Recruiting D1 with low prestige Topic

kybucki
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Any advice on recruiting D1 with a low prestige team?
I have had little to no success getting players.  What type of player should I target how soon should I invest $?  Can anyone share of how they have been successful rebuilding a bad D1 team.  Just seems like there aren't any quality players to be found?


1/30/2011 11:22 AM
cburton23
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High potential is the first step
1/30/2011 11:32 AM
tribewriter
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What cburton said ... aim low, avoid battles with high-prestige schools, use your FSS to determine local high potential guys. Work your class distribution so that you can sign five guys who will hit their peak in both attributes and IQs at the same time, then wait patiently until they are seniors, you start winning, and you get that long-awaited prestige bump.

1/31/2011 2:19 PM
pjbrankin
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How do you avoid losing that prestige bump when all those seniors graduate and you have a young team again?
2/1/2011 4:11 AM
dal8847
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Wait until the 2nd recruiting cycle before you spend a dime.  That way you can see the landscape of what the bigger fish in your area have decided to target, and then you can see what's left on your target list.  If you have enough patience to wait until FSS comes out, then you know which SIM recruited players you can target as well.  This way you make the best use of the funds you have and don't waste 10k on a player being targeted by a guy with much higher prestige.
2/1/2011 7:27 AM
ethan66
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Posted by pjbrankin on 2/1/2011 4:11:00 AM (view original):
How do you avoid losing that prestige bump when all those seniors graduate and you have a young team again?
This is a good question. If I may, I'll apply a little real-life observation here from what I've seen with D1 mid-majors.

Full disclosure: I still consider myself a HD newbie, but I've been a huge college basketball fan for the past 40 years.

The prestige hit is nearly unavoidable if you continue to struggle with signing useful players every year.  But once a large 4-or-5 player class reaches their senior year, you should have had 3 seasons to bring in some other good players (eg, lightly recruited and high potential)  to help fill the valley.   Then after that large class graduates, hopefully your prestige will bump a notch and you can raise your sights a little more.  Rinse, wash, repeat.  It could end up being a 12 or 16 season process and you may never be an elite D1 program, but I have to believe it's possible to be a consistent NT contender and an upset threat after a couple of full roster cycles.

Outline your philosophy, set your Off and Def strategies and then stick with it.   Changing too many things will only set you back.

Just be glad you're not in my shoes in D2.  I shotgunned my first season and signed 7 players (6 HS, 1 JC) who it turns out aren't as good as I originally thought.  (I was clueless as to ATH/SPD value.)  So now that class is about to enter junior year and I'm trying to plan ahead for their departure so I can start to build the right way.  The JUCO graduated and I cut one of the juniors-to-be to free another scholarship.  Right now my biggest concern is recruiting budget and class size to both raise my pull down ceiling and to allow me to recruit multiple pull downs.  It'll pay off in another 3 or 4 seasons.

I'm not opposed to signing a large class, but I want to follow it with a 3 or 4 player class.  The smaller 1 or 2 - player classes in between are a consequence, but having 2 good-sized classes back to back will at least stretch that prestige bump a little for you.


2/1/2011 12:13 PM (edited)
tribewriter
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Thanks for expanding on my post, ethan. I meant to imply that, when you get that prestige bump, that is the point at which you can begin recruiting players at a much higher level.
2/7/2011 7:09 PM
bradriddell
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 I agree with the high potential local guys but I absolutely disagree with trying to land 4 or 5 guys with one class to build prestige down the road. To me thats what you do if you are looking at moving to a bigger school quickly. Others may not think so but I think I have done a decent job building up Eastern Ky in Phelan and heres what I try to do:

 1. first season figure out what you are the weakest at and recruit to improve that. Focus on local high potential talent Do not go after a big class to boost prestige in a couple seasons. Other, better ways to boost prestige.
 2. now to boost prestige. Do this by loosing not winning,lol sounds stupid but its not. schedule as many human coached teams as possible and make at least 4 of these the best teams out there that will play you. You can always pick up W's in conf play you don't want to go 0-10 in ooc but you will get a better rpi getting beat by 50 against a top 10 team than winning by 20 against a 250 rpi.
 3. Each season focus on filling your needs first and then if you have extra cash go after a guy that you just want!

Hopefully this helps. To clarify why not to go after the 1 big class. That may work but if it doesn't you are now 2-3 yrs behind on building your program. Don't worry about wins chances are you will pick up plenty of thase in conf. play since mid is a ghost town for the most part. Just focus on replaceing the players leaving with players that will be better than them before thay leave. You will build faster than you think this way.
 

2/8/2011 3:21 AM
Recruiting D1 with low prestige Topic
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