I am about to start my second season with Hoops Dynasty (HD) so I thought I would give the rookies some tips.

1) When choosing a DIII school find one where a human coach has recently left. That means the players are probably better than an AI (computer ran) team. Some of the AI schools are OK but (in this game) humans are better than computers.

2) No one tells you what to look for in a recruit when you first start out. Screw that. Here it is:

     GUARDS: SPD BH, PAS and PER

     Forwards and Centers: ATH, REB, LP 

     Don't recruit anyone with a WE (Work Ethic) lower than 20 unless they are awesome in other areas.
     Recruit locally. Don't get into a war with another human over a player. There are an abundance of players at this level.

3) Take an hour or two and go through the forums. Most of the time you will have no idea what they are talking about but there are tips all over. Plus it will help you learn the language. Like everywhere, this place has it's own language and will seem intimidating until you learn a bit and realize they are just insulting each other like every other internet forum.

4) The most important thing I did was to get a mentor.  There is a forum thread with a list of people who are willing to help rookies out. I picked one in the middle of the season and he helped me out tremendously. He's probably the reason I had such a good season. ( I won't give his name because I don't need you taking his time away from me!) But I haven't heard any complains about any of them so I highly suggest you go pick one.

5) Have fun. Try different things. Develop a style.

Hopefully this will help you out and Good Luck (unless you're playing me, of course!)

[ Also be sure to check out mjp8 Guide To Recruiting. The link will take you to a Google Doc I saved of it]

          

defense defense defense.

you didn't mention it for guards OR bigs. it's absolutely crucial.

good point. It's only my second season, cut me some slack! :)

I said it because I wasn't sure if you knew, so I thought it might help you out. Keep in mind that ath and speed also affect how good a player's defense is.

ATHLETE SPEED DEFENSE for every position. All the other attributes are rubbish.

Buy Future Stars for the state you are in and other states that are within a couple of hundred miles. It is much more cost efficient than only doing scouting trips.

Try to stay within 200 miles when recruiting. If you go over 360 miles, it is extremely expensive. If you can stay within 100 miles, that is even better.

Look for players that have a lot of high potential, especially in the areas that are important for that position.

Don't just look at the Overall Rating for Players. Look at their ratings in the areas that are most important for the position you are recruiting for.

Read about "Drop Downs" in the forums, and see if you can get any Division 2 players to drop down to your school

I know you can't recruit for everything, especially when rebuilding a team.  But I am starting to think stamina is quite important as well.

And be patient when recruiting.  Players 'drop down' in many cases.  Budget that money!

I wrote a guide for rookies on D3 a few months back, a bit more updated than a lot of the FAQ info and stuff, people discussed it, added tips, and the mods refused to pin it.

Now it's somewhere in board purgatory to not be seen again, was very detailed and helpful for a lot of new D3 coaches.

Oh well

mjp8... any idea where it is? I'd love to read it...

That is an awesome guide!

/

Posted by uglyskunk3 on 2/11/2012 11:12:00 PM (view original):
ATHLETE SPEED DEFENSE for every position. All the other attributes are rubbish.

To a great degree, yes.  I turned my D2 program around based on your advice, ugly, and i appreciate your input.

But since then I've come to realize that LP and PER do have value.  BH and STAM are important as well.  I rank LP/PER as my #2 category after ATH/SPD/DEF, and BH/STAM as my #3 category.  They're not "rubbish".  DUR is rubbish :)

A player with mediocre LP or PER can still be an effective player if he has high ATH/SPD, but a player with high LP/PER is an even better scorer.

In D3, it's almost impossible to get players that have high potentials in all the important categories.  You must make compromises.

To add to the OP:  If you're not a paying subscriber, do it.  The FSS reports can make or break your recruiting and allow you to zero in on players' potentials rather than just raw ratings.