I need a post player.  Probably doesn't need to give me any minutes this season but I could certainly use him and I'll likely be using my redshirt on someone else, so consider him to be a backup this year and a potential starter next season.  More likely a 3rd big man next year and starter the following.  Anyway...

             Number A:               Number B:
Ath       41 (low-high)           69 (low)
Spd      23 (avg)                   12 (avg)
Reb     82 (avg)                    48 (high)
Def      35 (h-h)                     53 (high)
Blk       85 (avg)                    32 (high)
LP       45 (h-h)                     21 (high)
Per                       1 (low)
BH       26 (avg)                    13 (avg)
Pass   17 (low)                    24 (avg)
Stm     62 (avg)                    68 (avg)
Dur      25 (low)                    46 (high)
FT        73.5% (low)             63.6% (high)
WE      7                                 56

Before I noticed the WE I thought player A was a dream recruit in D3.  If he ever reached his potential he would be a monstrous beast on defense and the boards and a well-above-average scorer.  Player B doesn't have as high a ceiling but is much more likely to actually reach his.  If I could just dump another 15 points of WE into A it would be an easy call.  A is pretty solid right now, though, and knows my defense, so I could conceivably start him this year and he wouldn't hurt my team rebounding or defense much.  As a 4-year starter is there any chance he grows enough to make him a good pickup?  The other option is to stop worrying about the other C I'm trying to recruit and grab both of these guys.  The other guy has a little more perimeter (11 with low-high), around 50 ATH with low potential, will hit 100 REB and mid to upper-70s LP and will be a solid defender but not much of a shot blocker.  Thoughts?

I would not touch A with a 10 foot poll. I have been burned by low WE guys before. Like you said he will not grow and what he does he will lose it in the offseason. I would go with B for sure. At DIII he will turn out to be pretty good for you. At least better than A.
Of course that is just my Humble opinion.

You seem very confident that B is yours to lose.

Well the other guy interested in him does have 6 scholarships to fill and right now isn't in any other battles...  But I thought he was the caliber of coach who might be looking to use some of that money to bring in a better player and might not want to fight all that hard over this guy...  I guess we'll find out.

it sounds like the third guy is better than them both

but of these two, definitely B

Slim pickings at C this season. He's actually the best C available to me right now

I'm surprised people are soooo much more in favor of B.  It looks like even with solid WE B will only catch up to where A is now after 2.5 years or so of practice.  Or if A improves at all maybe 3 years.  Yeah, B will be a better senior.  But A will be a much better freshman and a better sophomore.  What really worries me about A is that if he loses much stamina in the offseasons he'll become really limited in his minutes.

making a few assumptions;
without knowing gpa I'll assume both have 3.0 and will require the same amount of study hall and gpa won't be a difference in IQ growth.
also assuming the high potentials for player B are basic high categories (and not high-high like player A) and  only gain 20-28 point over a career.
player A knows DEF, player B knows neither

based on some rough numbers I use when ranking players:
current rating:        A:  76    B: 60
after 1 season:     A:  83    B: 75
after 2 seasons:   A:  88    B:  86
after 3 seasons:   A:  93    B:  97
after 4 seasons:   A:  98    B: 104

I agree with dahsdebater,  player A is the better player for 2+ seasons.  Player B is better for the last 1+ seasons.
 

So I ended up taking A because I thought the money I saved would hopefully be enough to pull down that other guy I mentioned, whereas if I had to battle pjb I wouldn't be able to do so.  I was right.  I plan to start A (Cochran) this year and probably make him a 4-year fixture in the lineup unless he's killing me/going nowhere.  I'm interested to see how it works out.  I'm actually suspicious that a 7 WE might improve enough by the 3rd year of starting or so that he'll actually start to improve.  Like I said in the original post, he's a useful player now and knows my defense, so he's not hurting me when he's on the court.  If he does end up growing in his last season or 2 by the tournament following his senior year he could still be a real beast down low.

It's too bad he'll never hit his projections.  His overall wouldn't look dominant because of the WE and Dur.  Not one of these 700+ guys roaming about D3 these days.  But 60+ Ath, 30+ SPD, 90+ REB, 75+ LP, 65+ Def, mid-90s BLK, and mid-30s BH sound like 18-20 points, 9.5-10 boards, and 2+ blocks per in a senior year.  If only he had 40+ WE...  Actually, his stamina would limit his minutes and he probably wouldn't reach those lofty per/game numbers.  But his per minute numbers would be awesome!

I really wanted the third player dahs, but he wouldn't even talk to me.

Yeah, the prestige multiplier in D3 is small, but there does seem to be a reasonably significant difference in the pool of players who will talk to me as it improves and the speed that they drop.

the answer is B

Posted by dahsdebater on 2/18/2011 4:30:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, the prestige multiplier in D3 is small, but there does seem to be a reasonably significant difference in the pool of players who will talk to me as it improves and the speed that they drop.

exactly - the value of prestige in low divisions is that more guys will talk to you, and the guys who will talk to you and a lower prestige school will drop to you faster.

and B is the better player. A is better now, but his stamina is pretty bad and his work ethic is so bad, it probably wont ever get better, so you will never be able to get a full player out of A. plus B should be better when it matters (as an upperclassmen). really if A had more work ethic or more stamina, it would be a lot tougher call (well if he had decent work ethic it would be easy). but as it stands, that we/sta combo is brutal.