The problem I have, is that you have all these experienced coaches (check their resumes) telling you how to improve and how the sim works and you're basically just replying with "Nope, you're wrong. I'm an amazing coach and it shows"... 

News flash: I've beaten Strang and Swift1976. They are fantastic coaches... They were in rebuilding years, while I had seniors on the court. I squeaked out victories and felt good about myself. I swept conference play, because I play mostly crappy sim coaches, but the minute I get to the CT, I am a first round out 9x out of 10... I started asking for advice, followed it from these guys and INSTANTLY see a difference in how my team is playing... 

Try getting more than 4 games under your belt, before you bad mouth these guys and pretend you're some kind of Vince Lombardi.... Keep in mind, they're being nice and trying to bring down your ridiculous expectations. I'm not being that nice. I'm saying you're kind of acting like a total tw*t and need to bring it down a notch or no one will help you. These guys are trying to help, and basically telling them to pound salt, is ridiculous.  

Now, with that said, do you guys think it's better to start with a team that has like 10-11 scholarships when taking over a team? or should one do some research and try to find a team with not totally atrocious guys, and try to build around what they have to start?

Posted by lilspike0738 on 1/8/2016 11:30:00 AM (view original):
Now, with that said, do you guys think it's better to start with a team that has like 10-11 scholarships when taking over a team? or should one do some research and try to find a team with not totally atrocious guys, and try to build around what they have to start?

The first goal would to be to take over a team that was previously human coached with talent so you don't have to suck and waste 4 seasons to start becoming good.

If not ehn take over a school with a high number of junior/seniors or balanced classes

Is there a way to search that? or do you have to individually go through the teams and see who they were coached by... I tried searching by Prestige, but it seems to leave teams that were coached by a player like 2-3 seasons ago, and the players are all weeded out and left for the worse. 

Posted by coachvegas44 on 1/8/2016 11:09:00 AM (view original):
Just a few comments in addition to those above. I would start Martin White at the SF and Jerry Walker at one of the big's over John McClain. McClain was a worthless recruit. With a WE of 3 he will never help you. He just won't grow at all in 4 years. With those 2 weak players in the starting lineup, I'm not sure why you decided to go slowdown. I would have never done it. The fastest way to grow now is to go with your strongest players now.

Wait. He has a player named John Mcclain? I didn't even notice that. NO WAY you can cut Die Hard.

Yippee ki yay

Posted by Benis on 1/8/2016 12:00:00 PM (view original):

Posted by coachvegas44 on 1/8/2016 11:09:00 AM (view original):
Just a few comments in addition to those above. I would start Martin White at the SF and Jerry Walker at one of the big's over John McClain. McClain was a worthless recruit. With a WE of 3 he will never help you. He just won't grow at all in 4 years. With those 2 weak players in the starting lineup, I'm not sure why you decided to go slowdown. I would have never done it. The fastest way to grow now is to go with your strongest players now.

Wait. He has a player named John Mcclain? I didn't even notice that. NO WAY you can cut Die Hard.

Yippee ki yay

I chuckled when I saw the name the other day too, but then saw the Work Ethic of THREE........

John McClain has a WE of 3, until the world is coming to an end. Then it jumps to 99.

Posted by lilspike0738 on 1/8/2016 11:30:00 AM (view original):
Now, with that said, do you guys think it's better to start with a team that has like 10-11 scholarships when taking over a team? or should one do some research and try to find a team with not totally atrocious guys, and try to build around what they have to start?

If I am taking over a team that has been SIM-coached for a while, yes, I would prefer a team with a ton of scholarships. Here's why:

1. You can change the O/D to whatever you want it to be instead of being constrained by what the previous coach used.

2. With the right mix of JUCOs and freshmen, you can balance out recruiting classes instantly.

3. If the 1-2 returning SIM players are usable, great. If they aren't, you can hide them on the depth chart pretty easily.

Now, it does put a lot of pressure on you to get that first recruiting class right. Depending on the conference postseason cash, you will have between 18,000 and 20,000 for recruiting cash. That sounds like a lot, but once you factor in FSS and the fact that JUCOs are generally more expensive to scout (there aren't a ton of JUCOs out there and they tend to be far-flung, so you have to spend more on FSS and/or scouting trips to get an idea of their potential), your margins get crazy thin. In my experience, you have to be able to sign most of your players for under 1K/player.  It works best if you can find a fairly empty conference in a decent recruiting area. You are going to have to take risks on guys, sometimes without the money to do a ton of scouting reports.  Because of the 6 man scholarship limit for freshmen classes, you have to sign 4-5 JUCOs/transfers and late in the recruiting cycle, I've had to sign JUCOs from across the country without having any FSS or scouting data on them. You recruit and pray for blue after they sign.

I have 5 HD teams right now. Four of them were built this way -- I took over a SIM coached team with a ton of scholarships.  Here is how I would grade myself:

1. Bridgewater State -- this is easily my greatest success story. I filled all 11 scholarships. The JUCOs turned out really well, especially Tyksinski, who became a stud PG.  My original freshmen class (Hubbard, Johnson, Walcott, Selleck and Montgomery) have gelled together into a nice group as seniors (I cut my one recruiting mistake after his freshman year).  They've gone from being a C prestige team as freshmen to A- prestige and a #4 ranking as seniors.

2. Beloit -- I really like where this team is headed. They won the regular season division title in their first season together and improved a ton down the stretch. I only lose 1 senior and my two best players are sophomores. I think this team is going to do well in the next few seasons.

3. Ohio Wesleyan -- This team has some nice pieces (like Baker), but we lose a ton of our scoring with Selby and Haun leaving after being senior transfers. This team will take a few more seasons to get going.

4. Carleton -- This has been a dumpster fire. Midway through the season, I tried starting all of the freshmen to improve their ratings and see who would stand out as a building block for the future. None of the freshmen showed any real promise beyond being a role player.

Not coincidentally, Carleton is the team that is in the strongest conference, which goes back to the notion that the margin for error in a big recruiting class is razor thin. There were two players that I targeted early on at Carleton and got them considering me immediately. I lost both of them to a conference rival -- he had more prestige and (more importantly) I couldn't afford to get into a recruiting battle with him. If I lost the battle, I wouldn't have enough money and might end up taking 2-3 walkons (and that many walk-ons might negatively impact my ability to develop my freshmen).  Both of those guys could have helped me this year and developed into studs as juniors/seniors.

TL;DR version: Taking over a SIM team with a ton of schollies open is high risk/high reward and depends heavily on your ability to recruit well on a tight budget. I would never recommend that a rookie coach do it.

Posted by coachvegas44 on 1/8/2016 11:09:00 AM (view original):
Just a few comments in addition to those above. I would start Martin White at the SF and Jerry Walker at one of the big's over John McClain. McClain was a worthless recruit. With a WE of 3 he will never help you. He just won't grow at all in 4 years. With those 2 weak players in the starting lineup, I'm not sure why you decided to go slowdown. I would have never done it. The fastest way to grow now is to go with your strongest players now.

I am hoping he wil grow wtth starts and plus he is my only power foward so we will see next season.

Posted by lilspike0738 on 1/8/2016 11:28:00 AM (view original):

The problem I have, is that you have all these experienced coaches (check their resumes) telling you how to improve and how the sim works and you're basically just replying with "Nope, you're wrong. I'm an amazing coach and it shows"... 

News flash: I've beaten Strang and Swift1976. They are fantastic coaches... They were in rebuilding years, while I had seniors on the court. I squeaked out victories and felt good about myself. I swept conference play, because I play mostly crappy sim coaches, but the minute I get to the CT, I am a first round out 9x out of 10... I started asking for advice, followed it from these guys and INSTANTLY see a difference in how my team is playing... 

Try getting more than 4 games under your belt, before you bad mouth these guys and pretend you're some kind of Vince Lombardi.... Keep in mind, they're being nice and trying to bring down your ridiculous expectations. I'm not being that nice. I'm saying you're kind of acting like a total tw*t and need to bring it down a notch or no one will help you. These guys are trying to help, and basically telling them to pound salt, is ridiculous.  

"Nope, you're wrong. I'm an amazing coach and it shows"...

I never said that.... I have a mentor already if they want to help please feel free to contact me and I would consider your resume in helping me darnoc29099 is a division 3/2 expert I may change it back to fast pace to get to that score back to 80plus. But he recommended slow down so I may stick with it but less scoring if I do depends on the next few games really.

News flash: I've beaten Strang and Swift1976. They are fantastic coaches... They were in rebuilding years, while I had seniors on the court. I squeaked out victories and felt good about myself. I swept conference play, because I play mostly crappy sim coaches, but the minute I get to the CT, I am a first round out 9x out of 10... I started asking for advice, followed it from these guys and INSTANTLY see a difference in how my team is playing...

I'm not in your siuation, I am in a conference full of active coaches that doesn't apply to your situation at all. Please refrain from saying something bad to a new guy just because he is inexperience..

He will grow with starts but at 3 WE he won't grow much if any in the first place.  He may get to like 5 WE by the end of the season but it makes no difference because 3 and 5 WE players don't grow.

Walker is a much better player as well so it hurts your team putting McClain in as well as not really providing any benefit because McClain even with starting won't improve because his WE is so bad,

Posted by lilspike0738 on 1/8/2016 12:37:00 PM (view original):
John McClain has a WE of 3, until the world is coming to an end. Then it jumps to 99.

Will he ever jump?

I got to believe CoachWard is an adolescent. That in mind. I wish you the best. Sorry about your first loss to a Sim that hasn't had a human coach in 7 years.

Posted by taniajane on 1/8/2016 4:27:00 PM (view original):
I got to believe CoachWard is an adolescent. That in mind. I wish you the best. Sorry about your first loss to a Sim that hasn't had a human coach in 7 years.

That was because I switch to slow down.. I am 20 fyi.

Darnoc is an amazing coach to have as a mentor. You're going to do well at this game, coach ward. I hope you stick with it. It's already a good sign that you're posting to the forums and seeking help early. I wish I was that smart when I first started.