Cashed in another easy home game vs. a sim. RPI 17, record 19-4, 12-1 in conference, and the MVC is 8th, so in real life that is A10/CUSA like i think. How about this line from Victor Mount, my 6th man:

25 min, 12-14 FG, 2-2 FT, 8 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 TO, 26 pts.

Few more of those and we'll be in the NT for sure.

i dont know how the hell u are doing this so fast just into ur 2nd season. amazing

I have a little voodoo shrine that I a live chicken to take fear from my players.

I have no idea either. The regular season is over and we finished 22-4, 15-1 in conference. RPI wait for it....16! We are going to be a lock for the NT with 10 underclassmen from a D Prestige D1 school. Imagine if I had resources like good prestige? We could rule the world. But seriously, how DID I do it.

I think the key was that first recruiting class. I didn't lose anyone I wanted, and I was lucky about that. I also was smart about taking players who didn't fit the prototype mold of the big boys, but still could work pretty well for me.

PG Kevin Hummel: 42A, 87spd, 49reb, 54 def, 63 per, 91 BH, 84 Passing. He got passed over a lot due to his lower passing skills, lower defense and lower athleticism. But he can rebound and shoot, something a lot of PGs can't do. Averaging 2.6 rebounds, shooting 50.8% this year.

SG Phillip Pete: 71A, 91Spd, 83def, 71 Per, 92 BH, 74 Passing. Passed up by everyone because of his maxed out 71 Perimeter. But his great Ath/Spd/BH/Def makes up for it. Shooting 48%, 37% from 3, he is more of a slasher type SG. Only 1.6 TO a game and scoring 10.4 ppg on a team that primarily runs slowdown (so we aren't playing freshman the whole time). Almost has more steals (34) than TO (41)

SF William Macy: 77A, 78Spd, 50reb, 78def, 57 LP, 60 Per, 27 BH, 74 Passing. Macy was the guy I stole from San Diego, so he doesn't have many holes. Just BH, and he does have a lot of TOs. His LP/Per ratings aren't great either, and he is only shooting 42%. But he plays good defense and has been solid at a position I have no depth at. I have a cruddy Jr as a backup who can't score at all (but does have a 95 defense rating so he doesn't expose me there).

Tomorrow I will review the frontcourt.

Eh, got bounced in the 2nd round of the CT by a team I had beaten by 18. I was dumb and didn't do a good job anticipating their changes, and I made some dumb moves myself that didn't work very well.

I am still at a 19 RPI, so i should still make the NT, and that is a really really successful season for a team of 10 underclassmen.

It will be interesting to see my seed. I am 22-5, with a 19 RPI, but I expect about a 8 or 9 seed. I haven't beaten many good teams. If I can get a lucky break I might be able to win one game, but even if not, I have all 12 coming back (as long as my sucky junior Kron who only got 9 min/g comes back) so I have to figure I will be able to really improve next season.

Well, I will trade a CT championship for a NT win anyday. Got a 8 seed, which I thought was fair, given my good record of 22-5, my RPI of 20 and my SOS of 55. We haven't beaten anyone too great other than Mt. St Mary's, Oral Roberts, and NIU, but its not like we have 10 quality wins.

So in the first round we drew oldresorter at UWGB. He is a legend with something like 600 career wins. Anyway, back to our basic slowdown with a smarter distribution and we won by 18 :)

Getting to the second round of the NT is pretty awesome, and I can't wait to see what my D prestige will improve to. Plus an extra $20,000 for the conference helps win those recruiting battles. The MVC did really well in the first round, going 2-1 in the NT (NIU beat Kentucky) and 1-0 in the PT (SIU beat Illinois in a intra-state battle).

So we are up to $110,000 extra cash for the conference, which is pretty darn good. And who knows, with 3 teams still in that could grow. I think we have a rough time of it tonight vs. #1 seeded Boston.

And our season ends with a 8 point loss to Boston U (the #1 seed) in the 2nd round of the NT. I think we are going to end up about 25th in the RPI and unranked.

It will be interesting to see what a 23-6 season with a conference championship and 2nd NT does for my prestige. I am guessing we go from a D to a C. That would be pretty good with me, as we have everyone coming back before we recruit after next season.

And now that I am thinking about it, we might need to recruit more than 2 that year if one of my starters goes pro. Not sure if it will happen, but a junior that has played all 3 years on a NT team might do it. But my guys were all 2 stars, so they might stay too. Never know about it.

Well, loyal readers (if there are any) its been a while since my last update. Took a little break from HD and went on a vacation.

We did end up with a C prestige, and had no scholarships to fill. And thanks to SIU's run to the PT title, I got a nice check to save up for next year's recruiting. I should have over $50,000 to fill 2 scholarships, which is pretty excellent.

Since I knew I was going to be on vacation, I played a very easy noncon schedule. We went 9-1 vs. the 277 SOS and end the noncon season with a 71 RPI. Not great, but not terrible for being on complete autopilot. This season's team is much like last years, but everyone is just a little better. I will review the squad during the first couple games of the conference schedule. The MVC finished noncon about 15th, so it might only be a one or 2 bid league. Wichita State is going to have to get that bid.

I'm annoyed by how much better than me you did in your first season recruiting - partly I did badly and partly I have to compete with Allen's insanely stacked Ivy league. Good luck - maybe I'll see you in the NT.

I also think the overall quality of recruits is slowing going down. But one key component of D1 success is choosing your job. Going to Vermont with the Ivy so strong is going to be very, very difficult. I would never take that job unless I had a connection to Vermont. Also I think I was at a D+ and you were at a D-....that matters.

That is why the MVC was a good spot. There is no competition int he Summit League or most of the western leagues. Its just the Big 10, the Big 12 and us for TX to ND from the Mississippi to the mountains.

The only other decent conferences are the WCC and the Big Sky. And they can have WA/OR/ID/MT/WY. The Pac 10 gets CA/NV/AZ, but I have pretty good access to the non Big 12 recruits from KS/OK/NE/MO/CO/etc.

I prefered Vermont to any of the other jobs open... I'll think about jumping to the MVC soon. Or maybe the Ivy, even.

Well, 3-1 to start the conference season and the RPI is down into the 40s. Won the ugliest game of my coaching career at Creighton today. Glad to have the win, but the halftime score was 14-8.....something is not right with that.

Player improvement has been noticably slowing down, several of my juniors are getting close to maxing out.

Exciting moment for the Shockers, as we made the top 25 for the first time at #22.

But our super weak noncon SOS is killing us. I was hoping the conference would be doing better, but we are 14th of about 25-30 conferences, so that isn't that great. We need more than 6 humans to really have a strong conference.

Also my 3pt shooting in my last 3 games has been terrible: 4-21, 4-19, 2-16. All against minus defenses. Is Pete's 71 PER catching up to him? Hummel and Macy aren't helping either. Bad sign.

But still we are 15-2 (6-1) and moving through the conference schedule with only a road loss to Northern Iowa so far. Lots of reasons for optimism.

Kansas is now the #1 team in the country. Be interesting to see if that ends up being good or bad for me. Bad, because they can kick me off anyone easily. Good because they are willing to recruit nationally and go after 4 and 5-star recruits and leave local 3-stars for people like me? Will be interesting to see.

I have also started thinking pretty hard about recruiting for next season. Assuming no one goes pro (which is actually not for sure), I should have 2 open.

Since I saved a lot from 2 years ago, and didn't have any last year, I have spent my FSS money and still have more that $15,000 over. So assuming a moderate NT for the conference, I will end with a budget of about $50,000 and 2 open.

I am seriously considering spending most of this money on one player. He is local (less than 200 miles) and should be in the star category where he should consider me from the beginning.

I am thinking that he is pretty darn good (i.e. by my count he is the best player at his position in KS or any of the border states that isn't a 5-star) and probably worth a gamble. I can afford a walkon I think since the following year I have 5 open and that should get me quite a bit. I have a second player that I think will be an ok backup (1-star guy) that I hope to sign for $5-10k, leaving me ~$40-$45 to spend on my dream player. Dumb idea?

My other option is an equally good international recruit. Acutally probably better. So can a C+ prestige school get a 4-star international with $40,000??? Opinions welcomed.

Gamble it - I'll probably be sending most of my money after one player, at least.

Well, that sounds like fun. I still have to figure out which one.

I have, after much consideration, narrowed it down to 5 players. I eliminated all 5-stars. I just think that with Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas all being so good, and me with only 2 scholarships open, I don't have a chance of getting a 5-star.

Then I eliminated guys that seemed good more than 200 miles away. KU, Oklahoma or Texas will take them from me too easily.

So that leaves me with

Mr A is local. He is really good, probably the best, but the only good player at his position within 300 miles. High chance of a Big 12 team or two battling for him. My feeling is that he has too much risk. I think Kansas would be dumb not to take him. Will update after recruiting who/where he goes.

Mr. B is international. Not as good, but with a high potential in Athleticism or Speed, he could be as good as Mr. A. But with a limited bankroll, tough to scout a ton and then go elsewhere. Is $45 enough to get a 3 or 4 star int'l??

Mr. C is Canadian. Far enough from most teams that I won't be at a distance advantage, but its hard to tell for sure. A similar case to Mr. B. Do I was $2,000 scouting him to determine he is no good?

Mr. D is another local, but has fewer stars. He has a lot of high potentials, and is probably in B or C's league. Kind of a fallback. He is about as good as one of my best players on my team now. Which is good, but he doesn't excite me. I bet I could save $15,000 if I go after him though.

Mr. E is a local at a different position from A-D, and is really good. But this isn't the most crucial position in my opinion. He has the advantage of being at a position where there are 3 guys rated above him within 300 miles of me. Most of them will go to Big 6 schools I bet, and allow for others (like KU/Missouri/Oklahoma/Texas/etc.) to get off him if they don't want to spend $30,000 or more to push me off.

I kind of feel like A is a waste of effort, and D is settling. Do I have the extra cash to scout Mr B or Mr C and then decide between them a E??? I love the decisions in this game. My final prestige probably plays a role as well. If I have another good NT run, maybe I get to a B- and can scout someone.