New player question, I just took over Martin Luther in Allen. Beyond getting a mentor asap, any advice on what to do with a DIII team featuring 9 seniors and 1 junior? I have one clear offensive option, and so I redshirted his backup. As far as I can tell, I can't redshirt any others. Should I be targeting JUCO players for the next few years? Or should I just plan to run with a senior heavy team for the season, and try to move to DII next year? From what I can tell of the game, the thought of playing with 8-9 freshman next season is not appealing. If I ditch the team after a season, will it be a big hit on my rep?

That's up do you...do you want to move up ASAP?  

You can only get money for six open scholarships per year, so if you can, I'd try to recruit a couple extra guys and then cut the crappiest seniors you have (up to three). Note: you can only cut before signings begin. 

Mostly get a mentor and gear up for next year's recruiting, because it will be HUGE. And expect to suck for the next two seasons after this one. 

If you really want to move to D2, you should be able to do it after one season. My D2 conference in Allen (Great Lakes Valley) is a really great one to be a part of, and there's a good chance you'll be able to get a job there next season if you want to. Won't hurt anything. 

D2 is harder though (although if you're putting in the time and talking with people who know the game, you should be able to handle it), so jumping to another D3 team next year is also an option. Will hurt your rep a bit, but not enough to matter I think. 

I don't really have an opinion on how fast to move up, except I don't necessarily want to stick around if the next few seasons are going to be futile. I don't really want to stay in DIII forever, so it does matter to me if I'm not going to have good teams the next few seasons.

But again the other concern for me is, will my reputation take a big hit if I jump after one season (assuming I don't muck it up, and my senior heavy team does reasonably well)? If so, maybe it's best to try to grab as many juco players and mix and match the next few seasons.

I guess it's plan A or B.

Plan A is to un-redshirt the other guard (who will likely start at pg) and go for as many wins as possible this year, with the intent to jump.

Plan B is to keep him redshirted, maybe take a slight hit in terms of team effectiveness this year, but keep him around for one more year, and try to bring in as many juco players as possible for the next 2 seasons, in an effort to avoid bottoming out.

Plan C is not something I want to do, but would include re-building through a mix of a couple freshmen this year, and then mixing in juco players in the next few seasons. That's what I'd do if I was at my final destination and was trying to build a long-term winner. But again, I don't really want to stick in DIII all that long, I'm thinking more like 1-3 seasons.

I appreciate any thoughts here.

If you move up, your reputation never takes a hit. it only takes a hit with lateral moves. But I don't think it really matters that much until you get to D1. Could be wrong. 

Honestly, I'd go with A or C. 

B might keep you from totally bottoming out, but you're not going to be an NT contender with some cobbled-together JUCO guys. If you want to build a successful team, do it with mostly freshmen and JUCO guys here and there to balance out the classes. 

If you only want to be in D3 for 1-3 seasons though, you don't really have time to build a contender from scratch, so I don't see why jumping after one season would be any worse than jumping after two or three. But if you're jumping, you'll definitely need to be ready to hit the ground running. D2 is a little tougher. 

pkoopman, feel free to sitemail me. I have Martin Luther in Wooden and have some experience with trying to build them up. Would be happy to share any insights.