Staying close to home- an FBCB report

[collegesportsfanms]

Alright guys, while I'm waiting on the release of Total College Basketball, I've decided to do a makeshift dynasty report. Keep in mind, this will be a temporary dynasty report that will end when TCB comes out. I will do my reports month by month, instead of game by game. That way I can get more seasons in hopefully. I'm going to be starting at Wichita St., and will not be taking any job offers unless it is from a power school. I will be simulating all the games, but doing the recruiting myself. I'm posting this dynasty here, and on the FBCB forums. Hope somebody reads and responds.

[collegesportsfanms]

Hello everybody, let me introduce myself. I am Mike Schaplowsky, and I am the new head coach of the Wichita St. University Shockers. I have lived in Wichita all my life, and I was given the chance to run this team when former coach Mark Turgeon suddenly resigned, citing personal issues. My AD, Kurt McAfee, called me last night to offer me the job, and I took it on the spot. This is a great opportunity for me to make a statement. I hope I can do so. I have hired a fine staff of assistant coaches for this season:

My recruiting coordinator will be Charles Patterson, my lead scout is Andy Craig, and my coaching assistant is Andrew Cuellar. Here are the stats on each:

Charles Patterson - Recruiting Coordinator - Wichita State
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Age: 37
High School: Needville High School
Hometown: Needville, TX
Alma Mater: Arizona

Current Level: 2
Career Record: 0 - 0
Salary: $90,000

Recruiting: 62
Scouting: 48
Offense: 11
Defense: 19


Andy Craig - Lead Scout - Wichita State
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Age: 37
High School: Milton High School
Hometown: Milton, FL
Alma Mater: Xavier

Current Level: 4
Career Record: 0 - 0
Salary: $90,000

Recruiting: 37
Scouting: 61
Offense: 33
Defense: 49

Andrew Cuellar - Coaching Assistant - Wichita State
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Age: 52
High School: Bonneville High School
Hometown: Idaho Falls, ID
Alma Mater: Michigan

Current Level: 2
Career Record: 0 - 0
Salary: $90,000

Recruiting: 6
Scouting: 21
Offense: 50
Defense: 63

These guys are pretty solid. Not great, but they should lead me to some good recruits and a 15 win season. Mr. McAfee has said that I should compete for the conference title this year. I hope he's right.

[collegesportsfanms]

Scheduling and early-season recruiting:

June 2005

I received proposals from Texas Tech, Nebraska, and Tulsa. I have accepted all those, even though I'll probably regret it. I also sent proposals out to Davidson and Rhode Island.

July 2005

Rhode Island accepted my offer, but Davidson wants more challenging games. What an insult! We'll see who has the better season, then talk about challenging games. I accepted offers from Air Force, North Texas, and Oral Roberts. Those should all be fairly good games. Kansas wanted to come down and play us, and I accepted that one too. It's not often you get a team with the talent of KU to come to Wichita. That leaves us with 1 road and 1 home game to schedule. On the recruiting front, we only have 1 scholarship to offer this year, and it will probably be offered to SF Caron Baranowski. He is a 3 star recruit that has high interest on us. I've added him to the call list, and sent Andy to evaluate him. I also added 14 other players to our call list, and my staff will be working to evaluate them.

August 2005

On the scheduling front, I rejected a game offer from Minnesota. We already play enough power conference teams this year. I want my last 2 games to be against sub-par competition. Which is why I've sent out offers to Hartford and Bucknell. As far as recruiting goes, I've offered the scholarship to 3 star PG Bryan Fecteau. He has high interest in us, and I've sent Andy to visit him.

September 2005

Neither Hartford or Bucknell wanted to play us, but we did accept an offer from Central Florida, so now we just need to find one more road game. Fecteau is #1 on his list of schools, and he'll be visiting the campus soon. I think we'll be able to get him.

October 2005

Nothing new on the schedule front, Mr. McAfee said he'd find us another game, since pretty much everybodys schedule is full. Onto recruiting, as Fecteau still has us as his #1. I'll be visiting him myself soon.

preseason- schedule and roster

Mr. McAfee got us a game at Harvard to round out our schedule, which looks like this.

Wichita State 2005 Season Schedule

Date Opponent Result Record
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11/15/05 Air Force (0-0)
11/19/05 North Texas (0-0)
11/23/05 Rhode Island (0-0)
12/01/05 at Tulsa (0-0)
12/10/05 at Northern Iowa (0-0)
12/15/05 Northern Iowa (0-0)
12/17/05 Central Florida (0-0)
12/19/05 Oral Roberts (0-0)
12/21/05 Kansas (0-0)
12/28/05 at Texas Tech (0-0)
12/30/05 at Nebraska (0-0)
01/05/06 at Southern Illinois (0-0)
01/07/06 at Bradley (0-0)
01/10/06 Drake (0-0)
01/12/06 Indiana State (0-0)
01/14/06 at Creighton (0-0)
01/16/06 at Harvard (0-0)
01/19/06 Bradley (0-0)
01/26/06 at Drake (0-0)
01/28/06 at Southwest Missouri State (0-0)
02/02/06 Southern Illinois (0-0)
02/04/06 at Evansville (0-0)
02/07/06 at Illinois State (0-0)
02/09/06 Creighton (0-0)
02/16/06 Illinois State (0-0)
02/18/06 Southwest Missouri State (0-0)
02/23/06 at Indiana State (0-0)
02/25/06 Evansville (0-0)

Not a bad schedule, lots of challenges on there. Now let's look at the roster:
Wichita State Roster

# Name Pos Cl Ht Wt Hometown
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51 Paul Miller C Fr 6'10" 254 Atchison, KS
24 Jamie Sowers SF So 6' 7" 205 Newton, KS
4 Aaron Hogg SG Jr 6' 6" 195 Topeka, KS
14 Jamar Howard SF So 6' 5" 184 Monroe, LA
35 Randy Burns PG So 5'11" 179 Deer River, MN
13 Rob Kampman SF Fr 6' 8" 190 Belle Plaine, KS
34 Emmett Lajoie C So 6'10" 263 Great Bend, KS
45 Jerome Holman PG Jr 5'10" 180 Salina, KS
15 Brett Wise PF Jr 6' 7" 210 Osceola, WI
23 Matt Clark PG Jr 6' 0" 174 Ellinwood, KS
5 Andy Wachter PG Fr 5'11" 155 Hoffman Estates, IL
55 Craig Steven SG Sr 6' 2" 179 Pendleton, IN
1 Cameron Ledford PG Fr 6' 0" 170 Salina, KS
21 Nick Rogers SG Fr 6' 2" 194 Larned, KS
53 Zach Simmons SF Fr 6' 7" 190 Gardner, KS

A very solid roster, with lots of underclassmen. In fact, there is only one senior on the roster, and that is Craig Steven. The starting lineup for at least our first game is as follows:

C- Paul Miller
PF- Jamie Sowers
SF- Aaron Hogg
SG- Jamar Howard
PG- Randy Burns

[collegesportsfanms]

Season begins- Nov. 2005

11/15/05 Air Force (1-4) W 77-66 1-0
11/19/05 North Texas (0-4) W 78-40 2-0
11/23/05 Rhode Island (2-1) W 91-82 3-0

So a great start to the season, as we beat 2 teams in solid mid-major conferences, and slaughtered North Texas. My starting 5 has logged most of the minutes, and we are being led by Burns and Hogg, who have combined for 37 points combined. Some bad news coming out of the month however, as Jamar Howard has decided to forget about his grased, therefore earning an academic suspension for the month of December. That's gonna hurt. We'll start Matt Clark in his place. Matt is a lights out shooter, and we hope he can give us a solid start every game.

In a bit of good news, Bryan Fecteau has signed with us. Right now he is averaging 6.8 ppg, along with 3.8 rebounds and 3 assists. Here is a look at him:

RECRUIT DETAILS

#45 PG Bryan Fecteau
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Height: 5'11"
Weight: 153
High School: Eunice High School
Hometown: Eunice, LA
GPA: 2.38
Test Score: 1030
Rating: ***

Attributes:
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Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
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Current: 41 35 28 36 49 40 26 45 26 42 28 23 18 90 20 56 44
Potential: C D D D C D B C C B D D

Season Stats:
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PTS OREB REB AST TOS A/T STL BLK PFS
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6.8 1.1 3.4 3.0 2.5 1.20 1.1 0.6 3.9

Shooting Averages:
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FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P%
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3.1 7.7 .399 0.6 1.2 .522 0.1 1.1 .091

Recruiting Notes:
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Qualified: Yes
Committed to Wichita State
Rankings: Southeast Region #53 Overall, Southeast Region #18 PG
High School Awards: None
Top 5 Schools: *Wichita State, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Fresno State, Iowa

A good pickup for us.

[collegesportsfanms]

Dec. 2005

12/01/05 at Tulsa (8-6) L 85-55 3-1
12/10/05 at Northern Iowa (6-6) L 86-77 3-2 (0-1)
12/15/05 Northern Iowa (6-6) W 67-64 4-2 (1-1)
12/17/05 Central Florida (8-3) W 90-70 5-2
12/19/05 Oral Roberts (5-6) W 72-62 6-2
12/21/05 Kansas (11-3) L 105-56 6-3
12/28/05 at Texas Tech (8-2) L 71-61 6-4
12/30/05 at Nebraska (5-6) W 86-84 7-4

As you can see, it was a bit of a tough month, with losses at Tulsa and Northern Iowa to start the month. But we turned around and put on a 3 game winning streak, including winning the conference rematch with Northern Iowa, and beating a pretty solid C. Florida team. Then we had to play Kansas, which was ranked #7 at the time, and yeah, it was ugly. As bad as we looked against Kansas, we looked much better against a Texas Tech team that should be ranked, only losing by 10. We finished off the month with a hard fought 86-84 victory at Nebraska. Matt Clark did a great job in place of Jamar Howard, averaging about 12.5 ppg in the month of December. And thankfully we get Jamar back. But now we've got 2 more guys that decided not to meet the grades. Randy Burns, which is another huge loss, and Rob Kampman, who was pretty much our #1 off the bench. Fridge Holman will be the starting PG, but I would expect Clark to still pick up a lot of minutes.

[collegesportsfanms]

Jan. 2006

01/05/06 at Southern Illinois (10-12) L 117-87 7-5 (1-2)
01/07/06 at Bradley (12-9) L 89-56 7-6 (1-3)
01/10/06 Drake (9-11) W 68-66 8-6 (2-3)
01/12/06 Indiana State (13-6) L 100-83 8-7 (2-4)
01/14/06 at Creighton (16-4) L 104-96 8-8 (2-5)
01/16/06 at Harvard (10-8) W 88-67 9-8
01/19/06 Bradley (12-9) L 87-85 9-9 (2-6)
01/26/06 at Drake (9-11) W 90-75 10-9 (3-6)
01/28/06 at Southwest Missouri State (12-9) L 95-89 10-10 (3-7)

I knew that losing Randy and Rob for the month would really hurt us, but I didn't think it would hurt that bad. Southern Illinois and Bradley both embarassed us. In fact, Bradley beat us twice this month. We didn't have a really good win this month, due to the fact that the 3 wins we got were against teams we should have beaten anyways: 2 against Drake and 1 at Harvard. But 3-7 in the Missouri Valley is bad. This team has too much talent to be doing this bad in conference play. At least we got our full team back.. well minus Nick Rogers. But he doesn't play much anyways.

2005 Missouri Valley Conference Standings

CW CL Pct W L Pct
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Creighton 8 2 .800 16 4 .800
Indiana State 6 2 .750 13 6 .684
Bradley 8 3 .727 12 9 .571
Southwest Missouri State 6 5 .545 12 9 .571
Southern Illinois 5 6 .455 10 12 .455
Illinois State 4 6 .400 9 11 .450
Northern Iowa 3 5 .375 8 10 .444
Drake 4 7 .364 9 11 .450
Wichita State 3 7 .300 10 10 .500
Evansville 3 7 .300 6 14 .300

[collegesportsfanms]

Feb. 2006

02/02/06 Southern Illinois (14-15) L 87-82 10-11 (3-8)
02/04/06 at Evansville (9-18) W 74-61 11-11 (4-8)
02/07/06 at Illinois State (9-18) W 74-53 12-11 (5-8)
02/09/06 Creighton (21-7) L 111-90 12-12 (5-9)
02/16/06 Illinois State (9-18) W 89-81 13-12 (6-9)
02/18/06 Southwest Missouri State (15-13) W 86-80 14-12 (7-9)
02/23/06 at Indiana State (18-10) W 90-64 15-12 (8-9)
02/25/06 Evansville (9-18) W 90-84 16-12 (9-9)


Having all my key players back really made a difference this month, as we went 6-2, with an impressive win over Indiana St., who is currently 3rd in the conference. Unfortunately, we still looked bad against Creighton. Kyle Korver lit us up for 45 points in that game. But I'm happy, because we have a 4 game winning streak going into the MVC tournament, where we will likely play Southern Illinois again, and I like our chances. Unfortunately, if things stand they way they are, and we win that game, we'll have to play Creighton again. But I'm pleased with a 15-12 record thus far. I don't think it'll be good enough to make even the NIT though, as our RPI is only 128.

[collegesportsfanms]

Postseason Play

MVC Final Standings

2005 Missouri Valley Conference Standings

CW CL Pct W L Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creighton 14 4 .778 22 7 .759
Indiana State 12 6 .667 19 10 .655
Bradley 12 6 .667 16 12 .571
Wichita State 9 9 .500 16 12 .571
Southwest Missouri State 9 9 .500 15 13 .536
Southern Illinois 9 9 .500 14 16 .467
Northern Iowa 8 10 .444 13 15 .464
Evansville 7 11 .389 10 18 .357
Drake 6 12 .333 12 16 .429
Illinois State 4 14 .222 9 19 .321

We caught a big break, as Southern Illinois was upset by Evansville in their last game, and they drop to 6th. So we'll get SMSU in the quarterfinals.

MVC Tournament

Play-in round

(7) Northern Iowa- 85 (10) Illinois St.- 80
(8) Evansville- 73 (9) Drake- 67

Quarterfinals

(5) Southwest Missouri St.- 95 (4) Wichita St.- 88

A dissapointing finish to the season, and that will surely eliminate us from any type of postseason.

(1) Creighton- 93 (8) Evansville- 69
(7) Northern Iowa- 83 (2) Indiana St.- 64
(6) Southern Illinois- 76 (3) Bradley- 71

Semifinals

(1) Creighton- 82 (5) SMSU- 64
(7) Northern Iowa- 66 (6) Southern Illinois- 55

Championship

(1) Creighton- 105 (7) Northern Iowa- 73

No doubt who the class of our conference is this season, and they will probably be the only team to make either the NCAA or NIT this year.

MVC teams in postseason

NCAA Tournament

Creighton- #10 seed West

NIT

Indiana St. - #8 seed Midwest

MVC postseason results

NIT First Round

(8) Indiana St.- 102 (9) Hawaii- 83

NIT Second Round

(1) Boston College- 87 (8) Indiana St.- 55

NCAA First Round

(7) Oklahoma St.- 91 (10) Creighton- 68

Other Results

Syracuse beat Wake Forest to win the National Championship, and Georgia beat Boston College to win the NIT Championship.