Just an observation of the small sample of just my team but my #2 overall ranked freshman PG is lighting it up. Has anyone else noticed elite players playing like elite players since the change?

I've seen them start to play like elite players in the past couple of seasons.  But beware, I just had the #1 C leave for the NBA after his Freshman season.  He averaged around 5 points and 5 boards on 67% shooting as a bench guy.  There were at least 2 freshman that went NBA in Smith this past season.

Posted by gopokes24 on 10/15/2010 10:59:00 AM (view original):
I've seen them start to play like elite players in the past couple of seasons.  But beware, I just had the #1 C leave for the NBA after his Freshman season.  He averaged around 5 points and 5 boards on 67% shooting as a bench guy.  There were at least 2 freshman that went NBA in Smith this past season.

2 Freshman were just drafted in Allen as well, and I've had a frosh jump from UCLA after he started every game and won NFOY.

I had the NFOY in Smith this year.  He started about half of our games and averaged 11.6 PPG on 52.5% shooting and shot 46% on treys.  I have only had one freshman do that well in DI before, and it was a stud recruit that I managed to grab when I was in a relatively weak mid-major conference.  So yeah, I think the elite freshmen can put up the numbers now if given enough minutes and distro, even if in a BCS conference.

the question is, will it ever be worth it to avoid recruiting the top players for risk of them declaring too early?

Depends on the price you pay for them.  If I paid $70,000 for a one year player, I would not be happy.

You wouldn't be happy but would you ever stop going for that type of player?  If only 2 or 3 go each year and they play like elites from day 1, I doubt anyone will change their approach.

Probably.  I think having some go early and some not is good for the game.  Allen is really dominated by the ACC, and until recently EEs had been pretty low for them, but this year I think they had 12-15 in the conference, which should, if it continues, level the playing field a bit, although really to do that recruits #10-100 need to be improved.

Posted by reinsel on 10/15/2010 4:18:00 PM (view original):
Depends on the price you pay for them.  If I paid $70,000 for a one year player, I would not be happy.

I probably wouldn't be too thrilled either, but I guess a lot would depend on how my season went.  If I made a deep run in the NT and the freshman was a decent/heavy contributor, it would certainly ease the sting a bit.