The Tusculum Pioneers just signed Robert "Bert" Tuttle, a monster of a player with serious motivation issues. For my own knowledge, and perhaps as a service to others in Wooden, I will track his progress and his success (or lack thereof) in this thread. Feel free to chime in as this young man takes his journey through college life!

Robert Tuttle
PF | 6'10" | 224 lbs. | 3.1 GPA
John A Holmes HS | Edenton, NC

Athleticism	90
Speed	12
Rebounding	46
Defense	68
Shot Blocking	49
Low-post	49
Perimeter	12
Ball Handling	1
Passing	11
Work Ethic	2
Stamina	73
Durability	36
Free Throws	D

	Current Rating	Potential			Current Rating	Potential
Athleticism	90	Average		Perimeter	12	Low
Speed	12	High		Ball Handling	1	Low
Rebounding	46	Average		Passing	11	Low
Defense	68	High		Stamina	73	High
Shot Blocking	49	Average		Durability	36	High
Low-post	49	High		FT Shooting		High

He has HIGH-HIGH potentials (if it matters!) in speed, defense, and low post. My assistant coach tells me Bert is an above average student in the classroom, but I'm not sure if he was only talking about the legendary Sex Ed class at John Holmes HS.

Having just taken over Tusculum, mired in simness for years, we are in rebuilding mode for the next couple of seasons. Bert Tuttle will start right away. We will see what happens with his work ethic, his improvement, and also importantly, his IQs! I will post his practice plan once the season starts.

John Holmes would have been better in Ball Handling.

Here is how Tusculum plans to handle Bert Tuttle's practices for this season:

SH: 9
C: 16
REB:15
FW: 16
LP: 16
PER: 0
BH: 0
P: 0
FT: 13

*practice plan edited after colleague feedback (below)
The study hall minutes are high because of his low WE but I'm hoping to be able to adjust those minutes down after mid-term grades come out.

Zero out that passing... you'll get nothing from those 5 minutes, and 11-low isn't helpful anyhow... split them b/w the C/REB/FW/LP section.

Posted by wronoj on 7/13/2012 10:19:00 AM (view original):
Zero out that passing... you'll get nothing from those 5 minutes, and 11-low isn't helpful anyhow... split them b/w the C/REB/FW/LP section.

Agreed.

But this is good. Cool stuff. I have an opinion about how he will turn out, but I will keep it to myself for now.

Cool, thanks for the feedback. I debated on the passing. I will change it to 0 in that category and up it by 1 on the C, REB, FW, LP, and FT (because he's a high there and I expect his ATH to get him a fair amount of FTs).

BTW, his starting FT is a D. I've added that to the start values above.

Holy crap.  I knew my work ethic was a bit lax, but really... and I am better at ball handling.

Since when does work ethic have anything to do with grades???

Beats me.  I am just naturally smart.  Just lazy as f---.

Posted by simpleton on 7/13/2012 12:14:00 PM (view original):
Here is how Tusculum plans to handle Bert Tuttle's practices for this season:

SH: 9
C: 16
REB:15
FW: 16
LP: 16
PER: 0
BH: 0
P: 0
FT: 13

*practice plan edited after colleague feedback (below)
The study hall minutes are high because of his low WE but I'm hoping to be able to adjust those minutes down after mid-term grades come out.

don't expect to see anything more than 3 pts of improvement (if that) over his career in any category, so a few minutes here or there in anything really won't matter imo..  And his ST will slide in the offseason.  I'm not saying he's worthless, just that he won't improve.

We are seven games into the season and it's time to give an update on our case study, Bert Tuttle.

The Tusculum Pioneers are a surprising 7-0 on the young season, and Bert Tuttle has been a pretty effective player for us thus far. Here's his stat line:

7 starts, 22.4 min per game, 47% FG, 47% FT, 8 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.3 TO per game (a handful of assists, steals, and blocks)

Last night he had his breakout game, scoring 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, seven rebounds (5 offensive), and hit a last-second shot to win it for us.

Not surprisingly, Tuttle has improved only two points thus far - one in LP and one in DEF. His IQ has gone from and F to a D, while the other freshmen on the team are at a D+ with their offensive IQ.

Mid-term grades just game out and he has a 2.9 GPA despite 9 minutes of SH.

having seen this, i think i'd further reduce both his FW and FT to 10 min each, and put it in Cond, LP, and (maybe) REB. You need those to get as high as they can, and the DEF at 68 is already high enough, and the FT will maintain at 10, but likely not really imrpove.

Now that the regular season has ended in Wooden, I thought I'd write with an update on our case study, Mr. Tuttle. As you'll recall, I thought he would be an interesting recruit/player for our Tusculum program because we were in the midst of the total rebuild and his start values merited playing time right away. Tusculum enjoyed its best season in 18 seasons, and Tuttle started every game. Here were his stats:

Min: 22.1
FG%: .484
PPG: 7.1
RPG: 4.8
FT%: .569

He gained a total of 13 points, but when you factor in ratings points lost he gained a total of 10 on the season. Here's the breakdown: 

Athleticism	90
Speed	13	1
Rebounding	47	1
Defense	70	2
Shot Blocking	50	1
Low-post	53	4
Perimeter	11	-1
Ball Handling	1
Passing	9	-2
Work Ethic	3	1
Stamina	74	1
Durability	38	2
FT Shooting	D

His FT shooting remained stuck at a D. His IQs were a C- for OFF and a C-/D+ on DEF, while other freshmen in his class are now at B- in those areas.

All-in-all I am satisfied with him thus far - he was my best freshman - but I see him trailing his class next year as they continue to improve substantially.

I'll update the post at the start of next season to see how much he's lost in ratings in the off-season.

I peek and was suprised.  He is holding up better than I might have thought after offseason progressions.  Let's get an official update out here and get your thoughts.