I'm the coach of Waynesburg (DIII) in Rupp. Moderate success over the last couple seasons has gotten prestige to a B-. Recruiting cycle 2 is about to start and I was curious what more experienced coaches would do in this situation.

I tried a new approach to scouting this year and blew my budget. I've got no money left with a few D1 recruits at Moderate interest who I can't scout beyond Level 1.

Question: Would you risk signing these players?

• Shooting Guard (Projected D1 - Top 200 Ranked SG)
  • Physical: C
  • Offense: C
  • Defense: F (I'm focused on Def everywhere else, so I'm cool with one guys who's lacking)
  • WE: B
• Power Forward (Projected D1 - Top 200 Ranked PF)
  • Physical: C
  • Offense: C
  • Defense: C
  • WE: C
• Center (Projected D1 - Top 200 Ranked C)
  • Physical: C
  • Offense: D
  • Defense: B
  • WE: C

They all fit needs broadly, but I'm worried about setting my team back developmentally if these guys are duds. I've got 5 schollies to fill and two other players scouted to L4 that I'm confident I can land.

Any help/thoughts are appreciated.

You should probably take 3 walkons rather than signing someone blind. They could end up being terrible.

The exception would be if the considering list of these guys has some teams putting on AP (although they obviously haven't offered a ship). If D2/D1 teams are putting on AP it may indicate that the player is pretty damn solid

Appreciate the reply.

The SG’s got 6 other SIM D1’s at Very Low. PF’s got one B prestige DIII human that shot AP early and backed off. C’s got one D1 SIM on him at very low.

Taking three walk ons is probably the right call, but will leave me super thin. Maybe take fliers on two of them and leave one behind to avoid tripling down on bad decisions?

Look for D1 players who have a D1 human coached team on them. If the human coached team hasn't offered schollie and signed all his slots you might be able to steal him.

Posted by indyrider123 on 8/14/2023 7:20:00 PM (view original):
Look for D1 players who have a D1 human coached team on them. If the human coached team hasn't offered schollie and signed all his slots you might be able to steal him.

This.

If the considering list is largely sims, it's a pass. That means that D1 and D2 coaches all collectively looked and passed on the player. I'd assume some D3 too.

Thanks for the advice, y'all. Going to punt on most of those L1 dudes for now. The only exception is one player who has a human DIII after him at Very Low. I took a look at the coach history and they seem to have been decent recruiters in the past with strong coaching history at a previous DIII program. Is that still a mistake?

For the dudes I let kick rocks, will I be able to see if/where they sign? Would be curious to see just how big the bullets were that I dodged...