Manuel Harris	PG	71	576	4	60	Cinnaminson, NJ	$15,975	Signed withCanisius
		Paul Savoie	PF	20	665	4	20	Brooklyn, NY	$14,659	Signed withConnecticut

I coach Princeton.    We are a B- Prestige, had about 39K to spend this signing period and had 3 open scholarships.  It got ugly in Jersey.....


I am talking myself through this to make sure I don't do it again.  This is what happened.

I identified two PG's  I wanted early, Harris and one I actually signed.     There was some minor battling but I had Harris tight with me for about 12k and the other guy VERY tight for 6K by first morning of recruiting.

Then I got cute.  I think I made three cirtical mistakes:

* I blew 2k FSS California looking for some forgotten players I could snag.
* I hit an international with two scouting trips to see if he had potential and the guy starting considering me.
* I sunk about 10K into Savorie to see if he would consider me (he was undecided) and he did.

By morning of Day 2, I had the two PG's locked up (or at least I thought I did) and was in a battle with UCONN for Savorie.  Now I kinda knew I was going to lose because I figured UCONN to have more or less twice my starting $ and better prestege (I think they are  a B or B+).   I was counting on being closer, plus I thought I should at least try.  The guy is an ineligible and I didn't know how serious UConn was going to be, they jumped in at pretty much the same time I did.

Now at 2 o'clock on signing day Canisus jumps in on Harris.  I figure he saw I had 4 players considering me for 3 spots, with one being an international and another being a battle I was destined to lose and dropped a ton of cash on Harris.   I had less than 7K left, through out some HV's promised him the world, and lost.

Since Harris was my higher priority, I gave up on Savoie and lost him too.

I ended up signing the crappy international player and a halfway decent SF along with one of my original PG.  All in all, a D+ class for the Tigers.

Lessons I hope I learn:

1. If you really want someone, make sure they say *really* tight on the FSS.
2. Don't start battles you don't think you can win.
3. Wasting 15% of your budget fishing is not a good idea until after high priority  players  sign.
4. Just because you have money, doesn't mean you should spend it, keeping some in reserve to fight off "poachers" is ok.
5. Avoid looking vulnerable.
6. Don't have more guys considering you than you have roster spots. 
7. Don't be afraid of waiting to day two or three  to spend money.

Very good advice Trentonjoe.....

In D2 with B prestige CSU Los Angeles I spent $16,000 battling an in conference school with A prestige... I think he said he put $7,000 into him. Not sure how I lost him spending more then twice the amount and we were within similar proximity (I think the other school was at 300 and I was at 560 miles). 

I feel like every recruiting period I have to stop myself from making stupid mistakes because things can turn ugly in a hurry. I have had some good recruiting classes and then I will follow it up with a complete clunker because I get too aggressive. I have learned to try and keep at least 50% of my money for after signings start.

Posted by gvsujulius on 2/17/2012 1:47:00 PM (view original):
In D2 with B prestige CSU Los Angeles I spent $16,000 battling an in conference school with A prestige... I think he said he put $7,000 into him. Not sure how I lost him spending more then twice the amount and we were within similar proximity (I think the other school was at 300 and I was at 560 miles). 

I feel like every recruiting period I have to stop myself from making stupid mistakes because things can turn ugly in a hurry. I have had some good recruiting classes and then I will follow it up with a complete clunker because I get too aggressive. I have learned to try and keep at least 50% of my money for after signings start.

there is a pretty large price jump on effort at the 370 mile mark. HVs for him at 300 miles are around $434, while at 560 they cost around $772. Prestige may or may not work the same at D 2, but you already had a 75% distance penalty, plus the prestige penalty. Now, I know that CVs are the better value at your distance, and maybe you did too, but just to ballpark things - his $7000 is worth about 16 HVs, your $16000 about 20. Maybe you extend that a bit using CVs instead, but you still have the full letter grade prestige difference to overcome.

dac - the player is Kettner and it was San Fran St.

Posted by gvsujulius on 2/17/2012 1:47:00 PM (view original):
In D2 with B prestige CSU Los Angeles I spent $16,000 battling an in conference school with A prestige... I think he said he put $7,000 into him. Not sure how I lost him spending more then twice the amount and we were within similar proximity (I think the other school was at 300 and I was at 560 miles). 

I feel like every recruiting period I have to stop myself from making stupid mistakes because things can turn ugly in a hurry. I have had some good recruiting classes and then I will follow it up with a complete clunker because I get too aggressive. I have learned to try and keep at least 50% of my money for after signings start.

major cost difference at that distance - it is like you were fighting uphill two ways - once on distance and once on prestige - a battle fated to be lost most of the time

trenton- how much did you end up spending on Savorie??

I don't think you are spending enough on your battles. My battles have been running to the 20-35k range. 

Posted by slyman9 on 2/17/2012 3:04:00 PM (view original):
trenton- how much did you end up spending on Savorie??

almost 15K

Posted by tianyi7886 on 2/17/2012 3:10:00 PM (view original):
I don't think you are spending enough on your battles. My battles have been running to the 20-35k range. 

I think you're right.  Much like the Germans, I got caught in a war on two fronts.   

I wasn't EXPECTING to battle for the PG, I THOUGHT I had him locked up with the initial 12K.  I thought I had 20k to play with and probably should have dumped a few more grand into him to make him air tight and then poured the rest into the PF.   I probably wouldn't have won the PF but I might have kept the late  arriving team off of the PG.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 2/17/2012 5:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tianyi7886 on 2/17/2012 3:10:00 PM (view original):
I don't think you are spending enough on your battles. My battles have been running to the 20-35k range. 

I think you're right.  Much like the Germans, I got caught in a war on two fronts.   

I wasn't EXPECTING to battle for the PG, I THOUGHT I had him locked up with the initial 12K.  I thought I had 20k to play with and probably should have dumped a few more grand into him to make him air tight and then poured the rest into the PF.   I probably wouldn't have won the PF but I might have kept the late  arriving team off of the PG.

In my opinion, 20k is rarely enough to poach a player. With 20k leftover, you should have just saved it to defend against poachers and get some carryover. 

The second guy was undecided when I started, I went half *** in.  Twenty HV (6k) one cycle, 10 more then next (3k), 5 more the next (1.5K).   I wonder if I would have scared off UCONN if I drop 60 HV the first cycle.  Probably not...... 

Recruiting is a crapshoot. This obviously a human element game, so if things would have broke a little differently he could have been fine. Having more considering you than you have scholarships available is a fatal flaw though. Should have instantly thrown a redshirt to get him off the list.

I wonder about only having 39K. Did you scout all of the NE and drain out some significant funds there?

12K is never enough to lock someone up in D1, unless he's so lowly rated no one would dare want him.

Recruiting against UCONN was like throwing your fantasy bucks down the fantasy drain.

/
Respectfully,
A guy that just spent 40K on two different players and received walk-ons for my efforts.

Posted by stinenavy on 2/17/2012 5:34:00 PM (view original):
Recruiting is a crapshoot. This obviously a human element game, so if things would have broke a little differently he could have been fine. Having more considering you than you have scholarships available is a fatal flaw though. Should have instantly thrown a redshirt to get him off the list.

I wonder about only having 39K. Did you scout all of the NE and drain out some significant funds there?

12K is never enough to lock someone up in D1, unless he's so lowly rated no one would dare want him.

Recruiting against UCONN was like throwing your fantasy bucks down the fantasy drain.

/
Respectfully,
A guy that just spent 40K on two different players and received walk-ons for my efforts.

I had 39K BEFORE scouting.

I scouted PA, NJ, and NY.  It's SOP for me.   

In hindsight,there is only one reason why I battled UCONN. It's because my IQ is about 74.

Don't quite get the math. You said you had three openings, that's 45K right there...