this is my first season of HD, I had 6 open spots in d3, got 3 players who were all rated in the top 20 of recruits with 4 yrs. elig. Is that an OK start or does it sound like I did something wrong?

Few things. In DIII, there are no recruit rankings. That's only in DI. Also remember that it doesnt matter anyone's overall ranking. Grab certain recruits based on their positional necessary attributes.

PG (Ath, SPD, BH, P, PE)
SG (Ath, SPD, PE)
SF (Ath, SPD, REB, LP, PE)
PF (Ath, SPD, REB, BLK, LP)
C (Ath, REB, BLK, LP)

I go to your team and it says you have 7 recruits considering and zero signings so you techincally don't have anyone yet. Don't spend all your money right away, stay local, and avoid battles until you get the hang of it.

If you have specific questions you can go ahead and sitemail me or any real veteran. I am by no means a veteran but I know that most experienced coaches don't mind helping new coaches.

meant to say they came up in the top 20 as far as points when I searched.

And read the FAQ and the Coach's Guide pinned at the top.

overall points can be QUITE misleading. you need to look at the CORE numbers for each position, not just the overall. for example, you have 2 sophomore PGs on your team. I would prefer to have Toon (501 overall) vs Milliken (570 overall). Toon is 69 overall points less, but better in all of the PG core areas. DUR, ST can really inflate a lower quality player to make them appear better.

Rating TOON vs (Milliken)
A - 45 (33) - <+12>
SPD - 69 (45) - <+24>
BH - 59 (42) - <+17>
P - 55 (34) - <+21>
PE - 30 (32) - <-2>

so in the core areas, Toon is 72 points higher than Milliken, depsite being 69 points lower overall.

you run a man defense, so Milliken does have the advantage there 77 to 46, but that would not overtake the core ratings where Toon is better.

Consider potential as well. A player with high potential in a category could surpass a player with average potential in the same category

durability, work ethic and stamina are great if the kid can play - but subtract those from his points to get a sense of what he can do on the court

THEN look at potential and recalculate where he will GET based on that potential - see other threads for estimates of how big a gain low, avg and hi can mean

THEN compare recruits

i have been reading the guides and have not seen how to check their potential in a cat., am i missing the obvious?

nm, i read some other forum posts and found what I was looking for I believe.

when I did my recruit searches did search for people with certain core values based on their position. I set at least a value of 30 as my min., and also had WE for everyone at 30 as well. so even though I might have screwed up taking the highest point person the search came up with hopefully they will at least be serviceable players and I can correct my mistakes next season.

That's what it is about. Continue to learn each season and fix your mistakes that you made previously. I completely messed up my recruiting in my first stages. It's just growing paints. I see your prestige being A- so you probably could have pulled very close DII recruits too but that is something you can figure out later.

I don't have a team in Allen so I can't check your signing and make they are ok. Maybe someone else in Allen can do so?

To get potential, you need to use Future Stars Scouting on that state. Use is stragetically though. Some use it, some don't.

I think I did ok, was listed as 3rd best class in d3. but i am sure those are based on overall points.

Rawson is the best guy you signed. Morgan can play SF and is fine.

I can't see the others potentials, but Someone like Garnett is probably a mistake. 20 ath, 22 spd is pretty low for D3 even, unless he has high potential.

Houston looks ok, but 25 Ath is a little low I think. Newell....unless the 20 rebounding is high potential its probably not awesome. But you got a decent C, and good SF and SG, so that isn't bad.

Where you are, I would use FSS on something like NJ/CT/NY depending on your budget/conference winnings etc and go after people with the good core ratings. One easy calculation to make is do what you have been doing, but subtract Durability from overall, since it is pretty much worthless. You can also do things like subtract LP from PGs, BH from Center's, etc to get a core core rating that you use.

But not bad, I totally learned from my first D3 class, and as long as you keep learning you'll do great. Don't be discouraged this year. It will be a little tougher with no seniors.

Another id to help you is look at the good teams and see those players and whom they recruit it will help give you a gauge on where you are at