Next four games:

So I'll be using the TAMU and Kansas games to give Wood and Warf extra playing time, and I'll probably lose the Tex Tech game big, too - though it's at home, so I might (maybe, but probably not) have at shot at pulling a big upset.

The important game, though, is the Colorado game - it's in Boulder, but I'd love to see if I could a pull off my first road win at OK State in this game against the #10 team in the conference (with #11 and 12 being KSU and OSU in some order, of course.)

No surprises there: 1-3 again with a win at Colorado.

Here's my last quarter:


So the Missouri and Baylor games would require major upset skills, as would the Oklahoma game. But I just HAVE to win the matchup of rookie coaches. It's cool, though - I'll be out of town Friday-Sunday, and that's where my off days are.

Gah... one of my gameplanning changes didn't get saved and we lost - at home - to Kansas State. The main culprit is Carriere, who shot 0-7 from long-distance... so if I can blame it on a Sim recruit, I'm fine.

Well that sucked. This will be my first 20-loss season ever. Still, I chose this job because it a) was a huge challenge and b) has a big upside - Texas is at an A+ right now and they have the same baseline as OK State. I don't think I'm leaving unless the new release is intolerably bad or Northwestern opens up. Or, of course, I got fired.


On the bright side, Warf is up over 100 points and isn't showing signs of stopping. Maybe he'll end up like Prater at Vermont. Also, I get to clear my roster of Sims in 3 years, not 4 - so let's see if I can start winning some.

Next season's non-con schedule is on the easy-ish side: cbriese and reinsel are on the schedule, but so are two sims and no other postseason teams. As for the year after that: my easiest schedule in a long time. I'll be playing sinatra in Annapolis, reinsel in Stillwater, and then eight games that I'm sure I can win, even with all the freshmen.

So here we are and it's Sunday afternoon - Tuesday is the "summer" between seasons 40 and 41, which means it's also when I'll get a ridiculous amount of money and the ability to look at FSS.

I'm not looking for any JuCos this year unless there are quality sophomores out there - I want to keep that one class (the class that just finished their sophomore year) empty, which is something I've never done before. Now that I'm in a big conference, I'll be getting more than a scholly's worth of money, so having two years of carryover means that I could be recruiting Warf and Wood's replacements with more than 4 schollies' worth of money.

But with Wichita State strong and Kansas and OK both looking for a LOT of players, this is going to be a very tricky year for me. I'll be taking some chances - a walkon wouldn't be the end of the world - but I've got to keep in mind that Kansas, for instance, can underspend me by 1-2 or maybe even 1-3 and still win.

My priorities this year: fast, athletic, high-stamina, high-perimeter guys are all five positions. But I won't know who I'm shooting for until I can plug the FSS data into Excel.

Corn...I will be very interested to get your data on the following issue:

How much is a grade of prestige worth?

Say at equal distance B vs. C prestige. If B spends $10,000 what does C need to spend to win?

I have asked a lot of people this question, and have some guesses, but I would be interested in your opinion. I have very little data on A vs. C.

FYI my guess on 1 full grade is somewhere between $16,000 and $19,000 is what C would have to spend. The more playing time promises, the more C has to spend, I think, because a promised start at B is worth more "effort" for $10 than a promised start from C, so the C will have to add another few visits.

I don't know - my guess would be slightly higher than yours, but I'm honestly not sure. After my giant bankroll gets in some fights this week, I'll be able to speak with a bit more certainty.

hehe. My only point of reference was Flood, but that was messed up by the favorite school/close to home thing so I am not sure.

Winkleman was another one, but I don't think I ever got the #'s from james. I hate that he is still at KU, cause he is going to own flood in our game. doh.

Got my targets, got my strategy set up, which will help even after it becomes worthless at 8:00 tonight.

Recruiting silence now, so enjoy the HYPNOTOAD.

Two good-but-not-great players, two walkons. Got risky, shot high, got burned and lost over $40K on a recruit.

The battle was with Northern Iowa, a B- MVC team with five open schollies to my four. Normally, I wouldn't engage on that one, but the recruit was in Kansas - I was getting HVs/CVs for 321/813 against his 1272/754.

However, j_corva ended up taking a walkon - and little to no flak on his other recruits - so he spent $52K against my $43K. Normalized to my distance prices, he spent $30K... and in terms of effort, I count it as 29000 for him and 36000 for me.

The catch: that extra grade of prestige meant that he won the battle - if one grade means a 1.25 multiplier, I was beat.

The numbers (me/him) on the Ridenour battle:

prestige: C-/B-
calls: 47/68
ST: 80/1
HV: 74/20
CV: 6/28
min: thirty/fifteen
start: yes/no

And Player 2 wins. The high number of STs was because I had to "pull" the recruit, but the high HV-CV ratio was just inattentiveness on my part. I think that if I'd paid more attention, I would've tried to get in 50 HVs and 15 CVs.


So, kids, that just shows that when money spent is roughly equal, a grade of prestige can beat a distance disadvantage. Which sucks for me, 'cause I'll be giving up a grade of prestige to a lot of teams.

Two walkons + Crowell taking a fifth year + one redshirt means that:

• I'll be playing nine-deep this year
• and I'll have to sign eight next year, three of which will be JuCo-3s*.

*If I do sign 3 junior JuCos and 5 freshmen, that'll put my class structure to 0-5-1-6, which is weird. This was a bad year to screw up as far as preserving that 0 - maybe there are good JuCo-3s out there and I can put it at 0-6-1-5 by signing 4 and 4, then redshirting one of the JuCos.

But if I take even a single walkon, I don't get to keep my fun class-of-zero. That's really not too bad, though - I could bring it back in the future, and while it's nice (2x tourney money in the year after the 0,) it also makes redshirting - which I'll have to do to succeed at OK State - more complicated.

As for the guys I did sign? Well, I dropped $15K on a way-underrated local SG on the first cycle, and he stuck with me the whole way.



ROBBINS, John - 6'1", 197 lbs. Power Forward from Arapaho HS, Arapaho, OK. 3-star recruit, #48 PF, #148 overall.

ATH: 52 high ("improve substantially")
SPD: 76 high ("could be MUCH quicker")
REB: 26 low ("probably not going to see much")
DEF: 34 med ("decent improvement")
BLK: 36 low ("don't see any more")
LP: 12 low ("don't see any more")
PER: 75 high ("potential to really improve")
BH: 72 high ("tremendous upside")
PASS: 78 med ("some improvement")
WE: 51
ST: 68 high ("dramatic change")

OVR: 630

IQ: F/D? (doesn't play/"out of position often")
FT: 60.5 medium ("can improve")
HS GPA: 2.6

My second new player is a good four-year PF from Texas that I held on to despite an abortive battle from glitter over at Wofford. If I had signed Ridenour, this guy would've been able to redshirt, but I'm just too shallow at the post positions (Mathewson is one of three scholarship post players) and so I'll make someone else redshirt instead.



MATHEWSON, Shawn - 6'7", 213 lbs. Power Forward from Fruitvale HS, Fruitvale, TX. 3-star recruit, #43 PF, #177 overall.

ATH: 66 high ("dramatically improve")
SPD: 38 med ("can improve")
REB: 59 high ("HUGE improvement")
DEF: 57 high ("major improvement")
BLK: 59 med ("decent upside")
LP: 76 high ("LOT of room for growth")
PER: 31 med ("some upside")
BH: 1 med
PASS: 13 low ("don't see any signs of improvement")
WE: 76
ST: 71 high ("can really improve")

OVR: 615

IQ: F/C- (doesn't play/"nothing remarkable")
FT: 55.3 medium ("can improve")
HS GPA: 3.2

Class-balancing ideas:

If I redshirt Mathewson (basically writing this season off rebounding-wise, but helping in the future) or Robbins (as I have a glut of SGs,) then I'd be at 0/2/1/1 with eight to recruit. That's confusing.

If I redshirt a senior (I think my best bet would be Carriere, who's great but done improving - could I keep him from transferring? And would I care if he did?,) then I'd be at 1/2/2/0 with seven to recruit. That's less confusing, but it kills off my zero-class.

If I redshirt a sophomore (Warf,) then I'd be at 0/1/3/0 with eight to recruit. That's not too confusing (could sign 3 JuCos, 5 freshmen, and be at a very desirable 0/4/3/5 structure,) but I really don't see Warf taking the redshirt, as he's the only PG on the roster.


What's most likely to happen - and probably best - is I redshirt Robbins, take that 0/2/1/1 and recruit 2 JuCo-3s and 4 freshmen with my $100K. That gives me a 0/4/1/5 with a couple of walkons, and then, the next season, I have a 4/1/5/0 with two to sign. Then I just have to redshirt Mathewson...


God, this is getting confusing. I think I'll just play it by ear and try to sign the best talent available with my $100K next year.

7-3 out of conference - loss at Navy, loss vs Wichita State, loss vs Ball State... but a win vs Manhattan and a great win against UNLV on the road. I guess the trend of cowboys coming to Vegas and doing well there has just carried over from real life to fake basketball.

This season's cross-division games in-conference: vs Kansas, Iowa State, and Nebraska; at K-State, Mizzou, and Colorado.

If the current RPIs are valid, then my best-case scenario would've been to host Nebraska, Colorado, and K-State in Stillwater, so that's a bit of a bummer. But hey, you never know. My boys should be pretty bitter about last year's home loss to Kansas State, so maybe we can get revenge.


I'll do some actual analysis later.