At least he's on the court.  Fab Melo was a complete waste of space as a freshman, yet he still played 10 minutes per game.  Meanwhile, one of the top PF's available in HD hasn't played a minute in 14 games and won't be redshirted.  There's a disconnect there, IMO. 

ETA that the point here is that Fab Melo stunk and still played ten minutes per game.  Why?  Because he had raw talent, low basketball IQ, and Boeheim probably figured sitting him on the bench may have led Mr. Melo to take his services elsewhere.  In HD, he can play zero minutes as a freshman despite having several teams josteling for his services and there is absolutely zero ramifications for his current program.  Similarly, Dion Waiters also mostly sucked last year, but was highly recruited, had an atittude problem, and ended up playing over 16 minutes per game (when he wasn't getting benched or otherwise ending up in the Boeheim doghouse).  

Posted by jslotman on 2/1/2012 4:31:00 PM (view original):

At least he's on the court.  Fab Melo was a complete waste of space as a freshman, yet he still played 10 minutes per game.  Meanwhile, one of the top PF's available in HD hasn't played a minute in 14 games and won't be redshirted.  There's a disconnect there, IMO. 

ETA that the point here is that Fab Melo stunk and still played ten minutes per game.  Why?  Because he had raw talent, low basketball IQ, and Boeheim probably figured sitting him on the bench may have led Mr. Melo to take his services elsewhere.  In HD, he can play zero minutes as a freshman despite having several teams josteling for his services and there is absolutely zero ramifications for his current program.  Similarly, Dion Waiters also mostly sucked last year, but was highly recruited, had an atittude problem, and ended up playing over 16 minutes per game (when he wasn't getting benched or otherwise ending up in the Boeheim doghouse).  

Posted by professor17 on 2/1/2012 5:46:00 PM (view original):
OK, jslotman, but we're talking a different issue now. You've gone from giving high importance to starts (which I agree we need to give more importance to, just not over-correcting), to elite players expecting 10 minutes/game (something that is reasonable and which I'm not opposed to). Maybe there's not that much daylight between our two views, after all.

Posted by arssanguinus on 2/1/2012 6:42:00 PM (view original):
Base the playing time they expect on a combination of rating and class year rather than just rating.  If they have ratings commensurate with a division one sophomore in their freshman year, they are going to expect sophomore minutes.

Posted by l_eustachy on 2/1/2012 2:22:00 PM (view original):
As many have chimed in, this is not real life.  The IQ of incoming freshmen makes it so few can truly contribute immediately (unless you somehow manage to land a kid who is otherwise talented far above his peers at your school and your conference mates), which is obviously unrealistic.  But we also have a recruiting system that tries to emulate real life but is forced to do so by allocation of dollars, which causes some problems as well such as not being able to simulate a charismatic coach or a coach who is able to "relate" to kids, upsell his program, or other things that allow a coach to attract kids in that could play elsewhere.

So we realize it is unrealistic in one area (recruiting) and yet won't tolerate unrealism in another (incoming IQ).  We recognize that having schools able to sign players for a song and sit them on the bench is a problem, but won't tolerate proposed solutions because it means we'd need to sacrifice team performance for at least 2/3 of a season while that shiny new 5-star came up to tolerable speed.  It's simply a game, and in real life freshmen make mistakes and miscues at critical moments--especially perhaps at critical moments.  That is why seasoned teams can sometimes prevail over greater talent in real life, so why can't we tolerate that in HD?

There are a number of possible resolutions (partial or complete) that could improve the situation.  It will probably never be perfect.  But it is just a game.  If it must be a perfect reflection of real life, well then I think we should avoid holding our breath and look for a new time waster.

Posted by girt25 on 2/1/2012 9:04:00 PM (view original):

Posted by arssanguinus on 2/1/2012 6:42:00 PM (view original):
Base the playing time they expect on a combination of rating and class year rather than just rating.  If they have ratings commensurate with a division one sophomore in their freshman year, they are going to expect sophomore minutes.

That assumes

Again, I agree that promises should be worth more. And I'd be OK with a personality thing where some recruits really want minutes, etc**. But if this is done, you need to make freshmen have the ability to be more impactful.

**That said, I think it should be a recruiting preference. I don't think, for instance, that there should be recruits who literally won't sign with you unless they're starting. I think that would be ridiculous. And if they even entertained something close to that, you have to make them real impact players and severely increase IQ.

Posted by girt25 on 2/1/2012 11:12:00 PM (view original):

Posted by arssanguinus on 2/1/2012 6:42:00 PM (view original):
Base the playing time they expect on a combination of rating and class year rather than just rating.  If they have ratings commensurate with a division one sophomore in their freshman year, they are going to expect sophomore minutes.

That assumes that they could craft a system that could properly recognize that ... and the notion they could so is dubious at best.

Again, I agree that promises should be worth more. And I'd be OK with a personality thing where some recruits really want minutes, etc**. But if this is done, you need to make freshmen have the ability to be more impactful.

**That said, I think it should be a recruiting preference. I don't think, for instance, that there should be recruits who literally won't sign with you unless they're starting. I think that would be ridiculous. And if they even entertained something close to that, you have to make them real impact players and severely increase IQ.