I really get irked when i make my initial phone calls to some d2 recruits to see who might drop in the first cycle. Then in the third cycle he calls and says come on I'm open for you. So you spend all that money on CV's and HV's to have him tell you your school is his dream place to play. So the next cycle comes and i send a Scholly to him and he says man if it weren t for the WCAA i would siign today and i am listed as the school he is looking for. So two more cycles go by and i'm thinking i got this guy in the bag. Then out of the blue on the next cycle a d2 team has come in and poached him from me after i spent a good chunk of money on him. At this point he has dropped to d3 level why the hell are D2 guys going after d3 players. Thats just a bunch of crap. if you wanted to be D2 so bad why are you recruiting D# players.

it happens all the time - a lot of people are just not very good coaches. anyway, i suspect for those d2 coaches, the player probably shows in their d2 pool.

its a lot worse in d2 when the d1 teams have 3x the money. d2 to d3 is only 60% more. fight back! you can win many a d3 to d2 battle, if you choose carefully. i probably won 9 out of my last 10 when i was in d3... you just have to know when to fold em. but at least consider playing!!

cbg is correct in that you can win - but keep in mind you could also lose, and knowing when to fold em and walk away is a vital component of recruiting as well...

to your salient point, if a player is good for my system and is the best player I can find I don't worry about what list he's on...

+1 on CBG, just because he has now dropped down to your D3 list, does not mean he ever leaves the D2 list for D2 teams.

Also, sometimes what coaches should be looking for at a certain level is a matter of opinion. Perfect example was our past recruiting cycle, there was a badass pg that was immediately available at D2 for us. Right away a B prestige D1 team with like 6-7 open scholarships jumped on him. Most of the guys in our conference felt he should be looking higher if he wanted success at D1 and the guy responded that the guard would fit his team well and that scouting lower divisions was a good way to find some easy to pick up surprise players.

While I won't disagree, it was frustrating because this guy was going to be a superstud at D2, but might have been average at D1. Then again, he saved us conferencemates a ton of money, because their were about 5-6 of us with lots of recruiting money ready to throw it down for this guy.

If you're going to fight back against an upper division opponent, pay attention to how many open scholarships he has compared to you, then consider if he is any battles. If he has a battle, especially for a player that is better than the one you're trying to battle him for and a small number of open scholarships compared to you with 4-5 maybe, then it might be a good opportunity to steal one. also watch prestige differences.

I've had it happen too.

You think you're getting a good player, he's considering no one else, and then a guy from DII jumps down and in one cycle poaches him from you.

I try not to fight battles I can't win, especially when you can find similar players to go after who are either undecided or are considering SimAI teams.

Yes!  To all of you. And thank you for responding to the rant. I know all that you say is true. I was letting the heat of the moment get the best of me and needed to vent. 
  Once the D2 team was mentioned i checked his prestige, B and he only had three schollies to fill. So I gave up at that point. Had already spent a good portion of my allotment for his slot though. When your well thought out plan suddenly goes completely wrong. It just gets frustrating!

same thing happened to me indy, dumped ton money into a guy,was his "primary school" and boom get swooped on by d2 school who now has 4 guys at that position now. i feel your pain and thanks for ranting for me!!!!!!!  ****** and outta money. looks like i be taking some cheap walk ons

Posted by indyrider123 on 8/24/2012 6:59:00 PM (view original):
Yes!  To all of you. And thank you for responding to the rant. I know all that you say is true. I was letting the heat of the moment get the best of me and needed to vent. 
  Once the D2 team was mentioned i checked his prestige, B and he only had three schollies to fill. So I gave up at that point. Had already spent a good portion of my allotment for his slot though. When your well thought out plan suddenly goes completely wrong. It just gets frustrating!

well, one final word of advise - dont take it the wrong way, i mean it half jokingly - either get over the frustration, or NEVER play d1 =) when your well thought out plan suddenly goes completely wrong, for real (not just a minor losing a fractional scholarship budget), you are in fact playing division 1 basketball :)

Oops looks like wis didn't like something I said. Sorry if I offended anybody did t mean to.

As frustrating as it is, sometimes it all works out.   One season, I ended up siging a center from Puerto Rico because my top choice was taken by someone else at the last minute.  I was nervous about going to P.R. because we can't use FSS there.  But the center started for 3 years and was 1st-team All-Conference.  I got lucky!

Posted by chicomn on 8/24/2012 7:47:00 PM (view original):
same thing happened to me indy, dumped ton money into a guy,was his "primary school" and boom get swooped on by d2 school who now has 4 guys at that position now. i feel your pain and thanks for ranting for me!!!!!!!  ****** and outta money. looks like i be taking some cheap walk ons

John Wade? That guy is a stud... if it makes you feel any better, if that D2 school didn't make a move, you might have had to battle another local D3 school for him! Anyway I feel your pain because a D2 jumped on my top choice post player too. It happens, just have to make sure you keep enough money in the bank to move on to your backup options (which you did nicely by picking up Hardt)

Let me guess, martin luther id had to battle with? LMAO!! i will see you tomorrow mrg good luck. And just a quick follow up i actually ended up signing 3 decent players but they all have high upside in alot of categories.(only prob is 1 has VERY LOW WE!) i spent too much on wade and then didnt have much money but salvaged recruiting by getting couple decent players. It should all work and once again,learned something this time!!

hey chico - when I was at Olaf, I signed Louis Neil on the extreme-cheap after losing a battle or two for my primary targets. I only had 1 open scholarship that year and recruiting with a C-prestige. I only had enough money to offer a scholarship and either an HV or a scout trip (can't remember which).

The last cycle before signings, Neil sent me a drop message so I spent the rest on him and got lucky. And now you get to deal with him twice a year :)

The moral of my humble brag is that I thought I was taking a walk-on that year, and just by dumb-luck had the exact cash to sign a future star at a low level school