I was 12 when I started playing HD under tmacfan12, I grew up obsessed with College Hoops 2K6-2K8 and would create legacies where I would build up teams by just simming the games and recruiting. My best friend and I played it non stop, we were always starting career legacies against each other and going head to head to see who could win the most championships.

When I found HD, I believe it was from a Bill Simmons recommendation from his BS Report podcast, I was in 7th grade and my imagination went wild once I was able to recruit my own players. I am absurdly competitive, I love recruiting, I love learning and I love outthinking but most importantly to me here, I played basketball my whole life and I still do. Back when I was 12-15 I would always go out to my parents hoop and suddenly those "Im Kobe" moments in my head when I was shooting around became "Dishes to Avalos in the low post, easy basket, Southern New Hampshire makes the Elite 8"..... I really can't get this game out of my head... I'm 29 now and am up at 5 in the morning ****** at myself because 1 I should have a 3 man JR class at Queens 2 I didn't recruit well enough for the 2 man class I have and 3 This game still has that same effect on me, Im still thinking about my own players in HD all the time.

Sidenotes, I have an account tmacfan14 as well with D2 teams in Knight and Tark, Im not rambling about a Queens team that doesnt exist lol. Also for anyone who was around when I first joined the site, thank you for putting up with young me on here.

Friend got me into it in college 14 years ago. Stopped for awhile and then got back into it in 2015 but don’t really remember why.

I just love basketball and sports in general. Love to watch, love to play, would love to coach but don’t really have the personality for it.

Grew up playing every sports video game imaginable from Sega to PS4. Countless hours spent in dynasty modes. That always got stale because you’re playing against AI. When I was 15, at the peak of Xbox Live, I found an online community of sports gamers that set up leagues in all the big games. You would jump on AOL instant messenger and set up a time to play and then after the game would literally write down your stats and then type them into a website. People would write articles about the leagues and talk smack in the forums. So much fun.

HD is kind of that same feel, with a little less time involved, now that I don’t really have any being older.

Posted by bpielcmc on 8/19/2022 2:52:00 AM (view original):
Getting that morning box score is like Christmas everyday

I swear those morning box scores have given me sleep issues. Wake up at 5:30am to pee…I can try to go back to sleep but those box scores seem to whisper in my ear.

Posted by topdogggbm on 8/19/2022 7:48:00 PM (view original):

Posted by rds_lsu on 8/19/2022 7:16:00 PM (view original):
Joined in 2006 and played for a long time. Left at some point and then came back during Covid. I enjoy the challenge of the game still but the forums were a lot more fun back in the day. I'm mostly playing now to wait out my recruiting bad luck streak and see it swing the other way. I would have multiple NC in Tark since returning if not for recruiting bad luck!

Yes the forums have tamed. Discord is where it's at now. Real time makes it a lot better as well.

Back to the original topic now! This wax a great thread to start.

Old man yells at cloud here, but I hate the discord. So hard to keep track of conversations and catch up on discussions you’ve missed unless you’re checking it constantly. And it drives a almost all of the discussion away from the forums.

Posted by Baums_away on 8/20/2022 4:55:00 PM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 8/19/2022 7:48:00 PM (view original):

Posted by rds_lsu on 8/19/2022 7:16:00 PM (view original):
Joined in 2006 and played for a long time. Left at some point and then came back during Covid. I enjoy the challenge of the game still but the forums were a lot more fun back in the day. I'm mostly playing now to wait out my recruiting bad luck streak and see it swing the other way. I would have multiple NC in Tark since returning if not for recruiting bad luck!

Yes the forums have tamed. Discord is where it's at now. Real time makes it a lot better as well.

Back to the original topic now! This wax a great thread to start.

Old man yells at cloud here, but I hate the discord. So hard to keep track of conversations and catch up on discussions you’ve missed unless you’re checking it constantly. And it drives a almost all of the discussion away from the forums.

plus there's like a 2000 character limit on the discord ;)

Posted by gillispie on 8/21/2022 10:37:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Baums_away on 8/20/2022 4:55:00 PM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 8/19/2022 7:48:00 PM (view original):

Posted by rds_lsu on 8/19/2022 7:16:00 PM (view original):
Joined in 2006 and played for a long time. Left at some point and then came back during Covid. I enjoy the challenge of the game still but the forums were a lot more fun back in the day. I'm mostly playing now to wait out my recruiting bad luck streak and see it swing the other way. I would have multiple NC in Tark since returning if not for recruiting bad luck!

Yes the forums have tamed. Discord is where it's at now. Real time makes it a lot better as well.

Back to the original topic now! This wax a great thread to start.

Old man yells at cloud here, but I hate the discord. So hard to keep track of conversations and catch up on discussions you’ve missed unless you’re checking it constantly. And it drives a almost all of the discussion away from the forums.

plus there's like a 2000 character limit on the discord ;)

Hahaha that doesn't apply to most people tho! Except for maybe you, me, and shoe!

And the thing that drove me away from the forums is the ads I mentioned. Drives me nuts. With discord, it's real time conversation. Which I prefer. I understand it's not for everyone

I love college sports. I love competition. Don’t like much TV and have a very demanding job. This is a great way for me to add some fun in my life that is not too expensive (I know that is relative). Overall very enjoyable and there aren’t many things I don’t like-one exception being baseline prestige. I don’t think that is necessary and I’d love too see more of the small conferences filled which I think could happen. It would be interesting to see how a world with no baseline prestige would develop. The other thing I don’t like is the dreaded time between seasons! But I am addicted and look forward to this pleasure/pain daily!

Posted by Baums_away on 8/20/2022 4:46:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bpielcmc on 8/19/2022 2:52:00 AM (view original):
Getting that morning box score is like Christmas everyday

I swear those morning box scores have given me sleep issues. Wake up at 5:30am to pee…I can try to go back to sleep but those box scores seem to whisper in my ear.

When it’s do or die time in the tourney, I hear those whispers too.

joined in 2005 as a freshman in college due to March Madness having a link to the SimMatchup section of the site, so I used it to fill out a bracket. Noticed there was a game you could do a "real life simulation team" and would start in D3 and could work your way up to D1 if that's what you wanted to do. And best of all it was real life schools, which was a plus to me. I had played NCAA basketball video games up to that point, so a different platform to play from interested me.

Been an off and on member though the years. Real life would usually creep up, which always caused me to fade away for a bit. Currently in my longest active streak since beginning in season 21 in Naismith. Even though I've coached in D1, I'm more than likely a non D1 coach here for the foreseeable future. The lower divisions always caught my attention more than the big boys, likely due to my personal connection to recruiting for a D2 program in real life before venturing off to the HS ranks where I'm at now. Plus I like to see the no name schools I've never heard of making runs to a NT title.

This is, I think, my fourth time giving it a whirl (new username since I couldn't recover my previous). I worked in college athletics for a long time and it got a little difficult for my recreation to be the same as my work so it was hard to stay engaged. Now that I'm out of college athletics, I'm able to enjoy it a lot more. I am still looking for that elusive national title and plan to stay long enough this time to finally, hopefully, get one. I have enjoyed the recruiting changes in 3.0 as well once I got used to it, except for the fact that you're more or less stuck for a season when you take a new team over.

i started WiS in 2012..i'm 75 y/o now..i've played hbd, gd, & hd, as well as sim baseball & basketball..hd is my favorite-my record 9395-8115 with nary a nc..the best i've done is elite 8..don't know why i keep playing..maybe to just pass time to stay away from social media..

Posted by p6453 on 8/18/2022 5:57:00 PM (view original):
I joined HD on May 30th, 2008. My career record is 6059-1478. I've won exactly 1 National Championship and between my two current teams have a 16-season streak of not making it out of the first-round of the NT. Included in that streak are 6 defeats by a made basket at the buzzer and another 6 defeats by 15+ points. Yet here I am, looking to maybe pick up a third team. Why do I do it? The grind towards a second title? The (imaginary) heartbreak of those losses?
Better yet, why do you HD? HD vets...why are you still here? What keeps you at it? Newbies... What about you?

Newbie here. Joined with the March Madness deal in 2021. Some background info, I'm Canadian, know nothing about NCAA or March Madness, our college basketball programs up here are a joke and we send our best kids to the states.

For me I became hooked because I like any game where I can out think and out work others and where it pays off. Sim Hockey (and most other sim leagues) got stale years upon years ago. I have 2 HBD teams because I find them more realistic and, while I can draft better potentially and build better teams, HBD has a ton of randomness to it. In a game where you play 162 games a season, a 7, or god forbid 5 game series has far too much luck to it.

I've been playing for a year now with 3 HBD teams, a DIII I started with, a DIII where I only draft DIII projected kids and a DII (I Have no interest in DI at this point in time). and while the best season I have had has been a F4, I find that every season, having the same resources as everyone else (Give or take) I can outwork and out think other owners. Recruiting is my favourite part as its figuring out who projects to be the best players, when to go all in and when to cut bait because I have no chance. I don't get that kind of experience in HBD. I still know nothing about basketball and March madness but I do know a lot about signing talent and that has taken me a long way so far.

Edit: The discord is a great reason as well. Wish we had one for HBD. Makes the community a lot closer and makes the game a lot more fun.

I LOVE this!!!

This whole thread is awesome. I joined 6-7 years ago for the first time I think. I didn't know I was supposed to read the forums, recruited D3 recruits and realized my mistake several seasons later. Got frustrated over it and quit. A few years later I got the itch to play again and this time read every thing I could find!

I still play D3 and find it very enjoyable. I love being in the NT every year, whether it's because I have a contender that year or I'm just trying to upset somebody. I'm still without a title but have been to the F4 a few times and the championship game a few times. My goal for a while has been to win the NT with Man/Triangle and then start trying out other offensive/defensive sets... I'm in the elite 8 right now with USCG in Crum and am hoping I can finally close the deal! If not though, I think I'll start playing other sets anyway to switch things up. Still love this game!

Posted by CPA_ROD on 8/22/2022 10:36:00 PM (view original):
This whole thread is awesome. I joined 6-7 years ago for the first time I think. I didn't know I was supposed to read the forums, recruited D3 recruits and realized my mistake several seasons later. Got frustrated over it and quit. A few years later I got the itch to play again and this time read every thing I could find!

I still play D3 and find it very enjoyable. I love being in the NT every year, whether it's because I have a contender that year or I'm just trying to upset somebody. I'm still without a title but have been to the F4 a few times and the championship game a few times. My goal for a while has been to win the NT with Man/Triangle and then start trying out other offensive/defensive sets... I'm in the elite 8 right now with USCG in Crum and am hoping I can finally close the deal! If not though, I think I'll start playing other sets anyway to switch things up. Still love this game!

Your USCG team is loaded and I am scared to play you tonight. I'm looking for the "unplug the shot clock and hold the ball" option in gameplan settings.