My first recruiting session, I had two open and I signed one only - David Pate.

PATE, David - 6'8", 230 lbs.  Center from Plano HS, Plano, IL.
	A	SPD	REB	DE	BLK	LP	PE	BH	P	WE	ST	DU	FT	TOT	NET	MIQ	PIQ	GPA	GP	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	FG3M	FG3A	FTM	FTA	OFF	REB	AST	TO	STL	BLK	PF	PTS	PPG	RPG	APG	offEF	MinPG	FT%
Recruit	30	35	27	29	32	12	1	5	32	51	69	60	C	383	203	F	C	3.7
Freshman	33	38	33	31	34	15	1	5	36	51	75	64	C+	416	226	D+	C	3.5	15	0	98	3	5	0	0	1	2	8	18	5	2	3	1	13	7	0.5	1.2	0.3	0.875	6.5	50.0%
St-Soph	34	39	33	30	35	15	1	6	35	51	76	68	C+	423	228	D+	C	3.5
Sophomore	37	42	40	30	37	14	1	5	43	44	81	71	B-	445	249	B	B	3.5	9	0	50	3	3	0	0	2	2	3	9	2	0	3	1	5	8	0.9	1.0	0.2	2.000	5.6	100.0%
St-Jun	38	41	41	30	38	15	1	6	42	44	78	75	B-	449	252	B	B	3.5
Junior	42	46	49	30	40	14	1	6	51	49	83	78	B-	489	279	A-	A-	3.5	28	7	501	28	46	0	0	19	27	33	107	38	9	24	12	44	75	2.7	3.8	1.4	1.095	17.9	70.4%
St-Sen	43	46	49	30	41	15	1	6	52	49	83	79	B-	494	283	A-	A-
Grad	48	50	58	31	44	15	1	6	60	56	88	81	B-	538	313	A	A	3.5	31	16	703	76	146	0	0	40	56	45	143	39	10	29	20	74	192	6.2	4.6	1.3	1.043	22.7	71.4%
+/- and Totals	18	15	31	2	12	3	0	1	28	12	19	21		155	110				83	23	1352	110	200	0	0	62	87	89	277	84	21	59	34	136	282	3.4	3.3	1.0	1.066	16.3	71.3%
Played seasons 24-27.  Player ID 814549.

My first class was at Thomas in season 13 of Allen.  I had been reading the forums before joining a world.  If I recall I gleaned from what I read that I would focus on ath, speed, reb, and FT%.  I ended up signing 2 PG and 1 SF, so rebounding wasn't too big of a deal for this class.  Unfortunately, I no longer have the database in which I stored all of my players' ratings from year to year, but thanks to the roster archive feature I can at least speak to their accomplishments.  Since I don't recall which player I signed first, I will list them in order from worst to best.

Player 1 was Peter Stoops, a PG who managed to start 104 of 120 games and put up just north of a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.  He wasn't much of a scorer, averaging just 5.3 ppg but he did put up a stellar 77.5% from the free throw line.  He didn't need to be a scorer however, as his 392 assists put him #3 all-time in the Thomas record books.

Player 2 was Daryl Bibbins, a SF.  He was a phenomenal shooter and deadly from behind the arc, where he shot 42.5% on his career, 13th all-time in school history.  And before you go thinking that it might be a small sample size, of his 820 field goal attempts, 550 were 3 point shots.  He was also a great free throw shooter; he currently stands 11th in school history with an 80.3% mark.  He averaged 9.5 ppg and started all but 5 of his 120 games played.  He was named 3rd team all-conference once.

The final player was another point guard, Charles Peterson.  He still remains one of the top performers in Thomas history, quite a feat for what has been such a storied program (go check it out, kujayhawk has turned it into one of the best schools in DIII).  During his time on campus, he was a 2nd team all-conference selection once and a 1st team all-conference selection twice.  His 1342 points (11.2 ppg) place him 14th in school history.  His 123 steals have him tied for 5th in school history.  Those however, are not his most impressive accomplishments.  Remember how I said Peter Stoops is 3rd in school history in assists?  Well, his backcourt mate Peterson is 1st with 431.  All in all, I'd say he might be the best overall guard to have played for this school.

I do wish I still had access to the ratings as I recruited some pretty interesting (sometimes quite awful) players in those days.  Regardless, its been fun looking at these old players that I had pretty much forgotten about.  

Ah yes, Stanton Gibbs.  
The previous coach of Rochester Tech in Smith kindly wrote me several sitemails outlining HD in excellent detail, including an in-depth analysis of the club he left me and what I should be looking for in recruits to take his perennial NT team up to the next level.  
But I knew better.
4 years later, Mr. Gibbs, a SF, had collected a total of 14 rebounds for me in 717 minutes, amassing 3.2 ppg while shooting 39% from the field, 38% from 3, and 55% from the line.  According to his player profile, it appears he won no awards, and did not get drafted.

Posted by jeffdrayer on 11/21/2010 4:34:00 AM (view original):
Ah yes, Stanton Gibbs.  
The previous coach of Rochester Tech in Smith kindly wrote me several sitemails outlining HD in excellent detail, including an in-depth analysis of the club he left me and what I should be looking for in recruits to take his perennial NT team up to the next level.  
But I knew better.
4 years later, Mr. Gibbs, a SF, had collected a total of 14 rebounds for me in 717 minutes, amassing 3.2 ppg while shooting 39% from the field, 38% from 3, and 55% from the line.  According to his player profile, it appears he won no awards, and did not get drafted.

jeff, that last sentence is absolute gold.

i just spit coke thru my nose.  it is one of the funniest things i have ever read.

My first recruiting class had a SF which was probably my favorite player ever. Mark Moriarity... guy scored 1100+ pts...and really wasn't that good actually... Season 16 or so in Crum... Martin Luther.... interstingly enough,,,, 2 centers I took in that class Quing-Nan Chu and Victor Reid...(Chu, I took solely becuse his name was cool, and Reid I redshirted.... becuase I didn't think he was good enough to play right then).... they are still the #1 and #2 scorers... as well as #1 and #2 rebounders in school history. Both got over 1400 pts and like 1100 boards.... probably as far as dominating players go... the best class I ever recruited.
I actually didn't even know this until I looked right now to find the name of the SF....LOL

P.S. and it appears Chu did get drafted... he's currently stationed somewhere along the North Korean border.

Thanks, cowz :)

I started in season 29 at Mt. Ida-Crum and luckily I was in that conference with cyben5150, well if you don't mind getting your head bashed in every time you play against his teams. My first recruit was Charles Belanger, he was Freshman of the year, started in 112 games (we never made the post season), is second in scoring, 5th in minutes played, 7th in assists and top 15 in 3 point %. When he graduated, so did I and moved to D2.... Thanks to cyben5150 for all the advice you have given me along the way especially my early seasons in the good ole North Atlantic Conference !!!

lol, great thread guys!

my first class consisted of one terrible big man. the only saving grace of the class was my cousin/mentor suggested i pick a school that would have a very small first class, which i listened to, or it would have been a brutal 4 years :P my cousin took pity on me and was kind enough to teach me about dropdowns and pulldowns before the second go around. a lot of people didn't know about pulldowns then, which blew my mind, as even with just 1 season under my belt, it was abundantly clear how hard it was to compete with somebody pulling players down if you didn't. so it was also my first experience with the absurdity of the communication from the old regime (no matter what his faults may be, i will always prefer new admin by a hundred times, because he is at least willing to communicate both ways).

Nice thread.  First time I've posted on the forums in a long time.

I'm pretty much self-taught at the game.  And really didn't have anyone to credit, other than being a complete sponge when it comes to information.  I spent days reading thread after thread on this forum before going off for my first round of recruiting.  I wish I had kept their actually values somewhere, but overall, it looks like my 3 man class turned out very successful.

My first season was D3 - Wittenberg - Tark.  (Now the only world that I'm currently active in.)

My first recruiting class was a 3 man class that consisted of a guard and 2 bigs. 

SG - Walter Petrella
Initially recruited as a 3rd guard to play behind Wittenburg's 2nd All-Time leading scorer, William Elmore.  He was efficient and did the job.  Finished his career as a 44.8% 3pt shooter, currently 4th All-Time.

C - Manuel Garfinkel
This team was incredibly shorthanded in the post.  Both Garfinkel and Floyd were asked to contribute during their 1st season.  The team already has solid scoring options, so neither player was needed for offense.  Garfinkel still ranks 3rd All-Time in Reb, 5th in Blocks.

C - Daniel Floyd
Floyd didn't do nearly as much as the other 2, but still remains 3rd All-Time in FG%.  So he was there when needed.