Recruiting a solid freshman... strong in all cores at his position. Horrible WE.

What’s the lowest WE you will recruit and why?

I’ll cut it off at 18 for D2/D3. Can’t speak for D1, since I’m sure some top recruits are viable with their starting ratings. I cut it off there because if I can get my guy a lot of starts early on his career, his WE can be in the high 20s or low 30s by his junior year. Basically, he can still have good growth.

I never payed too much attention to low WE ("how bad could it possibly be?") until three seasons of Arnold Engels. After three seasons and 1,256 minutes of play, he's gained a total of 8 points in ratings. He's still green on BH and P, and blue in PE and STA.

Going forward, I think mid 20's will probably be my lowest WE threshold for recruiting.

30 is my preferred minimum, but i'll go lower to mid 20s if I plan on starting that FR/playing him significant minutes or if they have really good potential and I am looking try and save $$$ for higher ranked players.

Posted by tecwrg on 1/4/2019 6:11:00 PM (view original):
I never payed too much attention to low WE ("how bad could it possibly be?") until three seasons of Arnold Engels. After three seasons and 1,256 minutes of play, he's gained a total of 8 points in ratings. He's still green on BH and P, and blue in PE and STA.

Going forward, I think mid 20's will probably be my lowest WE threshold for recruiting.

Engles is funny. I have never recruited a WE 1 before.

I don't like going below 30. It's not just a matter of ratings but IQ progression as well. I'm a big proponent of high IQ being a deciding factor towards success and a low WE guy takes forever. Engles will be lucky if in four years he gets to an A- and, for a graduating Senior, an A- is very pedestrian.

Around 18 if I can get him immediate starts / mins, closer to 24 if I can't.

Depends on the defense you run... I run press with my D3 team and took a guy recently with 9 WE. With press you can start guys with not much harm and since he had good starting ratings (and I couldn't find any better), I took him and he's improved adequately (the only way I know to improve WE is starting the player - playing time helps some I guess, but not as much as starting). The key is focusing on certain attributes - in this case rebounding, defense... and starting him for many seasons to raise the WE. Generally I cut off at starting WE if 11-14, but this worked out okay since he was so athletic from the start and I only wanted him to be 2 dimensional, and I was building for a few seasons in the future.

21-25 isn't bad at all, especially if you start 4 years

16-20 is annoying but you'll get growth

11-15 is totally workable and you'll get growth if you start 4 years

6-10 isn't that bad if you start him 4 years and he has great starting ratings

5- is awful

I’m late to respond... but helpful answers!

WE intrigues me in this game. In the same class, im recruiting a guy (at the same position) with below average ratings in all cores, a strong WE, and green in all cores.

Thanks for the responses.

I once recruited a WE 1 guy. He got worse or stayed about the same every season, but I was rebuilding at the time, and his original ratings were so high, he was one of my best five players off the bat and started 3.5 seasons for me, and was still a decent backup by the time he graduated.