Since everyone is posting the process that teams are going through and providing insight I figured I'd throw mine out here.

I left a borderline top 25 team in Texas Christian to pursue my dream of coaching in the BIG10 with Ohio State. Upon taking over OSU they had 8 open scholarships filled with walk ons. Initial assessment of the team they had already signed Pierce which was serviceable starter for the rebuild and had a serviceable PF in Rudd. Granted these players are not long term options but looking ahead I need to identify a starting lineup and prioritize targets.

After scouting locally and internationally I quickly identified a lot of front court players that went overlooked that can easily start for 1-2 seasons as the team builds and potentially 3-4 depending on the process. Keep in mind this team after I did recruiting phase 2 came in as a 511 overall with 4 walk ons. The BIG10 in Smith has been a top 3 RPI conference for several seasons and has 9 active good coaches.

The intial phase I broke down that If I can bring on 2 solid front court players, slot one of them in SF and the other in C I could round out a good front court, then if I could bring in a guard that was serviceable until I can bring in some big time player. Out of my intial targets the only one I was able to sign in Phase 2 was James Caldwell https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Default.aspx?pid=3765668 James will finish 90+ ATH 70+ REB 90+ DEF 85+ BLK and is Green in LP so it could grow exponentially. He was a huge win as I can easily start him for 4 seasons with his high defense and ATH he shouldn't be a reliability once he learns the offense and defense.

My next signing came form in Paul Woodley a transfer from Florida https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=3728827 this was the first time in WIS that I've ever taken on a transfer player. What I saw in Woodley was the 43 DEF High that will put him in range to start initially and come off the bench in his later seasons as well as 83 PER which gives me an outside threat and 53 BH and 60 P both Green. Paul gave me the starting guard I needed in addition to an outside shot which was unexpected. I can easily start him in the rebuild for 2 seasons and bring in a heavy hitter to replace down the road.

My final signing came form in Joseph Atkinson
https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=3765666 Atkinson was a player that had serviceable defense and plenty of green potentials. A complete project gamble that I can start as he would be better than any walk on I took. ATH DEF BLK LP PER were all green, BH was 48 Blue and he provided me with the starting SF I was looking for with 50+ BH and PAS and plenty of potentials to grow out into a solid starter as I bring in better assets.

Overall with only 1 phase I was very pleased to bring in 3 players I am comfortable starting, expectations for the season were 3-6 wins depending on non-conf success. This season I have totaled 4 wins looking at losing the rest of the way. Now that I have a comfortable 3 starters for now and 4 walkons to replace next recruiting phase the goal is to pluck 2 more starters to solidify the front and back court. Being that I am more comfortable with the frontcourt than backcourt the current targets with 4 openings are set at 2 guards and 1 frontcourt player to start. Ideally focusing on projects with high ceilings and good preferences. The initial goal is to get competitive which the expected timeline is 3-4 seasons before any sort of consistency will happen.

Once recruiting phase 1 happens I'll talk through movements and what went on and happened. Only things I'll talk about will be players that finalized and will not give away anything that can be seen as collusion of course.

I'm going to begin this update to the hardest rebuild of my WIS career by titling it "The wakeup call."

With that being said the TLDR version is missed on my biggest hole and lost 60% of my battles, on to the details!

Throughout scouting and re-evaluating Ohio State and the current status my main targets were to pull in 2 Guards, 1 to start and 1 to bench and bring along. I would definitely be open to bringing on 2 starters if I found 2 quality freshman that I felt could be 4 year cornerstone players and a PF or C. Out of the gate I was able to accomplish this by targeting players within 200 miles and international players. The reason for these choices is there is not a current dominant program in Ohio, so if I can win locally I can slowly take over the state during the next few seasons. I also went internationally as I had a fairly good budget with 4 openings and I was prepared to take a walk on, this allowed me to stretch budget and potentially grab an overlooked international.

My main target was Santiago Perez an international out of Spain that had VH for DEF at 63 he also had solid ATH at 74 Low and SPD was 57 VH. The only major initial issue was his inability to shoot sitting at 30 PER VH. With Santiago his preferences were fairly wide open only wanting to play and strong defense where I sat at "Bad." This was a player I wanted to sign and start so I know I could easily push with a Very Good preference and put myself in a winning position with the extra budget. Initially Perez was assigned 40 AP and I quickly noticed that he didn't go unnoticed. I pushed his AP to 50 in response and was the first school to unlock a scholarship. After that I pushed through 4 Home visits and averaged 38 AP throughout the cycles. Promised Perez 20 Minutes and a start, my biggest folly in this was a misplay on my budget on another recruit (will get to that soon) and ended up getting behind to Colorado where I lost the flip 72-28% (to clarify I was the 28%).

My misplay came in the form of Brandon Reddy PF out of Albion NY. Brandon had a fairly open preference pool at Wants to Play and Triangle offense preferred. Brandon was not apart of my main priorities as I needed to pull in 2 guards and if I missed on a PF/C I wouldn't be upset. However Opening up 30 AP on Brandon I dropped the AP to 10 to supplement other recruits and that's all I needed to unlock a scholly. After offering a scholly I noticed Dayton (another player coach) moved in with an offer as well. Reconfigured the AP to 30 and immediately (my biggest mistake) went all in. offering 20 HV CV Promise start and 20 mins. Brandon has a ton of potential with 6 VH and 2 H between ATH to BH, my main issue looking back its all of that was not needed to lock him up as I pushed way far out from Dayton and signed Brandon 100% with no other contesting, the final total was $6500 budget with average AP of 19.

My 2nd main target came from in Timothy Kelly, Out of the gate I could tell Timothy would have some competition and I wasn't wrong. Initially assigning 30 AP I quickly upped this to 40 and still didn't unlock the scholarship. After the 3rd cycle and 20 AP assigned I found myself in a quick battle in the conference with Iowa and settled his AP around 40 after a few cycles. the issue with my pursuit of Timothy Kelly is the preference of Far From Home which had me listed at Bad 250 miles. Both Iowa and Northern Iowa who I battled with clearly had me beat on this level. Regardless I thought I had the budget and wanted the coinflip and on the 3rd cycle pushed all in $6000 20 HV CV 15 Mins and promised start averaging 40 AP throughout the battles. When the coin flip happened I sat at 31% Northern Iowa was at 43% and Iowa sat at 27%, after the dust settled Tim decided his home would be Iowa. Not much else I feel I could of done here outside of kept his AP higher sooner however I don't feel I could change the fact the school listed at "high" won the battle.

After being 1/3 for my initial targets I moved on to Kenneth Wallace who I had lowly backup throwing 5-10 AP at just in case I lost both Tim and Perez (which I did). Unfortunately the budget misplay left me with my pants down and I was too late to the party and Dayton swooped up Wallace after my huge folly on Brandon. I couldn't even get into the high range but was able to push to moderate after no $ was spent.

Licking my wounds I was able to identify a JUCO Guard that was 21 WE which seemed to be his deterrent to D1 squads as a rebuilding team could easily use James Penton. He has 66 VH DEF ( I don't expect this to go far in 2 seasons) however he has a respectable 74 Pass and 66BH where his DEF would be better than both my other guards I can start Penton and get quality minutes in a float year. averaging 10 AP 1 HV and a promise of 10 minutes I was able to make Penton call Ohio State his home capping off the roughest recruiting period I've been in.

Overall this recruiting period was a tragedy Ohio State (not including walk ons) will be over 600 rated team which is an 80 rating upswing after 1 and a half recruiting cycles. If I can have some more success and manage my budget better next season I could easily be sitting with some cornerstone players that will effectively allow me to build this program back again. The goal moving forward is still to pull in some more guards as my front court and SF are set for 2-3 seasons and to ensure the Motion offense which needs good BH and Pass is able to effectively run. After beginning with 8 Walk on players when I started this journey I will be down to 2 next season and a fairly healthy budget to make more pushes.

The hardest rebuild in my career will go on as I look to another brutal season, I am hoping that I can help my prestige a little by winning double digit games by stacking my non-conf in my favor. Only time will tell if this will be possible. Lastly I will say as much of a disappointment this cycle was I'm not completely upset at the progress. My players from the 2nd cycle last season improved 100 94 and 87 points. If I can continue to get this type of improvement I can still be optimistic in my future at Ohio State.

Player Links -
Santiago Perez https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Default.aspx?rid=4173201
Timothy Kelly https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Default.aspx?rid=4174994
Kenneth Wallace https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Ratings.aspx?rid=4176637
(Signed) Brandon Reddy https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Ratings.aspx?rid=4176603
(Signed) James Penton https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Default.aspx?rid=4174280

Good luck from your tOSU brother in Tark!

Posted by clouseb on 11/7/2017 10:40:00 PM (view original):
Good luck from your tOSU brother in Tark!

Thank you! I'm fighting to get this team to the level you are at!

Good job. Keep at it. My end game is Syracuse. Hope it opens in Allen or Phelan.

I enjoyed reading this.

Happy Holidays everyone! The 3rd entry in the "Hardest Rebuild in WIS" I am going to title "Redemption."

Looking at the OSU roster I had 2 walk-ons both at the guard position and a graduating backup power forward. The goal this time around was to get the team a consistent foundation as I haven't been able to pull in the backcourt freshman's I've been looking for as well as pull in a frontcourt player to come off the bench for 2 seasons and start for 2 seasons. The biggest eyeball concern I have is my 2 starting guards are Juniors so any freshmans I bring in now will need to be capable of starting after 1 season off the bench. While running motion this creates an issue as it relys on BH and Pass so losing my guards and not having a current player awaiting his chance on the bench was slightly frightening.

Fast forward to scouting I set my expectations with 3 openings to identify a guard and a PF/C to target and go after. Initially after running through, I created a list of 19 players which 3 of them were C's and the rest were guards. I did not dive deep into the PF/C because I came across a target that I had amazing preferences on and he had a great set of skills and potentials so it was very easy to commit to an all in situation if needed. After that I broke down the rest of the list and targeted my choice of 2 guards which in the end I chose 1 to go after keeping the other as a backup plan.

Onto the recruiting period I went hastily after my top 2 targets and quickly got out ahead of the competition on Cory Landreth C out of Sunbright, TN(https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Default.aspx?rid=4218216) Cory's preferences were right where I wanted them sitting at "Good" for Near home and Wants rebuild and I finished the season "Neutral" for strong defense (I was surprised too). Lastly he wanted to play which I had no problem promising 15 mins (a bench position) and achieving "very good" lastly he also preferred my defense another "very good" situation. Cory's skills made my eyes wide and shocked me that I was so free and clear on the recruiting, ATH 52 DEF 56 and LP 48 all were VH, SPD REB and SB were all average, he also had PER and BH VH as well. My only scare was the 22 WE however with 2 seasons off the bench I could slowly build that and his talents at the same time focusing heavily on areas. If he develops and beats his WE issue Cory could finish 80+ in ATH REB DEF SB and LP which would be a great starter. I found little competition getting ahead early and unlocking the scholarship pushing 5HV and a CV to keep Gardner-Webb away as they offered a scholarship and rode the rest of the way to the signing period.

My next target had to come in the form of a guard, I NEEDED to pull through this season and capture a freshman that could develop and help me create some stability in the backcourt. This took form in Leonard Quiroga PG out of Fayetteville, NC (https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Ratings.aspx?rid=4218746) With Leonard I saw a player with good core attributes SPD and ATH 64 and 77 respectably but had a higher DEF ceiling (48VH) I couldn't find in other guards without reaching into a big battle territory. Leonard also had the signs of being a big time PG for me with 50 VH Pass and 66 AVG BH his PER was slightly scary at 38 VH but the sky is the limit when you find players that low to start on there outside shot. Preferences saw "Wants to play" (could force VG with 15 mins) Near home "Neutral" Fast tempo "Bad" and Man to Man "Very good." I was not super thrilled about these preferences but hoped Leonard would go overlooked which he actually did except for one A+ D2 team that I fended off easily. Once My scholarship was unlocked I pushed through a CV and rode the rest of the way to signing period.

Early in the period I was comfortable on my 2 recruits that I comfortable signed later I decided to take a chance. I ran through the top recruits list looking at what recruits had SIM AI's on them leading by themselves. I was able to identify Tennessee Mr. Basketball 3 star Henry McDermott (https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/RecruitProfile/Ratings.aspx?rid=4219732) Henry was being pursued by Marshall a sub C prestige team and had no other competition. Keeping 30 and 20 points on my other 2 recruits I put 30 AP onto Henry and after 3 cycles I unlocked a scholarship and to my surprise only Marshall was still by themselves sitting at Very high. After the scholarship I took a huge risk as I didn't expect any competition on my other recruits (which I was correct) and went all in on Henry (20 HV and Promised 10 minutes). After that push I flew out ahead of the game pushing Marshall to very low and taking the lead on a 3 star top 100 recruit. I rode this to signing period locking up Henry and my 1st top 100 recruit at OSU. However where do I use Henry? My current game plan is a potential season at PG (after a bench year) or he will take the reigns after Atkinson graduates at SF, Henry has High ATH 75 and High DEF 79 which means he will be 90+ in each category, his SPD is okay at 60 AVG. My only glaring issue I have with Henry is he will never be a primetime scoring option at Very Low for both LP and PER 30 and 58.

Overall this could turn out to be the best class to date, I made a major stride in the backcourt and wrapped up a major frontcourt player. The season has wrapped up at 10-16 making OSU a double digit winning team for the first time in 5 seasons. I do believe I can again achieve double digit victories next season and continue to bring in guards for more stabilization as Woodley and Penton graduate next season.

REDEMPTION BABBBBBBBBBBBBY

What are ath/spd potentials for Leonard?

Posted by Benis on 12/21/2017 4:54:00 PM (view original):
What are ath/spd potentials for Leonard?

Average ATH and Very low on Speed

Posted by bagger288 on 12/21/2017 5:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 12/21/2017 4:54:00 PM (view original):
What are ath/spd potentials for Leonard?

Average ATH and Very low on Speed

Hes not too bad at all! Nice get!

Posted by cubcub113 on 12/21/2017 5:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bagger288 on 12/21/2017 5:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Benis on 12/21/2017 4:54:00 PM (view original):
What are ath/spd potentials for Leonard?

Average ATH and Very low on Speed

Hes not too bad at all! Nice get!

Thank you! Out of the 3 signings I spend the least on him lol

This was enjoyable to read and I like the rebuild challenge you took on. Keep up the good work.

I took on rebuild myself with UCONN in the Knight world and it was awesome to finally turn the corner with them.

Looking forward to reading about your continued progress forward.