Home” icon to go back to the main page. Double click on one of the players. You can view the individual stats for this player, as well as editing the attributes to get the correct Player +/-.

RAT

Finally, click on the “Recruiting” icon. This brings you to the base of the Recruiting Assistance Tool (“RAT”). To get started, click CTRL-R to import the latest recruiting.csv file. This will automatically update the recruits and calculate formulas on them. You need an internet connection for this part.

To get detailed information about a recruit, click on the recruits name. You can change to “Page 2” and add a number of RPs to that recruit. Then click save. This puts the recruit on your “MyList” so you can plan your RP spending.

Click Edit-->Preferences. This lets you adjust factors and coefficients to streamline your recruiting. The Rating factors determine how much weight is given to each category for ballhandlers, off-guards, swing players, and posts. The preferences menu controls how much weight is given to the individual preference factors. The HS percentage controls how much weight is given to the player himself instead of the high school.

The Scout/Stat ratio determines how much weight is given to a player’s stats versus the scout’s impression when determining the rating. The higher the rating, the more weight given to a player’s stats.

The Recruiting coefficients are used in estimating the number of ties for a recruit. Unless you have a good reason to change them, leave ‘em alone.

If you’d like to add scrimmage information, you can do that under Data-->Add Scrimmage. This is given some weight when determining the quality of the recruit.

To see the high schools, click Data-->High School Info. That will show you each high school in list form, with the relevant information. Included is a “rating” that attempts to determine how good a particular high school is. The higher the rating, the better the high school program.

If you’d like to estimate your chances of winning a tie, select “Estimate Ties.” Add the opposing teams as either W3 or W12, and then RAT will calculate the numbers based on the preferences you have supplied.

Finally, Data-->Data Analysis will give a breakdown of each recruit’s +/- rating, as well as where that shakes out in the big picture.