I'm about to lose 2 studly D2 Proj JUCOs in Smith to a B prestige D1. Fair play too, they are pretty nice. It's been happening a lot recently. They both could definitely get serious minutes behind more elite players on a 3 seed.
I always scout D2 JUCOs near me with Louisville. Great use of money compared to scouting outside of Top 100 guys 600 miles away I'll have to fight a B- team if they are half decent anyways. I got
this guy a few years ago. He's my third big this year on a 1 seed. I've lost 5 rolls in a row now for bigs, so I'm really happy I signed him.
My lack of interest in taking a ****** project I can get for free at A prestige D1 is pretty real. Every 4-year guy you sign costs you $9k and 1320 AP, vs every 2 year guy you sign costs you $3k and 440 AP. It's just not even a question if you want to compete. Ideally I wouldn't have to do this, and I could have at least 4 bigs 6 guards and 2 walkons on my team this year that are good players, but since losing 5 rolls in a row is a possibility I think it is a pretty good backup plan.
Obviously, as more people catch onto this it becomes a less effective strategy. Definitely don't want to have to battle other D1s for Proj D2 guys, given they are *rarely* that good... I remember watching from the sidelines in Tark when A- Oklahoma and B+ Ok State got into a battle for a pretty nice but not ridiculous Proj D2 JUCO. I was kind of like... really? That's how you guys are going to use your money?