Oh, and Mathewson's up >50 points before conference play, so that's pretty cool.

This season is officially a disaster of epic proportions- two of my senior SGs post 1.9 GPAs after no real signs of trouble, so now I'm playing seven-deep after losing my first two players EVER to grades. And that's after posting three consecutive home losses.

It took overtime, but I got a win against Nebraska at home. Phew.

Mathewson's up his hundredth point. Even though he's still lacking in REB, I'm very happy with his progress so far.



Still not as good as Wood, though.

Got myself a second win - at Kansas State - when Carriere and Taylor got back, but this is still a) a season to forget and b) an improvement over last year record-wise.

Going into the CT, I'm, for the second year in a row, up against 3-seed Nebraska.

Managed to sign eight with my $100K, leaving me with an awkward 0-5-1-6 class structure. It'll be 5-1-5-1 next year.

The first of the new crop is very much in the model of John Davis - he's a JuCo SG with a lot of high potentials. I expect a lot of improvement out of him - would've been nice to redshirt, but that wasn't gonna happen unless I informed during recruiting, which I really should have done.
That 41 rebounding from a SG is great, though.




ORSINI, Francis - 6'2", 198 lbs. Shooting Guard from Mountain View College, Dallas, TX. 3-star recruit, #19 SG, #133 overall.

ATH: 54 high ("improve substantially")
SPD: 68 high ("massive improvement")
REB: 41 med ("good upside")
DEF: 78 high ("major improvement")
BLK: 1 med
LP: 29 med ("don't see much more upside")
PER: 64 med ("some upside")
BH: 72 high
PASS: 65 high ("TREMENDOUS improvement")
WE: 57
ST: 71 high ("dramatic change")

OVR: 642

IQ: B+/F ("could coach"/doesn't play)
FT: C+ low ("not much")
JuCo GPA: 3.6

The other JuCo that I found right away was PF with similarly great potential. This guy's got a great WE, too, and he knows my offense and defense - he comes in as my best IQ in the press. If I can RS him next year without his WE going all the way to 1, I might... that'd get me a nicer class structure, too. The only catch is his 5 DUR.

In the new engine, Thompson's high PE should be interesting - he'll be a PF that can shoot the three from the 4, so playing Warf-Orsini-someone-Thomp-Wood next year would give me serious outside shooting while maintaining solid rebounding.



THOMPSON, Christopher - 6'8", 227 lbs. Power Forward from Collin County Community College, Plano, TX. 2-star recruit, #70 PF, #234 overall.

ATH: 55 high ("improve substantially")
SPD: 59 high ("can improve")
REB: 80 high ("good upside")
DEF: 54 high ("major improvement")
BLK: 59 high ("above average room for growth")
LP: 62 med ("will improve")
PER: 46 high ("really improve")
BH: 12 low ("not much improvement")
PASS: 17 med ("some improvement")
WE: 78
ST: 62 high ("dramatic change")

OVR: 589

IQ: B/A- ("great understanding"/"second to none")
FT: C- medium ("can improve")
JuCo GPA: 2.5

I next picked up a solid 4-year SG. BH and WE might be issues, but he's got my big four (ATH, SPD, DEF, STAM) in spades.



BRADY, Christopher - 6'4", 192 lbs. Shooting Guard from W. H. Adamson HS, Dallas, TX. 2-star recruit, #33 SG, #211 overall.

ATH: 59 high ("improve substantially")
SPD: 77 high ("MUCH quicker")
REB: 12 low ("not going to see much")
DEF: 84 med ("decent improvement")
BLK: 6 med ("decent upside")
LP: 14 med ("don't see much more")
PER: 64 high ("potential to really improve")
BH: 68 low ("tapped out")
PASS: 78 high ("fairly significant room for improvement")
WE: 29
ST: 71 high ("dramatic change")

OVR: 613

IQ: F/C- (doesn't play/"nothing remarkable")
FT: D+ medium ("not anticipating much")
HS GPA: 2.76

With Brady came this overlooked PF from Utah. DEF might be an issue at first, but I like his PER/BH/PASS for a big man, REB will max at 100, and ATH/SPD will be very, very strong.



WHITTLE, Derrick - 6'9", 221 lbs. Power Forward from Taylorsville HS, Salt Lake City. 1-star recruit, #109 PF.

ATH: 59 high ("improve substantially")
SPD: 58 high ("can improve")
REB: 75 high ("improve substiantially")
DEF: 37 high
BLK: 70 med
LP: 71 med ("can improve")
PER: 40 med ("some upside")
BH: 29 low ("not going to see much")
PASS: 22 low
WE: 46
ST: 71 high

OVR: 601

IQ: F/F
FT: C medium ("can improve")
HS GPA: 3.24

I also got this solid PF with similarly good REB and decent guard skills.



WHALEN, John - 6'9", 217 lbs. Power Forward from Lincoln HS, Dallas, TX. 2-star recruit, #79 PF, #264 overall.

ATH: 63 med ("could improve")
SPD: 50 med ("can improve")
REB: 65 high ("improve substantially")
DEF: 52 high ("major improvement")
BLK: 66 high ("decent upside")
LP: 64 med ("can improve")
PER: 41 low ("not expecting any")
BH: 30 low ("tapped out")
PASS: 28 med ("don't see any signs of improvement")
WE: 60
ST: 62 high ("can really improve")

OVR: 610

IQ: F/F
FT: D medium ("can improve")
HS GPA: 2.77

I had also spent 10K on Giuseppe Mendoza, a very promising SG from Mexico City. However, my STs indicated that Mendoza's potential was pretty sucky, and Fresno State wanted him, too - though I was winning and could win that battle, I no longer wanted to spend money on that.

So I have five guys locked up and about 35K to spend with three to fill.

The two big situations this recruiting session were a) the lack of Texas Tech, which the three good recruits from Odessa/Midland without a lockdown favorite and created a bit of a power vacuum, and b) A+ prestige Stanford's pursuit of no fewer than 11 players. Therefore, I was looking at jumping on a 5-star JuCo that Stanford had but didn't seem to want; waiting for Stanford to fill up and jumping on either a Cali PG or an African PF; or poaching Baylor's guy from Odessa.

To start, though, I jumped on a solid SG (PG, really) that Baylor had vulnerable. Baylor put up a small fight, but the Bears really had bigger fish to fry and Kirschbaum fell into my hands. Again, he's strong in my Big Four, so that's great, as are his potentials. WE's a bit low for a redshirt, but that's what he'll be doing after Whittle and Whalen refused my RSing attempts.



KIRSCHBAUM, Gregory - 6'2", 205 lbs. Shooting Guard from Nocona HS, Nocona, TX. 1-star recruit, #53 SG.

ATH: 50 high ("dramatically improve")
SPD: 78 high ("MUCH quicker")
REB: 19 low ("not going to see)
DEF: 75 high ("major improvement")
BLK: 15 low ("no more")
LP: 45 low ("no more")
PER: 54 med ("some upside")
BH: 64 high ("tremendous improvement"
PASS: 79 high ("fairly significant improvement")
WE: 36
ST: 77 high ("can really improve")

OVR: 638

IQ: F/F
FT: C medium ("can improve")
HS GPA: 3.1

The signing deadline came and went, and sure enough, I got all six guys. That me two spots open, one of which couldn't be a 4-year recruit... but when I spent 7K on the Cali PG in an attempt to delay Stanford's signing of him until Stanford filled his spots, Stanford signed him anyway and I was out some cash.

Starting to get worried about filling all of my spots (I didn't want to take a walkon, 'cause this way I would have 0 open next year and get to do the double-carryover trick,) I picked up a decent transfer from the University of Idaho. He'll be a 2nd-string PG for me for a couple of years and then he'll be gone. And as with all of my PGs, he'll be able to shoot.



HURST, Micah - 6'0", 191 lbs. Point Guard from New Hope Christian HS, Grants Pass, OR.

ATH: 48 low
SPD: 96 low
REB: 28 low
DEF: 64 low
BLK: 25 low
LP: 2 med
PER: 52 low
BH: 75 med
PASS: 78 med
WE: 48
ST: 84 med

OVR: 628

IQ: D-/C+
FT: C- medium
Idaho GPA: 2.5

But then I needed a scrub so as to avoid a walkon. I decided to send out STs to the three best internationals that were undecided and sign the one with the best potentials for cheap. That turned out to be this guy, who I might consider cutting, to be honest. But hey, he'll be a competent third-stringer.



VALENCIA, Javier - 6'6", 204 lbs. Power Forward from Base Colegio, Madrid, Spain.

ATH: 41 high ("dramatically improve")
SPD: 42 med ("can improve")
REB: 60 high ("HUGE improvement")
DEF: 42 high ("major improvement")
BLK: 62 high ("tremendous improvement")
LP: 42 med
PER: 36 med ("some upside")
BH: 21 low
PASS: 22 med ("not much more")
WE: 59
ST: 77 high ("can really improve")

OVR: 546

IQ: F/F
FT: B medium ("can improve")

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I did. My goal was to build a team with great ATH/SPD/DEF/STAM and good PER at the cost of LP, and that's what I'm making. The problem is that my IQs really, really suck. We'll see how it goes.