I’ve got a sophomore who is like 20th on the big board but “on the fence”. I’ve also got 3 seniors and 3 walk-ons for 6 total openings. No 1-year seniors.

Am I crazy, or or is he required to stay because of having so many openings?

I had a guy leave at Miami a couple seasons ago and it left me with 7 openings

Season 118 Rupp...though 2 players left early with upped my number from 5 to 7...so maybe some odd loophole

Walkons do not protect you from EE, is my understanding.

Posted by shoe3 on 12/31/2020 2:40:00 PM (view original):
Walkons do not protect you from EE, is my understanding.

this is correct

confriming the walkon slots dont count

at 20 as a SO, I think there is a good chance he is gone, but there are threads with detailed data gathered by others

A few seasons back at LSU/Allen I lost 4 early entries (both my 2 sophs & my 2 juniors). I had a couple seniors that were basically bench role players. Plus two walkons. A total of 8 openings.

I returned only 4 freshman. I referred to it as HD version of the Death Penalty.

Damn. Thanks for the clarification. Looks like I’m screwed.

Posted by oldwarrior on 12/31/2020 6:20:00 PM (view original):
A few seasons back at LSU/Allen I lost 4 early entries (both my 2 sophs & my 2 juniors). I had a couple seniors that were basically bench role players. Plus two walkons. A total of 8 openings.

I returned only 4 freshman. I referred to it as HD version of the Death Penalty.

Or a normal IRL Kentucky season :)

Definitely recommend the recent thread on Gaming The EE System. In many cases it's worth tanking the ratings on your superstars in order to keep them just sucky enough to stay an additional year. For all the Forum threads we've had, that topic is actually absolutely essential to understand and it does not get enough attention.

To clarify, EE's + graduating seniors cannot exceed 6. Hypothetically if you had 6 graduating seniors and your other 6 players were listed as 1-6 on the big board all 6 underclassmen would be guaranteed to stay.

Posted by npb7768 on 1/1/2021 4:26:00 AM (view original):
Definitely recommend the recent thread on Gaming The EE System. In many cases it's worth tanking the ratings on your superstars in order to keep them just sucky enough to stay an additional year. For all the Forum threads we've had, that topic is actually absolutely essential to understand and it does not get enough attention.

I would just suggest thinking about it in terms other than “tanking”. You’re not trying to lose, like coaches in hardball dynasty, to get draft picks (god I hate that game). The idea is to realistically project out what they’re going to look like, given certain development models, year over year, and then maximize their value to your team over the long term if you recruit them. If you recruit 3-5 star players who come with excellent scoring ability out of HS, they are likely going to be EE candidates, and there’s not really anything you can do to repress their attractiveness to the fake NBA. But for players who have development there, the general concept is to develop physical cores and defense first, position related support skills (so ballhandling and passing for guards, rebounding for bigs) next, and scoring last. For players who start extra high, sometimes that means early development is focused on study hall and free throws. That maximizes the players value to your team over the long and short term, since upperclassmen make the best scorers anyway. You will still lose some early entries, and it’s frustrating, especially when you’ve made choices to hold back their development in ways that could have benefited your team immediately. But every choice has potential risks and rewards.