SEASON 3 (59) STARTING PRESTIGE: B-
After a successful 2nd season at GC, my goal at the beginning of this season was to make the NT, and get Thomas Zenger an All-American bid. I put some decent time into making a schedule, finding teams that had success in season 58, but that were losing a couple of pieces and I thought would be beatable. I actually did a real good job of that, as my non-conf schedule pitted me against only 2 teams that made the NT, but all within a 117 RPI.
GC only had 2 openings this season, the 2 that were from the ineligibles not signing last season. This was definitely a disappointing recruit class, as I thought ONCE AGAIN that with the slight prestige boost I could get a couple of dropdowns. Hell,I even chucked out 8k of my 11k budget trying to pull a guy down who ended up not signing with anyone. How embarassing. Heres what I ended up with, again CURRENT ratings after a full season of developing:
PG Bruce Vance
Athleticism |
39 |
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Speed |
64 |
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Rebounding |
7 |
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Defense |
33 |
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Shot Blocking |
2 |
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|
Low-post |
10 |
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|
Perimeter |
52 |
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|
Ball Handling |
62 |
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|
Passing |
54 |
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|
Work Ethic |
87 |
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Stamina |
76 |
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Durability |
14 |
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FT Shooting |
B- |
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Vance wasnt the 1st (or 2nd, or 3rd) guy I was looking at, but hes who I ended up with. Highs in speed, Perimeter, and BH. Didnt have any extra cash to scout him out, and am not happy with the results. After a couple of games, he dropped to average in both speed and BH. Still, the insane WE had him gain 22 points in perimeter this season despite only playing 6 Minutes a game. He'll have to be my backup SG next season, but he doesn't have big shoes to fill as hes replacing a sim recruited SG who wasnt very good.
So. PF Everett Christopher
Athleticism |
59 |
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Speed |
35 |
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Rebounding |
69 |
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Defense |
74 |
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Shot Blocking |
46 |
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|
Low-post |
56 |
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Perimeter |
27 |
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Ball Handling |
29 |
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Passing |
20 |
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Work Ethic |
24 |
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Stamina |
60 |
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Durability |
52 |
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FT Shooting |
D |
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Christopher was one of the ineligibles from last season. I had no other choice as I blew all my money trying to pull another C down and it didnt happen, and Christopher was already considering me from last seasons efforts. He has good initial ratings which I was really looking for (wanted to be good this season), but with his WE in the low 20s I dont expect him to improve much. he should be a backup PF for his entire career, assuming I can find someone better to replace Laws after S60.
All in all, despite the terrible recruiting offseason, GC had a pretty good team I thought was capable of making the NT. Since then, Zenger, Johnathan Smith, and Carlos Salter all had huge rating increases. Also worthy of note: Sim recruited PG Steve White has developed into a VERY good role playing PG. With the good scheduling job we finished 8-2 non-conf with a top 30 RPI, then followed it up with a 16-0 Conference record, CT championship, and 3 seed into the NT.
Season 59 NT JOURNEY:
With the 27-2 record, we were placed as the 3 seed into the East bracket. After looking at all the teams within the bracket, I saw 3-4 I thought Id have trouble with if I had to face them and the rest I matched up pretty well with. My first round opponent was 14 seed Fayetteville St, a team with some good scorers, but not a great defense and lacked ball control. The sim didn't let me down here, as we forced 23 turnovers. Not a whole lot more needed to say there, turnovers killed them.
After my first round game I was pretty happy and content with winning just the one NT game. I looked at the bracket and saw that both the 1 AND 2 seed were upset in the first round, making GC the highest seed left on the bracket. Definitely a "wow" moment. It also knocked 2 of the teams in the bracket out who I thought were better number wise than me.
My Ro32 opponent was Minnesota St, Mankato, a team I hadn't looked into much during the season. They'd only lost 1 game the entire season with a few wins over some really good teams so I was a little nervous, but saw that they only had 3 guards, and actually had a SF as their starting PG while running a 10 man depth chart. Running a fullcourt press, we match up very well with a team of big men. Figuring I could take advantage of this, I went with an uptempo offense hoping that more time on the court would force more turnovers and wear out their guys. The sim cooperated yet again, as we forced 24 turnovers, including 7 steals from starting PG Steve White. I noticed after this one too, that Bowie St was also knocked out, another team I thought had a big advantage on me.
On to the sweet 16, where we faced 7 seed East Stroudsburg. I didnt have high hopes of this one, as they have a solid lineup with no gaping holes. The only real advantage I had was at the C position where Zenger had a pretty sizeable advantage, but I knew it wasnt going to be easy. Thankfully we shot 52% from the field, and Zenger was able to take advantage of his counterpart to the tune of 20 points, including 10-12 FT.
The elite 8 is the furthest Ive gotten as a coach, having gotten there with 2 different schools. I believe I match up with 8 seed Northern Michigan, so heres to hoping the sim agrees! Win or lose, this season has been way above what Id hoped for. I have 4 seniors on the team, but Steve White was a 1st year ineligible so he should be back. We'll be losing our backup SG who isnt a big loss, an offensive backup center that shouldnt be hard to replace, and Zenger, which will be a big blow. Still, I think with a good recruiting class we could be better then this year, but I wont be upset if we dont make the elite 8 again.
In the elite 8, we faced off with the 8 seed Northern Michigan. I mentioned already that I thought I matched up well with them in the key positions, and that once again carried into the game. A very solid shooting performance from Carlos Salter (10-18, 4-8 from 3) with 27 points carried us in this one, as we won somewhat comfortably.
On to the final 4, matched up against another 3 seed Shippensburg. Shippensburg had been to the NT championship game 3 of the previous 4 seasons, and they were the team to knock me out of the PI last season. They are, well, better than us in most categories. Still, not an unbeatable team as Im not really far off from them, so a bad shooting game from them or a good one from us and it could swing our way. Thankfully, we got both. We shot nearly 59% as a team and held Ship to 35%, with our bench shooting a collective 13-17 for 41 points. Our first major upset of the tourney, and a championship is within grasp!
My first championship game as a coach, gotta admit I was pretty excited to get this game underway. We started the game a little shaky, but ended the half on a 6-0 stretch and took the lead into halftime at 32-30 with no foul trouble. We kept it close, keeping a lead all the way up until 7 minutes left in the game, but couldn't keep the momentum and fell behind.
Still, an amazing run for a team I had hoped for nothing more then a NT berth. We finish the season with an A prestige and a boatload of cash from the conference, so the team should be set up for a good recruiting class the next couple of seasons. As far as I can tell my plans are to stay with GC for the next 4-5 seasons to see how much of a difference that A prestige gives, but if the right D1 school opens up I may jump ship, seeing as the Peach Belt conference is lacking human coaches