Posted by milwood on 12/12/2012 10:29:00 AM (view original):
Bis, I don't think you necessarily suck at recruiting, but you need to improve on your player evaluation.  I think you just need to set your standards higher.  Instead of going for the guy that makes you say, "sure, I can deal with him in my lineup"  look for those guys that make you say, "damn, He would be awesome in my lineup"  The players are out there.  You can't reach higher standards if you don't set your standards higher

Every time I try to do that, someone comes along right before signings and takes him away.

+1 on that too

Posted by bistiza on 12/12/2012 12:14:00 PM (view original):
milwood whenever I say that to myself there are a bunch of other people who say the same things about those players and I either don't want to battle or don't have the cash to battle for them. So I find the players I can deal with and make it work.

If you have any advice on how to actually get better recruits without battling nearly every time, I'd love to hear it.

Bistiza, honestly if you're having to battle over every good recruit you're after, either you've just run into some REALLY bad luck or you're going about something the wrong way. 

Posted by bistiza on 12/12/2012 12:14:00 PM (view original):
milwood whenever I say that to myself there are a bunch of other people who say the same things about those players and I either don't want to battle or don't have the cash to battle for them. So I find the players I can deal with and make it work.

If you have any advice on how to actually get better recruits without battling nearly every time, I'd love to hear it.

I don't know.  I probably get into far too many battles and go too far in most of them.  However, I only battle when I have enough money/open scholarships. Don't worry about taking walk-ons.  If you have four openings go after two guys that you really, really like.  If you have money after signings there are pretty much always some pretty good talent that has been overlooked or dropped of someone elses radar

Posted by ethan66 on 12/12/2012 10:41:00 AM (view original):

Posted by gillispie2 on 12/11/2012 12:39:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tianyi7886 on 12/11/2012 11:20:00 AM (view original):
I think CBG is saying that 99% of the time you sign someone blind, he's going to be terrible. If the player is good or even decent, someone probably would have signed him already. And if you sign someone terrible, you are stuck with him for 4 years or you cut him but do not get scholarship money. In this situation, it's better to take the walkon and the scholarship money for next season. 

this sums it up. even if you could click a "give me a random player with X attributes button" - which you cant - you STILL wouldnt want to. potential is so important, i totally agree with the OP, you dont want to settle. and bistiza, no offense, because my opinion of you has gone up considerably - but i do think you recruit players who aren't good enough for people trying to do things like, compete for final fours. you seem to be decently on the mark on a lot of things, but your standards for great recruits are too low at every division, at least based on your posts. so, if you could click that button, you wouldn't want to - just too much chance of getting someone bad and being stuck with them for 4 seasons. and in reality, you CANT click that button, you get someone from a pool thats already been picked over, so like tianyi said, hes almost definitely terrible. i cannot conceive of signing players without seeing their potential (except like a d1 super star who is so good you dont care if hes low in everything) on any of my teams, in any circumstance. id take that 5th or 6th walkon before i blindly took a scholarship player.

My one experiment with recruiting an unscouted player was a few years ago when I had a nice squad coming back and 3 good freshmen already in hand.  I went after a Canadian SG who had high PER and SPD, average in other areas, thinking at least ONE of those areas had to have high potential.

Silly me.  The guy turned out to be 100% low potentials in all areas.  I kept him for a season as a 3rd-stringer backup and ended up cutting him.  Thus endeth my experiment in unscouted recruiting.

internationals are different, doing it internationally is a lot safer than nationally - which says something, given your outcome!