this past weekend we had the family of the head of my kids' school over for a meal (he and i went to high school together). i went to the kitchen to grab some beers just as his wife was telling mine that when they first got married, they lived in allentown, pa. i shot up excited, 'were you close to muhlenberg?' and she responded, that as a matter of fact, they lived 3 blocks from muhlenberg and often times they hosted students for meals, etc. she then asked what my connection to muhlenberg is. to which i replied (to wife's dismay) 'i coached their basketball team some years back!' (it was my first HD coaching gig.) at this point, my wife looked at the floor and started shaking her head. but i was able to explain that it was like fantasy basketball, but the players aren't real...to which the head of school's wife replied, 'oh. well its pronounced muhlenberg - might want to get it right for your pretend players.' i was going to tell her that i've long since moved on and am happily coaching a successful D2 program, but i just grabbed the beers and went to join my buddy in the other room...

I just has a guy in my class room to do some field work.   He goes to  Grand Canyon.   I resisted the urge to explain that Grand Canyon is the only D2 school in Arizona and a pretty solid place to recruit from.

At my son's high school, a dean from Guilford spoke to 10th and 11th graders about the admissions process for smaller schools. He asked the crowd how many people knew of Earlham--that's where he went to school. I was one of only a few whose hand was raised.  He also mentioned Transylvania, whom he competed against in track. Luckily for me and my wife I didn't have to explain why I knew.

I'm not sure how 'Muhlenberg' is pronounced in Pennsylvania, but I'm from Muhlenberg County, KY.    The accent is on the first syllable, with a long 'U', sounding like 'Mew'.  MEW' len berg. 

Muhlenberg College is named for Henry Muhlenberg, the patriach of the Luthern Church in America.   Muhlenberg County is named for his son, Peter, a Revolutionary War general. 

I had a similar experience on a plane, when I was the coach at Willamette.  My seatmate taught there. I pronounced  it 'William-ETTE'.   She corrected me with 'Will-AM'-it. 

I was coaching UTD in Knight for a while while working IRL with an old seasonal employee that came back during the summer break. It was my first time working with him, anyway I pulled out my phone around 1:10 PM C/ST to see if I won and he starts asking me what I'm looking at. I ignored him and shrugged him off as nosy. Only later to find out that he went to UTD and is/was on the production team for the basketball team. Whoops.

Not quite the same, but I was on a family vacation in Washington state about four summers back and carrying 4-5 teams at the time in the game, so of course recruiting hit while I was on vacation in one of my worlds. As fate would have it, the internet in the motel was not working and we were in a small coastal town so there wasn't a fallback option available. By the third day there, the front desk staff had gotten used to my questioning and jokingly asked if I had a hot email or something, to which I responded without thinking "no, I'm trying to finish some basketball recruiting before the signing deadline."

I got back that night and the gal runs out to me in the parking lot to inform me they had their tech person drive down from Seattle (3-ish hours away) and got it taken care of and I should be able to contact my students. 

Posted by rednu on 5/28/2015 1:06:00 PM (view original):
Not quite the same, but I was on a family vacation in Washington state about four summers back and carrying 4-5 teams at the time in the game, so of course recruiting hit while I was on vacation in one of my worlds. As fate would have it, the internet in the motel was not working and we were in a small coastal town so there wasn't a fallback option available. By the third day there, the front desk staff had gotten used to my questioning and jokingly asked if I had a hot email or something, to which I responded without thinking "no, I'm trying to finish some basketball recruiting before the signing deadline."

I got back that night and the gal runs out to me in the parking lot to inform me they had their tech person drive down from Seattle (3-ish hours away) and got it taken care of and I should be able to contact my students. 

That is the BEST story!!!! LOL

i wish I could remember the coach who relayed this story:

 His wife was in labor.  There was a computer monitor in the delivery room. While the nurses were out of the room, he discovered that he could  get WIS  on the hospital computer. GREAT! He could recruit!!   Everytime the nurse returned, he closed out and pretended he was checking his wife's vital signs. 

  His priceless quote, "I'll probably burn in Hell for this...."

Oh man I probably laughed too much at these story's lol. Peolpe in my class probably think I'm crazy

Posted by alblack56 on 5/28/2015 1:15:00 PM (view original):
i wish I could remember the coach who relayed this story:

 His wife was in labor.  There was a computer monitor in the delivery room. While the nurses were out of the room, he discovered that he could  get WIS  on the hospital computer. GREAT! He could recruit!!   Everytime the nurse returned, he closed out and pretended he was checking his wife's vital signs. 

  His priceless quote, "I'll probably burn in Hell for this...."

oh god, I remember this story too...was one of the early ones I heard after finding the game and the guy became my instant hero. 

my colleague went to school at southern illinois university, edwardsville, which was my d2 haunt for many years. when he mentioned it in the office, i exclaimed, you went to siue? i coached there for years! well the guy had known me for about a decade, so of course he knows i have nothing to do with basketball and was looking at me like i was substantially more crazy than usual. and then comes the familiar sheepish explanation of, oh, well, its just a basketball simulation game... surprisingly hes been nice about it, thought i would get teased about that one at least a few times. definitely jealous of the folks who had those experiences and then never had to see those people again :)

Posted by alblack56 on 5/28/2015 1:15:00 PM (view original):
i wish I could remember the coach who relayed this story:

 His wife was in labor.  There was a computer monitor in the delivery room. While the nurses were out of the room, he discovered that he could  get WIS  on the hospital computer. GREAT! He could recruit!!   Everytime the nurse returned, he closed out and pretended he was checking his wife's vital signs. 

  His priceless quote, "I'll probably burn in Hell for this...."

i love that story. my wife is super nice about my games, when she was in the hospital with each of our kids, she kept asking me if i had to go home to play my basketball game :) i managed to miss recruiting sessions both times but one did have the NT going on (i lost) and she was perfectly fine with it. i have a suspicion she was actually just sick of being stuck in a little room with me and wanted to get rid of me, she kept bringing it up...

How Recruiting is like Dating:

I've heard most of these from dates:


“I’m not really  that interested in you. But you can keep spending money on me until someone better comes along.”

"Please stop referring to this date as a scouting trip." 

" You're dreaming if you think this is leading to a home visit!"

"My ball handling skills are none of your business."

"You expect me  to commit after just 2 days and 30 phone calls???"

“No, I will NOT remove  the redshirt on the first date!” 

 “When you promised me minutes, I was expecting more than just two!”

lol, nice.

"You'd only promise me a start if you couldn't promise me a finish!"

Al's story is way cooler (or less cooler depending whether or not you are Al) than he is letting on...next to the delivery room recruiter Al's is my next favorite :) (its the whole stuck on a plane thing...)

I've almost done this, and I have had to explain that I was recruiting for my pretend basketball schools when pulling out my tablet at gatherings of friends, etc...

How come we are all embarrassed by that and don't try to use it as an opportunity to recruit our friends to play HD?