Has anyone ever redshirted an elite upper class man in order to wait for the rest of the team to improve? Obviously, he would hate it but if he is basically maxed out anyway his work ethic wouldn't be a big deal.

In addition to general reflections, a few specific questions:

(1) Might an upper class man leave after being redshirted?
(2) Might a player declare for the NBA immediately after a redshirt season?

I'm not sure if your only talking about d1 but I redshirted a SR 700+ big man in d2 because I was bringing in 6 freshmen and I wanted him for another season when my team got better. I can only answer question 1 there is a chance ur player might leave after redshirted I've seen players leave before I don't know the percentage but my d2 big man decide to stay and it turned out well for me except for his we dropping to a 1 but he maxed out anyway.

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=3990

His name is Stephan ganz.

Coaches used to do it all the time in Tark (haven't paid enough attention recently to know if it's still happening).  Since no promises are being broken, although his WE will almost certainly bottom out, I highly doubt that he leaves (like 99.475% confident).  I never had a player leave and never remember any of my (then) ACC or Big-12 conference mates complaining about a player leaving in that scenario either.

The draft thing is a little trickier, not 100% on that one.  Never had one declare early for the draft after his "redshirt" season doing it that way, but still not extremely confident that he would "automatically" not declare either (sorry if that's confusing).

I did it just two seasons ago in Tark to a first team All American.  His WE will drop to 1 but he won't leave because of it (not sure about being drafted).  Some may think its a little cheap, but I have no regrets and would definitely do it again given the right scenario.

Posted by clouseb on 7/8/2013 9:33:00 AM (view original):
I did it just two seasons ago in Tark to a first team All American.  His WE will drop to 1 but he won't leave because of it (not sure about being drafted).  Some may think its a little cheap, but I have no regrets and would definitely do it again given the right scenario.

It's definitely cheap, but totally within the rules.  And if you don't mind taking an unrealistic strategy, a perfectly legitimate course of action.

I've done it before. It helped me build up my Longwood team in Iba pretty quickly in the beginning.

I'd do it all over again as it applies (unrealistic, but definitely not unethical IMO) - but it's not as beneficial as often as one might think IMO -

The reason I believe that it rarely works out is that usually when I have a Sr. that's already badass enough to hold on to another year and can survive the WE drop to 1, (meaning he's mostly maxed out on potential)...the only reason the player got that good that quick is because he was redshirted already as a freshman in the first place. Seniors of mine that have never been redshirted are usually role players, and usually still have some improving to do.