Whew, got the much needed road win vs. NIU. RPI went from 114 to 72, so hopefully we can win a home game tonight vs. a weaker on paper Missouri State team. Key to the win was Mount....he played great. 6-10 shooting, 6 of 6 FT, 8 rebounds (4 offensive) and 5 blocks.

The blocks were the key to holding NIU to 30% shooting at their place. We got 11 officially, but I counted at least 4 more that were altered shots that didn't show up in the boxscore, and 2 of those were Mounts. I guess 89 Ath is good (duh).

On the bad front, my backup PF Andersen gave me a I am ticked message. Only getting 9 minutes.....I really don't need him this year, but next year he could start, so I really don't want him to leave. We'll see if I can fix it or not. Maybe I can start him vs. the 10 frosh Bradley team.

Well, 10 games into the conference season, and we are grinding. 8-2, with a big road win at NIU, but 2 home losses to the #2 and #3 teams from the east division. My RPI is 78, SOS 105. PT here I come....doh.

I have 6 games to get into the NT.

At Creighton, the #1 team in the conference, a longshot, but huge if I can win it.

Home vs. NIU, which will give me the west division championship if I can win....but NIU is really good.

And then 4 games against lesser competition that I should beat. I am sitting at 14-6, and I think I need to get to at least 20 wins to get a NT berth. Hopefully I can go 5-1 in the last 6 and win a CT game, and that should do it, but its going to be close.

This has just been a frustrating season. Seems like nothing has gone right, with 2 injuries (serious 70% & 50% too) and I have not been able to really get things rolling. But we're still in it and every game matters as we come down to the wire.

I really have had some terrible foul trouble this year, seems like teams either attack my bigs or my guards and get both my starters fouled out. I have no idea why this is such a big problem, the IQs, spd/ath/def are good, but we are really struggling with this. Pierce, my center was Defensive POTY and he has fouled out 4 or 5 times this year.

Well, 13-2 so far in the conference, and my RPI is 55 and I am very concerned I am going to miss the NT.

I have a crappy 260 RPI sim on the road , and then I play the winner of the 4/5 game, which is probably going to be another 250 RPI team.

So winning those games will probably hurt my RPI. Then I will have to play a good team in the semi-finals, probably Evansville who beat me at home, and if I lose that game, I am out. Even if I win, I am not sure I will get in without winning the whole CT. So lots of pressure.

But beating WKU to end the regular season is the first step. 2 days off then a every game for the rest of the year is a big one.

Well, I made the NT by winning the CT, got a #6 seed with the 37th RPI and lost to Canisius for the second year in a row.

I lost my PG to injury in the CT final, which hurt vs. Canisius who was a very very athletic zone/press team. We had 20 TOs playing slowdown. I think I overcoached myself. I really wanted to shoot a ton of 3s and maybe went overboard. Pete was 0-8 and Macy 2-8 and that is all she wrote. But I gave up a ton of dunks and layups from all my turnovers so my crappy offense didn't matter.

Sadly, I did the exact same thing last year, with the same result. I need to learn. Hopefully I will be able to improve my prestige to a B from a B-, but I don't know. On the plus side I'll have the conf championship, CT win and NT berth, plus 23 wins. But my RPI of ~45 and not winning a game in the NT hurts. Plus the conference is still in the middle.

I think I have to hope Pete or Pierce gets drafted, and Creighton or NIU get past the 2nd round to help the conference prestige. Still, not bad, and I get to drop off my last 4 years a 10-19 250 RPI season and add this one, so that should help.

Still don't get it vs. Canisius. I guess Pete's 71 max Perimeter rating finally affected me. Time to look forward to recruiting, the best part of D1. So complex and challenging.

The best news is that the MVC is going to get at least $105,000 in extra recruiting money, which is $8,750 each. That plus my good carry over should allow me to come into recruiting after FSS with around $90,000. That is a pretty good warchest, especially with a B prestige (fingers crossed for draft night).

Second is that the Big 12 isn't doing so hot. They only have 1 team in the NT and 1 in the PT , and have made $95,000. So the big boys won't have much of a $$$ advantage on us little guys. And many of my competitors didn't do so hot this year.

Kansas A prestige went 14-13 with 115 RPI, K-State went 3-24 with 301 RPI, Missouri had 146 RPI, Colorado is at 176, Iowa State at 190. Texas Tech, the closest to me of the 3 texas schools had an RPI of 133. and all these schools are B/B- prestige, and figure to fall a little, which means I cannot be bullied as easy as last time I recruited with 5 when I was a D+ team.

Other good thing is there are 3 top 10 overall recruits with 200 miles of me. The #1 SF, #1 PF and #3 C. Pretty cool. Maybe time to spend $50,000 on one of em? I still have to respect KU, since they have 6 open, and probably will only fall to an A- and Nebraska has 4 open and is still alive in the 2nd round with a B-, but the competitive landscape makes a battle a thing that I could possibly win.

I would like to thank my 5 graduating seniors for getting me to 3 consecutive NTs. I recruited them without ever trying D1 before, with a D+ prestige, and they delivered. Each were flawed, but as a team, very very solid. Its going to be rough to win without them.

SG Phillip Pete a 2-star from Kansas, pass over because of his 67 low potential Per, became a star. He started 114 games for me, and leaves WSU #11 in minutes with 2795 (99 stamina), #4 in points (1260), #12 in assists (278), #5 in 3Pt% at 40.1% and #8 in FT%. Ended with 77 ath, 98 spd, 94 def, 71 per, 97 bh, 81 passing and 99 stamina with a B in FT. I have some hope his senior stats of 13.7 ppg, 2.8 apg, 2.0 rpg and 1.2 steals with 42% from 3 will get him drafted.

C William Pierce also was a 2-star from Kansas and will end his career 11th in points, 6th in rebounds and #1 in blocks. He was COPY and DPOY his junior year too. He has an outside shot at getting drafted too 64 ath, 45 spd and 99 reb, 93 def, 100 lp, 100 blk. 10.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.1 steals and 1.3 blks. His junior year was better as teams really focused on him this season, opening things up for Pete.

PF Victor Mount was a 2-star I got lucky grabbing from El Paso when no one was really looking. He maxed at 76 rebounding, so maybe that was his problem. But ends up 8th all time rebounding, 9th scoring and 2nd in FT% at 79.5, and he shot 356 Fts in his career. I feel bad he only started 50 of 117 games. I never could really decide between him and Crowe at PF.

C David Crowe was my great hope that kinda fizzled. His 16 WE killed me. So much potential wasted. Still, a reliable backup and started 74 games for me, mostly freshman and soph year as I tried in vain to get his WE up. Kind of a bust, but not bad for a 1 star. Averaged 19 min, 48% fg, 72% ft, 5.8ppg, 4.8 rpg for me.

SF William Macy was the prize of my first and only battle that year. The guy just wouldn't shoot, but still ended #13 all time in scoring. Steady at SF, he will be missed the most as I have no other SF on the roster. Ended 84 Ath, 83 spd. Never averaged 10 ppg, but averaged 8, 9, 9, 9 ppg. Never shot that well either, ending with 43%. Maybe his 29 max BH hurt more than I thought. But his 84 passing led to a lot of easy baskets, and most importantly I swear his 91 defense and super good IQs (he was a 4.0 in HS) won several conference games against Gardner-Webb when their best player by far was a SF named Houghtaling. Macy totally shut him done a couple times and saved me.

Anyway, these guys will be missed a lot by me.

Been doing some hard thinking on this recruting class. We are so unbalanced in terms of classes, it makes things difficult.

5 seniors, 1 sophomore and 1 freshman return, and 5 to recruit.

I like having the empty class, so recruiting a juco2 seems out of the question. A Juco1 is possible.

I also have exactly zero SFs on the roster, so that is the #1 priority. Just so happens that the #1 SF in the country is 160 miles from me. Maybe a little good luck for me? Have to see who else is interested, but spending half my money on him would be a bargain. Plus I can completely promise a start and 20 min because seriously, who else am I going to play.

So, does a B- team have any shot at getting a local 5 star??? We shall see. I probably need a big and a guard too, but really, taking a walkon might be a good thing to start balancing out the classes. I could really use a Juco1 or a sophomore transfer, but the only one close by is already considering A prestige Cleveland State.....not a battle I want to fight, even with a 90/900 distance advantage.

If you use the Jedi Mind Trick on the other coaches, you can land a stable full of 5-star recruits.

Ah.....yes. Dear Readers,

You don't need to see my identification.

These recruits are not the recruits you are looking for.

You can go about your business.

Move along, Move along.

I say recruit an all Wookie front line.

I think Darth Vader would be an excellent SF. Height, strength, and with the force shot, pretty much able to block anything...and shoot 100% on FTs.

Plus, if you get in his way, he'll just choke you. "Honest, ref, I never laid a finger on him".

This post could not be converted. To view the original post's thread, click here.

Well back to our regularly scheduled program, I stayed a B-, but have some hope that I might get a draft pick and make a B. Before recruiting, here are my biggest competitors / their prestige. Not too many teams that are stronger than us, but enough that we won't get first pick.

A = Oklahoma

A- = Kansas, Iowa, Texas

B = Northern Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas A&M

B- = Creighton, Texas Tech, Denver,

C+ and lower = Baylor, Kansas State, Colorado, others.

Reinsel, couple others I run into Illanois who is an A. and Emy at I.St who is only a C+ I think but a great recruiter.