I'm thinking about going after a Canadian myself - after all, there are some Canadians within 70 miles of me.

I think you should go after B or E.

reinsel, based on everything you've laid out, it sounds like this is the perfect time to take a gamble. I throw in for B.

Well, in order to avoid any talk of collusion, I will end this discussion until after recruiting is over, and I will be happy to reveal my 5 potential targets, who I did go after, the amount spent, and where everyone ended up.

Corn ~ I think you should consider Canada (the Quebec/Montreal guys) as your domain. One of the few areas you have an advantage over the Ivy guys.

Biggest game of the season tonight for us. We are up to 7-1 in conference, and play Northern Iowa, our division rival who beat us at their place. Now is our chance for revenge. After surviving close games from Gardner-Webb and S. Illinois, we have a pretty good shot of not losing again in conference play, if we can get by NIU.

They beat us 56-44 at their place. So can my A+ HCA vs their A+ HCA be worth 13 points? Guess we'll see. I also have made a few coaching adjustments, that might be worth a couple points too....just remains to be seen in who's favor. Plus J_corva has some adjustments to make as well.

PSA: Please don't spam my thread. If you want to make comments about Wichita State, my writing or something sort of related to what I write, I welcome it.

Big win for us as we take down a very good Northern Iowa team and get a full one game lead in the MVC West. We went -4 and their starting SG went off for 27 points, including 7-9 from 3 (proof the -4/-5 isn't magic), but we did really well on the boards, and NIU didn't really shoot enough 3s.

The big difference was the shot advantage (48 to 35 FGA) we had with a slight TO (14 to 7) advantage and the offensive rebounding advantage (13 to 2) we got from pounding in inside and getting some foul trouble on NIU's big guys. Lucky to win that one. The voters noticed and we are up to #20. We are ranked too high since both our byes are right before the CT, so we'll fall back to #25 or out of the rankings then.

2 home games vs. sims next, so hopefully that will result in two wins, and let me start Crowe, who I still think is my best player, but his starting WE of 16 has made him progress SO SLOW!!! ARGH. Pierce has been much better, and his starting 48 WE has maxed him out almost everywhere. Crowe is the lesson against ignoring WE. I have noted it. Pierce has started more games, and played more minutes, but Crowe has played a lot in 2.5 seasons.

For example:

Crowe (16 WE, 57 GS, 1433min)

High potential Categories: 14, 15, 15, 10, 14 pts gained

Pierce (48 WE, 70 GS, 1669min)

High Potential Areas: 17, 27, 19, 26 pts gained

Crowe has not maxed out in any of his 5 high areas, while Pierce has maxed out all of his except for one.

As we draw near to the end of the regular season, my weak noncon schedule is hurting me. 23-2 is great, and #12 ranking is great, but I have a 42 RPI. We shall see how much that hurts me.

We have shot FTs really well this year. 77.4% clip. Too well considering my top 6 shooters by FTA (who account for 78% of my FTA) have FT ratings of:

B+ shooting 86.4%

C shooting 80.5% (Pierce my center)

B- shooting 69.5%

B+ shooting 76.6%

B shooting 76.1%

D+ shooting 73.2% (Curry my backup center)

So only the B- could be possibly considered to be underperforming, and the D+ and C are having really lucky years. Curry shot 40% last year (9 for 22) and Pierce shot 54% and 65% his freshman and soph years. I think the 54% was a little unlucky, but the 65% is about right.

Hopefully my FT karma doesn't come back to get me at the end of the year. One more reg season game against Evansville and then it is time to break my curse in the CT. I actually have a better career record in the NT than in my CTs. This year it looks winable, but you never can tell.

UPDATE from end of year....we regressed to the mean a little, ending at 75.9%, Pierce dropped to 75%.

Like clockwork I shoot 54% in my last game from the FT line. Still pulled out a road win 61-56. 24-2 on the year, 15-1 in conference for our second conference championship in a row. This one is not shared :)

Hopefully we can improve upon last year's first round exit from the CT.

I've been looking at open jobs on Google Earth and I gotta say, you've got a hell of a location in Wichita State. That's hard to beat.

It is a good spot. 330-360 miles to Dallas-Fort Worth, and pretty much the dead center of the country.

I can recruit at 350 miles in KS, OK, NE, CO, MO, IA and a good part of Texas.

Plus Kansas isn't as bad for recruits as you might think. Oklahoma is ok too.

I might take Missouri State some day... I'm not tremendously interested in the job, but if I want to give you local competition, it and North Texas are the best.

You don't want to give me local competition....I'd crush ya (kidding). That would be great. We'd love to have another good coach in the league. And if you take Missouri state you can recruit in whatever part of Illinois you like. And you don't want to take a North Texas school, all those conferences are empty.

Actually Missouri State is in a good spot. North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, maybe north LA, part of Mississippi, Memphis, western Kentucky, Illinios, Missouri and even Iowa and Omaha, plus Kansas are all reachable. Even a better spot than Wichita, since there isn't much west of me.

Of course I will get to start with a slight prestige advantage, so if you take the job its unlikely we'll be fighting over the same players.

That's exactly the thing. North Texas (I mean the school North Texas, not the region) is in a sucky conference.

The question with Mizzou State is - is a great recruiting region still a great recruiting region if there's another good coach next door? Either way, I might just end up staying at Vermont forever - if I have to recruit the 5-player class (currently juniors,) I'll probably be too attached to Vermont to leave. We'll see.

That is a good question. I think it might still be an ok place to be. I think what you want to avoid is a lot of coaches at the same prestige level. Like I am actually excited Kansas is #2 in the country and moving to an A prestige.....they aren't going to be looking for 2 and 3 star guys. They are going to be able to move out and go for a 5-star player.

Plus, I think having a good situation for you is more important than anything else. Other coaches come and go. If Oral Roberts and Tulsa were suddenly taken and good, along with all the nothing schools in north texas and arkansas and LA, then it would be less attractive.

One thing about being around good coaches is that they don't start stupid battles that waste everyone's money, and they get you more $$$ by getting into the NT every year. And if you are referring to me, I do take conference strength into account so tend to not battle too hard against my conference mates. Not saying I wouldn't, but that if there are other options, I am more likely to let a conference mate take a guy than if they are from another conference.

What I meant specifically is that I agree with you that the Kansas/Mizzou/Texarkana corridor is a great place to be... but once you're there, it is slightly less attractive for me.

Again, we'll see about job availability... I'm going to need to make the finals of my CT in order to finish .500, so I don't know if the MVC will be open at all.