i have two players who started this season with 26 we, each. neither is starting (which i know helps improve we.) one of the players is playing over 17 mins; the other only 9. the former (17+ mpg) has only gone up 1 we point through 11 reg season games and 1 exhibition; the other played same amount of games, and hasn't gone up @ at all.

without starting either player, does anyone have any suggestions how to accelerate the improvement for a sub-30 we player?

The only way to improve WE is to get them playing time. Getting playing time also helps directly with their improvement as well so it has multiple benefits. I would suggest trying to move them up the depth chart against weaker team that you think you have a good shot at beating anyway. Other than that not much you can do.

This guy:  http://whatif.cincinatti.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=1902499

As an experiment I recuited a guy with WE of 10.  I started him every game as a Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior.  He is now a senior and I'm not starting him since I'm actually trying to win.  Here is his progression per year:

Attribute(potential) / Initial rating / beginning of Soph year / beginning of Jun year / beginning of Sen year

Ath(medium) / 41 / 42 / 43 / 46 
Spd(medium) / 49 / 51 / 52 / 54
Rbd(low) / 37 / 38 / 37 / 36
Def(high) / 41 / 44 / 48 / 52
Blk(high) / 10 / 12 / 16 / 20
LP(high) / 44 / 48 / 55 / 61
Per(high) / 46 / 50 / 55 / 58
BH(high) / 55 / 58 / 62 / 66
Pass(high) / 35 / 38 / 40 / 44
WE / 10 / 13 / 17 / 23
Stm(low) / 79 / 77 / 74 / 72
Dur(low) / 39 / 39 / 39 / 39

Hope that helps.

Posted by apollo7 on 10/11/2011 12:21:00 PM (view original):
This guy:  http://whatif.cincinatti.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=1902499

As an experiment I recuited a guy with WE of 10.  I started him every game as a Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior.  He is now a senior and I'm not starting him since I'm actually trying to win.  Here is his progression per year:

Attribute(potential) / Initial rating / beginning of Soph year / beginning of Jun year / beginning of Sen year

Ath(medium) / 41 / 42 / 43 / 46 
Spd(medium) / 49 / 51 / 52 / 54
Rbd(low) / 37 / 38 / 37 / 36
Def(high) / 41 / 44 / 48 / 52
Blk(high) / 10 / 12 / 16 / 20
LP(high) / 44 / 48 / 55 / 61
Per(high) / 46 / 50 / 55 / 58
BH(high) / 55 / 58 / 62 / 66
Pass(high) / 35 / 38 / 40 / 44
WE / 10 / 13 / 17 / 23
Stm(low) / 79 / 77 / 74 / 72
Dur(low) / 39 / 39 / 39 / 39

Hope that helps.

Interesting that his stamina dropped every year even though I put 12 minutes into conditioning at all times for him.  In other words, he is a lazy bum.

So, basically by the time he graduates I will have gotten between 11 and 15 points of progression in each "high" potiential attributes...about half of what it should be.  Based on this research, I have set my minimum WE when recruiting at 30.

Posted by apollo7 on 10/11/2011 12:52:00 PM (view original):
So, basically by the time he graduates I will have gotten between 11 and 15 points of progression in each "high" potiential attributes...about half of what it should be.  Based on this research, I have set my minimum WE when recruiting at 30.

i generally have a minimum of 30 as well, but i had a coach (who is much better than me) recruit for me and i didn't share my 'standards'. looks like they might creep to 40 we by their senior seasons...thanks for sharing - the info was definitely useful.

that guy is a decent backup - not a bad kid to recruit to fill a roster spot but not one to spend a lot of money on.

I lowered my minimum to 28 (from 30) after seeing a recruit a conference mate found once upon a time who started at 28 but was a real stud...the guy was in my backyard and slipped through my search because I was filtering only 30 and up...heh

Posted by apollo7 on 10/11/2011 12:52:00 PM (view original):
So, basically by the time he graduates I will have gotten between 11 and 15 points of progression in each "high" potiential attributes...about half of what it should be.  Based on this research, I have set my minimum WE when recruiting at 30.

Well, not exactly. You have to take into account your practice minutes. It looks like yours were very spread out and no one or two categories got a lot of special attention. The growth curve could've/should've looked different for some important categories.

Yes, for the sake of experiment I kept all practice minutes at 11 to 12 points.  Needed to know what normal progression was.  I could extrapolate from there.  I wasn't trying to actually develop the guy into the best player possible, he was simply an experiment to better understand how progression works.

Fair enough. I get it. But still, it's not fair to conclude that you're only looking at 11-15 pts progression. If you're actually interested in seeing significant improvement in a category, it could be quite a bit more.

I recruited a guy at Emory in D3 that had 26 WE, but was High in most categories. He started out at 470, and I started him as a freshman and all 4 years, since it was a new team for me and not very good. By the time he was a senior, his WE was 57 and he ended up  at 706. But I would not go much below that. I had one at 20 once that was very frustrating because he never did improve much.