Posted by skinndogg on 8/16/2017 5:40:00 PM (view original):
What is your opinion on the best way to rebuild these programs. Obviously, your prestige is low so it is difficult to go all in on top recruits is difficult.
So you just build slowly for 4-6 seasons? Really difficult against established teams in big conferences.
I think it a lot of it is luck and figuring out a way to win a few big recruiting battles. I think the key is losing as much dead weight as possible and than building your team up over a few years with back to back recruiting classes of four to five players.
You would want three of those guys to be solid/high potential guys that will be able to really contribute by the end of year two and definitely year three. Then, if you can win one battle each year for a guy who will get drafted and can start from day one you can do a rebuild in 3-4 seasons.
I took over a UCONN program that an human coach ran into the ground and had won a grand total of one game in three seasons. I obviously cut a lot of guys an didn't have much in that second session of recruiting.
During the first two seasons I gambled on two 5 stars and a juco stud and won each of those battles, despite having the odds significantly against me. These three with the addition of 4-5 solid/high potential guys allowed me to go from 3 wins in season one to a Final Four (lucky run) in season three.
My prestige now in season 5 at UCONN is an A- and I feel that UCONN is pretty much back.
So, long story short, in the new game I think you can rebuild a team quicker than in the old one because of the randomness of recruiting. But it can also be more difficult because those three wins were big time risks. I would have never taken them in the old game and if I had lost those three recruits I'd still be a terrible program now.