The seven highs are pretty obvious: Ath, Sp, Re, De, SB, Pe, and Pa. I am spreading out the practice minutes because I don't know what this guy will be.  So far all seven are still blue!  He'll never be a star, but there are worse players than  a guy with mid 50s ath, 60ish rebounding and shot block, and mid 40s defense and speed.  And, all those numbers are at least numbers, like I stated they are all still blue.  At the very least he will be a versatile role player and back up, with the upside of being a very productive player.

I'm not saying it is one of my best recruits by any means, but it is one of the most fun recruits I have had.  For one, every morning I get to check my Veney, Richard and it is fun just to see what this guy can be.  He will not make or break this team. 

Gillispie, I also agree with you and understand what you are saying.  I don't usually make it  a habit of filling a spot just to fill a spot.  I often take walk-ons.  Going into recruiting my frame of mind is always to recruit one spot less than available scholarships.  I tend to be more open to taking a chance when I have one or two open spots.  For some reason I am still a little nervous about having a class of 1 or none.

Dahs is right, I guess I never really said that I had the FSS for his state, so, yes, I knew which potentials were high and which were low.  I would generally never take a risk on a kid with such low starting defense, but given the other highs I figured, why not.

http://whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=2321951

I signed this guy for $120, last minute, after a DII school sniped away my original center target.  He'll never be great, or necessarily even a good big man.  But he's a solid defender and I'm pretty sure he's high-high in PASS, which will make him an interesting triangle big man.  And he was blue in def until it hit about 68, so he could get very close to 90 DEF.  His SPD was also high until very recently.

I actually prefer to have at least 11 scholarship players with a DIII press team, because of potential fatigue issues, as I run up-tempo most games and like to have fresh legs out on the court as frequently as possible.

the bascially totally changes everything. still not sure id sign him but if you signed a guy like that without seeing 7 high highs, youd basically be crazy, which is how i read it... sorry! :)

No worries.  yeah, wasn't a complete shot in the dark.  I am bad at this but not bad enough to go after a guy with those starting values without at least the FSS.  I should have been more clear from the beginning.

Ok, I'm trying here guys, but I just can't seem to get it.  I get Richard Seaman and Richard Head, but I'm saying this guys last name every conceivable way and can't come up with anything funny.  Help me out here.  What am I missing?

He has the comma.  "Veney Dick" a la "Veiny Dick." 

Posted by sol_phenom3 on 12/11/2012 6:36:00 PM (view original):
He has the comma.  "Veney Dick" a la "Veiny Dick." 

Doesn't work for me 'cause I pronounce that name as Veeny.

LOL. I get it now too. I was reading it/pronouncing it in my head as Vinny. oops!

Now I get it.  I was pronouncing it Ve-NAY.

I could be wrong.  Could also be "veeny" like a German pronunciation of "weenie" and then "Dick."  I'm really not 100% sure a) how to pronounce the name or b) if I'm even right in the first place about the humor behind "Veney, Richard".

I get the joke with the name but I found out in this thread I apparently suck more than I even thought at recruiting.

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

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.

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.