On my St. Josephs (DIII) team I have two FR Small Forwards.

Both have tremendously high upside (Lots of blue across the board) but one clearly projects to be a D3 All-American type by his Jr and Sr years.  I'm trying to decide if I play the less talented (still has great upside) guy with a lesser work ethic as a true FR and red-shirt the potentially big time player in an effort to squeeze an extra year of eligibility out of him in the long term.  Not to mention he's proficient already in my offense, so he would probably end up an A+ with a red-shirt year.

I have a very strong SO class of guards that could be very good once they are seniors. 

do it

Posted by toonarmy on 10/28/2014 12:38:00 PM (view original):
On my St. Josephs (DIII) team I have two FR Small Forwards.

Both have tremendously high upside (Lots of blue across the board) but one clearly projects to be a D3 All-American type by his Jr and Sr years.  I'm trying to decide if I play the less talented (still has great upside) guy with a lesser work ethic as a true FR and red-shirt the potentially big time player in an effort to squeeze an extra year of eligibility out of him in the long term.  Not to mention he's proficient already in my offense, so he would probably end up an A+ with a red-shirt year.

I have a very strong SO class of guards that could be very good once they are seniors. 

(almost) Always redshirt the guy who's going to be a stud. You'll regret it if you don't. Especially with a SF type with lots of blue, because even with a good work ethic it's likely he'll still have some room for growth in his fifth year.

I agree.  The better the player, the more it makes sense to redshirt him so he can be dominant as a junior and senior (and possibly even as a sophomore if he is a real stud).

With studs I always wish I could have them another season. Always redshirt studs.

Posted by davis on 10/28/2014 10:12:00 PM (view original):
I agree.  The better the player, the more it makes sense to redshirt him so he can be dominant as a junior and senior (and possibly even as a sophomore if he is a real stud).

+1

especially offensive studs... those are the studs who make the biggest impact in terms of overall team success. having an extra top notch scorer each season can be insanely valuable. 

Looks like I made the right call.  Actually, both have developed nicely.

Here is the guy that I redshirted

Here is the guy I decided not to redshirt

Posted by backboy13 on 10/28/2014 1:41:00 PM (view original):

Posted by toonarmy on 10/28/2014 12:38:00 PM (view original):
On my St. Josephs (DIII) team I have two FR Small Forwards.

Both have tremendously high upside (Lots of blue across the board) but one clearly projects to be a D3 All-American type by his Jr and Sr years.  I'm trying to decide if I play the less talented (still has great upside) guy with a lesser work ethic as a true FR and red-shirt the potentially big time player in an effort to squeeze an extra year of eligibility out of him in the long term.  Not to mention he's proficient already in my offense, so he would probably end up an A+ with a red-shirt year.

I have a very strong SO class of guards that could be very good once they are seniors. 

(almost) Always redshirt the guy who's going to be a stud. You'll regret it if you don't. Especially with a SF type with lots of blue, because even with a good work ethic it's likely he'll still have some room for growth in his fifth year.

The only exceptions to this rule that I have come across: 

1. You have the talent level to make a serious run this season and future stud is good enough to help quite a bit as a freshman. If he may be the difference between a title and not, you play him. 

2. Future stud is in or right behind a huge class. A 5th-year senior stud on a team with 10 underclassmen will help the team be better, but not as much as a 4th-year senior stud would help on a team with six seniors. 

Glad it worked out though

Posted by toonarmy on 12/17/2014 1:44:00 PM (view original):
Looks like I made the right call.  Actually, both have developed nicely.

Here is the guy that I redshirted

Here is the guy I decided not to redshirt

Watch, see how long it takes before someone shows up (not counting this post, I'm only predicting) and trashes those two players and tells you how weak they are and all the deficiencies they've got. Unless this post puts them off, it won't be long.

They'll tell you that they'd NEVER recruit that player because the first guy's stamina isn't good enough. Granted, it could be higher but I'd be willing to bet that 99.99746% of D3 coaches would deal with the stamina "issue" in order to get him on their roster.

The second guy, why he can't pass the ball properly. He'd be a turnover machine. Those same coaches wouldn't even CONSIDER looking at a player with such a glaring fault.

Funny thing is, when you pull up "those" coaches rosters, they are usually littered with several players who are far worse than the ones they are trashing. Hypocrites.

Those look like two very solid D3 SF's to me. Well balanced. Good overall players. I'd take either of them in a heartbeat and wouldn't have to think twice about it. Good job and glad your decision worked out to your benefit.

Oh, one other thing. As was mentioned earlier, a couple of times I think, always, ALWAYS redshirt the studs. ALWAYS.

The best part is that both of them still have a lot of "Blue" on the board.

They should both be high level by their SR years.