I made some mistakes recruiting in DIII and now I'm in a situation where I need to sign a player in the last day of recruiting on limited money. I have $706 and I have two options and I'm interested to see who people think I should go after. Both players 1 and 2 are currently DII prospects where I am a fallback option and are considering nobody. I of course would wait to further recruit them after they let me know that they are available.

Me, DIII school with A- prestige

Player 1 is 1170 miles away, I offered a scholarship early on and have already given him a phone call, a letter, and a scouting trip and have $756 already invested. In my opinion he's probably the better player.

Player 2 is only 50 miles away and I've only made the one phone call, no scholarship offer, so I've only got $10 invested. He used to be considering a DII school but is not considering anyone anymore.

And of course there's player 3 which would be someone yet to be determined who is available to me now on my DIII list and as close as possible. This player would not be as good as one of the first two but might be more likely to sign cheaply. I only want to do this if we think the first two options are not available.

For depth purposes I have to sign one player. Obviously I have to commit to one of these strategies. What do you think I should do?

I'd give the DIII a redshirt notice and see if he bites. I can't see you getting DII Player 1 with out a Home visit. But then I don't like your chances with #2 all that much. A DII prospect for $716 sounds problematic. But at least you can get a local HV. That ought to get you started.

The correct answers will follow.

2 or 3... def not 1. but as dogget said option 3 is the safest

now #2 is going to be on my DIII list before I start recruiting him, as would #1. I wasn't going to try and pull either of them down at this point. (If he doesn't drop, then I won't waste my time.) Actually now my only two options are 2 and 3 because option 1 just got snagged up by someone else. Looking more like #3, but I might wait until late tomorrow to give #2 time to drop to DIII because I can scout him and hit him with a home visit along with offering a scholarship.

if you like #2 a lot better and he drops then you can get him... will you have enough for 2 home visits or just one?

nvm you won't so it will be chancing it... if you ave to have a player then go with three but if your feeling lucky wait on 2

Will only have enough for 1 home visit and 1 scouting trip, plus the scholarship. After that I could maybe hit him with some calls and letters to use up the remaining funds. As of right now he hasn't dropped yet. If he doesn't drop by tomorrow afternoon then I'll go after #3. There is a guy there that wouldn't be horrible to have. Don't see him ever starting, but he could be a solid veteran back-up as an upperclassman. The #2 guy could be a starter down the road.

#2 dropped down to my DIII list. Throwing all my chips to the center of the table with him. Starting off with a letter, scouting trip, and scholarship. Will hit him with a home visit next chance I get. Crossing my fingers.

In the future, don't post exactly what you are doing during recruiting. Now someone can simply watch to see who is on your considering list and know exactly what they need to win him from you.

Quote: Originally posted by getiguy on 4/26/2010 Crossing my fingers.

You began with the statement that you needed one more guy for practice (and improvement) considerations. You also mentioned some bad decisions. Unless you've discovered a new angle, you will need bench players in every game you ever play.

Taking a guy who will help you off the bench (and with a R/S year, who knows; I don't know his WE) and a guy who will help your practice situation, seems like a good hedge.

If you get #2 then you gambled and won. (Consider Wall Street as a backup career option.)

If you come up short, come back and read this again.

Quote: Originally Posted By hbmerlin on 4/26/2010In the future, don't post exactly what you are doing during recruiting. Now someone can simply watch to see who is on your considering list and know exactly what they need to win him from you

This and it should only take three scouting trips (maybe four) and a schollie to get him. You have plenty of money to do that.

I gave consideration to someone coming on here and hosing me by just looking at who's on my considering list. Figured it was worth that chance to get specific details about the situation out there.

I did get player 2. I sent him a letter and scouted him one cycle, then the next cycle I hit him with a home visit and he was thrilled. Signed with me the following cycle. Even had $100+ to spare.

When I said "for depth purposes I have to sign one player", what I meant was this. My team up until this latest signing had a bunch of PGs, SGs, SFs, no PFs and only 1 C. Thus for someone to back up at C he would have to have a penalty. Now with player 2 (PF)coming onboard, I can have a backup C w/o a penalty. I have no qualms with running my SFs out there at PF, but I didn't want to have to have one of them playing C. It'll happen from time to time, but at least now it will not be many minutes per game.

I gambled and won this time.

BTW, has anyone else seen a player show interest w/ only a phone call? I don't know if it was in this world or not, but earlier this year I had a player who was considering me (among others) after only 1 early phone call and no scholarship. There were like 5 of us on his list, we probably all just called him once. I just wondered if anyone else had seen that before.