Recruiting in D3 Topic

Hi guys, I'm just beginning my second season as Nazareth College in D3 in the Knight World and I have a few queries about recruiting.
In my first season I wasted all of my scouting money really quickly and unnecessarily. I scouted my state (New York) as well as lots of the surrounding states, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and International for D1, D2 and D3. Then I arranged my own camp and did an assistant search for 50 players. I also didn't scrutinise the players in my recruiting pool enough and brought too many of them up to Level 2 or Level 3 scouting. Eventually I had to recruit with only one player at Level 4. However, I managed to 'save' it and recruited two D1 rated recruits:
  • a Junior year point guard from Juco with 58 athleticism, 60 speed, 8 rebounding, 48 defense, 1 shot blocking, 1 low post, 74 perimeter, 53 ball handling, 42 passing, 76 work ethic, 67 stamina, 63 durability and B for free shooting. (Offense IQ = D-, Defense IQ = D-)
  • a Freshman center out of high school with 56 athleticism, 20 speed, 69 rebounding, 46 defense, 64 shot blocking, 33 low post, 1 perimeter, 29 ball handling, 42 passing, 44 work ethic, 68 stamina, 38 durability and a C- for FT shooting. (Offense IQ = D-, Defense IQ = D-)
How good were these two pick-ups? How should I develop them? And how could I best utilise them in my game plan?

This season, I've used up all my scouting money very quickly again, but I'd like to think justifiably so because I've put a lot of time scrutinising players and making decisions. This time I scouted my state of New York again as well as surrounding states, but less of the surrounding states than before. I also scouted Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and International as they're 'underscouted'. But I only scouted these regions at D1 and D2, rather than D3. We also held our own camp. I have 20 players in my recruiting pool with the blue icon next to them now. Half of them are American and have been scouted to Level 4, and the other half are internationals and have been scouted to level 2 or 3. All of them are D1 recruits. How well would you say I have used my $20,000 of scouting money?

I have 3 openings and want to recruit a Guard who's a good scorer, an all-rounder to play Small Forward and a scorer with strong defense to play at Power Forward (but perhaps isn't athletic enough to play as a SF), as I have a good rebounder and shot blocker in the Center who I recruited last season, so I want someone to complement him with. I have 80 attention points and a $4,000 recruiting budget to achieve this with. How would you use those attention points and recruiting money?
Apart from one 3* star recruit international SF, no one I've scouted comes close to the type of player I've been looking for ratings-wise from a Small Forward. How realistic is it for a D3 team to sign a star recruit? Surely if they're an international it should be easier due to less demand, right?

Many thanks in advance for your help!
5/2/2018 6:41 AM
You'll never get a three star
5/2/2018 6:57 AM
1st guy is meh. Doesn't do anything really well. Plus you usually want Jucos to already know your O/D since they're there only 2 seasons.

2nd guy is actually really good. I'd take him in a heartbeat. Start him right away to get his WE up and hopefully he will be 70+ LP by his Sr season and he will be great.
5/2/2018 7:33 AM
Your best bet is to scout D2 players or look for D1 recruits that could slip through the cracks. Doing so in the northeast is tougher than it would be if you chose a team out west, but you should be able to find a few high potential players that few other teams bothered scouting.
5/2/2018 10:29 AM
This is how I recruit in Div III these days. Scout 6-7 states around you in DIV I. I throw out flyers of 1-2 AP points to DIV I players I think will fall through the cracks. Don't mess with anyone in the top 300. But anyone in the 100-200 ranked in their positions or lower that fit your core criteria. Choose ones with at least WE of 30. Give those 1-2 AP points to as many of those players as you can. After every time processing of points, take away those points of players that have human coaches from Div I or Div II on them, or ones that dropped to low or Very low. As long as you are at moderate, you are fine.

Slowly increase AP points to the players nobody has anyone on them. Other than offering schollies, I don't spend ANY of my recruiting money until the last day of the first session. And then it is just one Home Visit. By the time of the first day of the second session, you should have enough guys at moderate to fill your schollies and a few backups. Because DIV I and Div II humans will come calling to some of them. If they do, don't battle. Just move on with the ones that are at moderate. You can beat DIV I SIMS, but only if they show up late.

They usually sign with your AP points, schollie, 2 HV's, and a campus visit. If you choose the right players to spend that money on at the right time, you will be in good shape.

5/2/2018 11:09 AM (edited)
Point of order, this is not the CoachWard we all know and love. Frankly, I’m a little disappointed in the interpretation here, there should be at least one link to a YouTube channel.
5/2/2018 11:10 AM
Don't worry shoe, I still give good WIS advice when I delivery my pizzas. : )
5/2/2018 11:31 AM
Posted by CoachWard2 on 5/2/2018 11:31:00 AM (view original):
Don't worry shoe, I still give good WIS advice when I delivery my pizzas. : )
A little better. At least you’re trying now.
5/2/2018 11:53 AM
Posted by Benis on 5/2/2018 7:33:00 AM (view original):
1st guy is meh. Doesn't do anything really well. Plus you usually want Jucos to already know your O/D since they're there only 2 seasons.

2nd guy is actually really good. I'd take him in a heartbeat. Start him right away to get his WE up and hopefully he will be 70+ LP by his Sr season and he will be great.
I want to second this. One of the first lessons to learn in HD is to first focus on "what does this player do well?" It's not enough to have a guy who isn't terrible at anything. Every player on the court should have a skill that they do very well, whether it is scoring, ball-handling, rebounding, defense, shot blocking, etc. Your PG's speed and perimeter are acceptable, but not game-breaking. Experienced coaches would say they would rather have a PG that has 90 spd, 90 ball handling and 10 perimeter than a PG that goes 60-60-60. The speed and ballhandling means the 90-90-10 guy will break a press defense really well and not turn over the ball, while the 60-60-60 guy is just kinda generally mediocre at everything.

Also, you are running zone. You want to pay special attention to your average ATH-SPD-DEF of every player on the floor since zone runs off weighted averages. Think of it this way: at D3 you should want your starters to average at least 60 DEF. So you can take a 30 DEF guy who is an insane scorer, provided you find a 90 DEF guy to balance him out. You said you are looking for a good all-around SF; those guys are hard to find because they are prized in recruiting battles. I had a lot more success at D3 finding a guy with high ATH, good SPD, high DEF and either good PASS or REB who had low PER/LP. They served to increase my defensive averages, add some passing and/or rebounding, didn't need the ball and could be had without nasty recruiting battles.

Second thing to consider: potential, potential, potential. Don't focus on recruiting/position rankings (which don't weigh important position attributes over unimportant ones and don't factor in growth potential). Search the forums -- there are several explainers for how much growth you can expect from each color. Simply calculating a player's minimum expected growth in each category can help you make better recruiting decisions (one side tip: a green in low post or perimeter is great since with some players, there is no cap on growth -- I've had a PG go from 26 per as a freshman to 99 per as a senior; that's one reason I really like your freshman center).

Coachward is right on the mechanics of recruiting at D3. It is all about saving your recruiting resources and using APs to trawl every recruit that you think you might want to see who falls through the cracks. At D3, you are better off putting 1 AP into 80 guys than you are putting 80 AP into 1 guy. Think of APs in the first recruiting session as a price to find out who is recruiting those players.

I would stay away from the internationals/Alaska/Hawaii at D3. Yes, those areas are underscouted. But from Rochester, those places are very expensive to scout and recruit. Going there is a bit like driving across town to buy gas because it is 8 cents cheaper at that gas station. Yeah, the gas is cheaper, but you squander the savings away by driving across town to get it. Your resources at D3 are so limited that you want to use them in the most cost-effective way possible (Canada is the exception for you since some guys might be pretty close by). Only go bargain hunting in Alaska if nothing else has panned out and you have the resources left over to do it. I bet you get more bang for your buck scouting Wisconsin or Indiana than you do AL/HI/INTL.
5/2/2018 6:26 PM
grimace is preaching from the HD bible. Be smart, conserve, be “fiscally responsible” with scouting budget and cast a wide net in your area. I’m not one of the coaches that scouts coast to coast so that’s for someone else to address, but for Dlll maximize what’s around you for FSS, camps, asst search etc. Chapeline has a great tip in his pinned 3.0 blog: for quick recruit info, host your camp (usually max players but up to you), FSS the states around you (or as far as your budget allows, send AC at least once.)
I have not done Dlll in 3.0, but I would send AC to scout Dll only. Again not being familiar with Dlll but have played forever, I would send him to scout Dl in your home state and a few others very close to you. Anyway I would recruit up, and like grimace said put one AP on the guys you think you could land but want to see what the market thinks of them. Put more points on the high potential, more local guys to get that scholly unlocked. Grimace is right you want a big board of recruits working, a full pipeline. Color code recruits (blue: high, green: maybe, yellow: juco, red: international—that’s what I do, you make up your own). Don’t start scouting up players individually until camps and AC are done. Then go look at your board. Evaluate. See if you have prospects you like up to say 400 Miles, send AC one more time. After that evaluate and if you want, scout up players to 4 individually. Don’t do it if it’s clear (say he’s at a 2 or 3 and it’s clear his potentials suck or his WE is sub 30ish) his potentials don’t make your criteria.
I am impressed at your coast to coast take all comers strategy but may not be sustainable. Recruit up and also keep an eye out for that gem Dl recruit who falls to you at the end. Plenty of them out there. Good luck.
5/2/2018 7:25 PM
Just my two cents, haven't done a lot of recruiting in 3.0, but I have found a few gems in D3. Is it worth scouting? Maybe not, but there are some good guys out there.
5/2/2018 11:56 PM
Posted by billscnb on 5/2/2018 11:56:00 PM (view original):
Just my two cents, haven't done a lot of recruiting in 3.0, but I have found a few gems in D3. Is it worth scouting? Maybe not, but there are some good guys out there.
Only recruit D3 in your home State in my opinion. D2 any State that falls within 500 Miles (and maybe International). Any State D1 that falls 200 miles or less.
5/3/2018 9:04 AM (edited)
Here is what I'd recommend at D3.

1. Do home camp. If you have more than 2 spots, I'd do 200 recruits. Invite D2 players only.

2. Do the scouting services for the states of the players that show up to your camp. These are typically 5-8 states nearby but depends on your school location. This gets you to about 70ish players to Level 3 which is what you need to know to determine if he's a worthwhile recruit or not.

3. You will likely have several thousand left. Hang on to this money or scout some more guys that are level 2 to level 3 or level 3 to level 4. Use the individual scouting, not asst coach.

That's basically it. I like to wait to bring guys to level 4 until I think I can actually get them. So I set my targets and then after recruiting starts I see how it's going for 1-3 cycles. If an A+ D2 human jumps on one of my targets, I might back off depending on preferences, openings, distance, etc. So if I scouted to level 4 on that guy right away to just back off, it's kind of a waste. But you can always scout to level 4 on these guys to really understand if he's worth battling for.

I highly recommend going for D2 players at D3 for new players. You can find good enough players to win and you probably won't get as frustrated with the system waiting until the last day of signings.

5/3/2018 9:25 AM
Recruiting in D3 Topic

Search Criteria

Terms of Use Customer Support Privacy Statement

© 1999-2024 WhatIfSports.com, Inc. All rights reserved. WhatIfSports is a trademark of WhatIfSports.com, Inc. SimLeague, SimMatchup and iSimNow are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Used under license. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.