The time has come to hang up my whistle and clipboard. Almost exactly nine years ago I found this amazing site and this awesomely addicting game. It has been a total blast meeting folks and sharing our common love for hoops, sports sims and life in general in that time. In my early years, I had fun organizing the UMPI round robin tournament in Naismith and doing an all-world D3 write-up daily in Rupp for a number of seasons. I've gotten my teeth kicked in playing in some loaded conferences with amazing coaches. Somewhere in there I even proved that a blind squirrel can find a nut by getting one of those National Championship things.
Unfortunately, I've reached the point that I don't feel I can continue my support of a site operated by an absentee landlord. I have discovered other games where the developer actively posts and interacts with users and provides regular feedback on an almost-daily basis, making the game infinitely more enjoyable than the current iteration of what we have here. In a battle for my disposable income, it isn't even close.
Now, admittedly, I could have just kept my mouth shut and vanished into the night, but where's the fun in that? This is a party, after all. and what's a party without a party game and a door prize? So here's what I'm going to do...
I have three seasons remaining on my account...Season 107 at Nebraska Wesleyan in Wooden (currently in the Sweet 16 round of 106), Season 107 at Emory in Rupp (Season 106 just started the CT tonight) and I picked up Missouri-St. Louis in season whatever-is-about-to-start in Naismith because I wanted to go out with one last year at the program where I won my national title. Barring an unlikely national championship run that would result in an, I believe, untransferrable gift card, my playing days for this site will end there. At present, my account has $81 in transferrable credits attached to it. Emory will be playing in the NT in Season 106 and both NW and Emory should pretty much be able to sleepwalk into the NT in season 107 in their respective worlds. I honestly have no idea what I?m stepping into at UMSL because I just clicked the button.
Anyway, when the buzzer sounds on my final game, there should be a minimum of $90 available for transfer. And I?m going to give it away to one lucky person.
To enter, you simply have to post your guess in this thread for how many combined victories I will rack up in my final seasons at Nebraska Wesleyan in Wooden (107), Emory in Rupp (107) and UMSL in Naismith (106 or 107, whatever season starts on Nov. 15...someone in the world can tell me since I can?t see it any more now that I've reserved a roster). Preseason exhibition games will not figure into the count, only regular and post-season wins.
FULL DISCLOSURE (which may or may not help you)
1. I will continue to coach all three teams to the best of my ability, utilizing the mathematical formulas for distribution and positioning that I have utilized for 100+ seasons now. Obviously, you'll just have to take my word on this, but there's really no reason for me to not play it out -- if I wanted to rig things I could just transfer the credits to whomever right now.
2. The Nebraska Wesleyan team, barring an unseen recruiting swing, will have 9 returning players and 3 incoming freshmen. Up to 2 of those incoming freshman might be promised starts during the regular season, which I will honor so that the players are on the roster should someone pick the team up after me.
3. Emory will return 11 of 12 starters next season. I am picking up an incoming freshman and, if necessary, will promise a start to that player for the regular season to get them on roster. Again, if a start is promised, I will honor it as if I were coming back to coach in future years.
4. I don't know what I have at UMSL, but I will not be changing the offensive or defensive set upon arrival to take advantage of the IQ's that the returning players already have since I will only be there for one year.
THE CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN AWAY AS FOLLOWS:
1. To the person who guesses the exact amount of combined regular and post-season wins for the three schools in the seasons indicated above.
2. Should nobody guess the correct number, the credits will be given to the person closest to the correct number WITHOUT GOING OVER (it's like The Price is RIght...)
3. Should a tie take place because multiple users chose the winning number of victories under condition 1 or 2, the credits will go to the person who guesses closest to the total number of combined points the three teams will score in the regular and post-season WITHOUT GOING OVER.
4. If a tie still somehow persists, the credits will go to the user who is part of the tie who posted their answer first as judged by the time/date stamp of their post.
5. Any posts edited will automatically be disqualified from consideration (if you wish to change your mind, delete your first post and make a new one, as long as it meets these criteria, I will count it).
6. Guesses made after the first of those three teams has played its first regular-season game will not be considered. (I will update this line with the specific date once I know it, since I think Naismith will go off first...)
7. Only one guess per user account.
8. You must have an active HD team associated with the user name you enter with.
9. For the record, I don't care if you're a user that I love/hate, have/haven't been in a league with, know/don't know, etc. Yes, I'm dead serious about doing this and yes I will send you the credits should you win.
10. Offers of beer or harder alcohol to help me celebrate my WIS retirement, while welcomed, will not enhance your winning chances.
11. Should this whole idea run afoul of some WIS TOS line item that I'm not aware of, the contest is immediately declared null and void and I'll find some other way to distribute the credit.
12. All decisions made by me are final.
So grab a slice fo cake, sign the card, share some memories if you have them, and start calculating those guesses!!
11/9/2018 5:04 AM (edited)