College Hoops 2k8: A New Challenge
 

For those that haven't read the other thread, I was just fired from Princeton in my first College Hoops 2k8 dynasty. Now, I'm starting a 2nd attempt and hopefully with what I've learned, I'll be more successful this time around. I'll be simming the first season, but will probably start playing every other game in the 2nd season. This will really get going after the Missouri-Oklahoma game tonight, but here is a quick look at the settings as copied from the other dynasty. One advantage of having to restart is that I'm going to be able to use the 3rd version of the OS rosters which have named more (all?) of the coaches and also have re-rated some players who are off to great starts.

Play Mode: Simulation
Difficulty: Starter (default)
Half Length: 20
Simmed Half: 20
Game Speed: 40
Player Speed: 40
FT Difficulty: 50
Real FT %: On
Fatigue: On
Injuries: On
Team Unity: On
Sixth Man: On
Clutch Factor: On

All of the rules are at default. Fouls are as follows (may need to be toned down, because I set them with a perimeter based offense.)

Charging: 100
Blocking: 85
Reaching: 85
Shooting: 85
Loose Ball: 100

Shooting Sliders (All sliders are same for User and CPU except for the tendencies which are only for the CPU):

Inside Success: 48
Mid Range: 48
3 point: 48 (contemplating knocking this down to 45)
Dunk success and layup success are at default 50.
Close Shot Tendency: 50
Midrange shot tendency: 45
3pt shot tendency: 45
Drive tendency: 50

Attributes (again these adjustments are for both human and CPU):

All at default except for:

Ball Handling: 35 (I'm thinking about taking it down to 30 to generate more spontaneous turnovers. Not enough turnovers in this version in most games.)

Offensive rebounding: 45

Block: 45 (might take it down to 40 at some point.)


Gameplay adjustments (same for both sides):

Team Unity is at default of 100, but I've considered lowering it to 50.

All others are default except for:

Steal Success at 60

Help Defense and Help recovery both at 55.



Fitness (same for both sides):

I've debated at setting energy fatigue to 52, but I think I like it better at default of 50. Guys with 99 stamina can play a whole game, but will get very tired and play best when they only play 30-35 minutes.

Energy Recovery at default 50.

Injury Frequency and Injury Effects at 60.


As far as my coach, I'm going to be a recruiting genius to start. C- in all of my coaches attributes except for Charisma which will start at B+ and will hopefully help us attract some good recruits for our level. I'm starting at Nicholls State. I hire one coach who is a decent teacher and one who is going to be my primary scouter. Our non-conference schedule is rough, but I'm not going to change it for our first season.

The good thing is that we have a few good outside shooters on this team which should make getting some wins a bit easier. I'm going to sim our non-conference schedule, but if we aren't winning, I'll try to actually play some of the conference schedule to help protect my job this 1st year. I'll look at the roster during halftime of the football game.

A look at the roster (in order of best rated to worse rated):

SG Adonis Gray: 6'4 200 pound senior who is a rated 67 overall. He is from Shreveport, LA. A mediocre shooter but he an athletic slasher who is a good passer and a decent defender.

SF Ryan Bathie: 6'6 205 pound junior who is rated 64 overall. He is from Australia. An excellent 3 point shooter who is the best shooter overall on the tam. He is a mediocre defender.

SG Gil Verner: 6'1 180 pound junior who is rated 63 overall. He is also from Shreveport, LA. Another excellent 3 point shooter who is also a good mid range shooter. A decent passer and our best perimeter defender. He is quick and should be able to penetrate.

PG Justin Payne: 5'10 170 junior from New Orleans, LA. He is rated 61 overall. He is a very good passer who is very quick for this level of play. He is a solid defender and is the best hustle guy on the team. His speed should create problems for the opposition. He is a poor shooter which is his biggest weakness.

PF Joshua Johnson: 6'6 195 pounds from El Paso, TX. He is a freshman who is rated 61 overall. He is a decent scorer inside for his size. He is a good dunker if he has an open lane and is suprisingly decent at blocking and playing defense in the post. Very good speed for a PF but his size will be a limitation.

SG Michael Czepil: 6'2 180 pound redshirt sophomore from Australia. He is rated 60 overall. He is a good 3 point shooter and jump shooter. He is a great FT shooter. Good athleticism. Mediocre defensively.

SG Reggie Shanks: 6'4 205 pounds. He is a sophomore from Austin, TX. He is rated 58 overall. Mediocre shooter, but a good defender.

PG Bakari Lewis: 6'0 180 pounds. He is a freshman from Columbus, OH. He is rated 58 overall. Mediocre shooter but the best handle on the team. Decent passer. Good speed and quickness, ok defender.

SG Ben Martin: 6'3 170 pounds. He is a freshman from New Orleans, LA. He is rated 56 overall. A decent defender who is weak at everything else.

SG Anatoly Bose: 6'6 200 pound freshman SG from Australia(why does the team have so many players from Australia?) He is rated 56 overall. A decent defender who is also a decent ball handler. Not a good shooter, yet.

PF Dominic Friend: 6'7 250 pound redshirt sophomore from Australia. He is rated 55 overall. He is a decent inside scorer. He is a very poor ball handler. He is a poor defender. He is a mediocre rebounder. He has poor hustle as well. I just checked ESPN and all of these guys really are from Australia - odd.

C Mitch Boyce: 6'10 250 pound sophomore from Australia. He is rated 54 overall. He is a surprisingly good mid range shooter for a big man and is one of the better 3 point shooters on our team as well! A poor dunker for a big guy, he is a terrible ball handler. He is a poor defender. He is a bad rebounder. He is slow as well. He has horrible hustle.

C Chris Paige: 6'9 210 pound sophomore is rated 51 overall. He is from San Antonio, TX. He is a more physical player down low. He is also quicker. He is a mediocre defender.

With this roster, I plan on using a quick attacking motion offense that will fast break quite a bit. We'll shoot quickly if we get an open shot. We'll play M2M defense against most opponents.

With that roster, we only have 1 scholarship to offer this year. We have so many guards and outside shooters that I decide I'm going to focus on adding a big man inside. One player I will consider and scout more is Ronni Killingsworth, a 7'0 235 pound C from Irving, TX who is a 1 star player. He'll be our fall back option.

We also pursue our dream recruit - Jarrad Warzynski a 6'10 220 pound C from New Orleans LA who is a 3 star player who is ranked 15th among centers this year in the country. He put up 11 boards per game in the ABL and 12 points per game. I doubt we'll get him as he is actively being recruited by LSU. Our only hope is that they'll decide to go a different direction..

Our Starting 5:

PG Justin Payne
SG Adonis Gray
SF Ryan Bathie
PF Joshua Johnson
C Mitch Boyce (works better for our motion offense.)

SG Gil Verner will be the #1 option off the bench.
SG Czepil will also be a big option off the bench.
Paige will get some minutes as will Lewis.



Nov 9, 2007 -

We lose at Florida State 80-73. Gray had 24 points on 8 of 14 shooting. Boyce had 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting. Payne had 10 assists.


Nov 16 -

We lose at Tulane 90-70. Bathie led the team with 18 points. Boyce had 15 and Verner had 12.


Nov 19 -

We win at Cal in a nice upset! We won 77-65. Bathie had 15 points on 5 of 10 shooting, 4 of 9 behind the arc. Verner had 13 points. Payne, Gray, and Johnson each had 9 points.


Nov 21 -

We win at UC Davis 91-79. Johnson led us with 16 points and 11 boards. Boyce scored 14, Verner scored 13, Bathie scored 11, and Payne scored 9.

Nov 24 -

We win at Saint Mary's 61-58 but we lose Gray for 2 weeks due to an abdominal injury. Payne led the team with 13 points and 3 assists.


Nov 28 -

We lose at LSU 66-62. Johnson led the team with 15 points and 7 boards.


LSU has stopped recruiting Jarrad Warzynski but Tulane and UNO are serious competitors for him and we are a long shot to get him.

We are the only team interested in Ronni Killingsworth at this point.

Any conference info (best player, best pro prospect, ect.) and conference prestige?

Looking forward to the season. Four Australian players? Talk about a big recruiting budget.

Actually, looks like the current assistant head coach used to live and play basketball in Australia. Guess he is tapping into that pipeline.

http://media.www.dailyorange.com/med...-1121798.shtml

December 1, 2007 -

We lose at UNO 66-60. McCalebb their star SG had 14 points on 3 of 10 shooting, but 8 of 12 from the line.

Johnson led our team with 16 points and 10 boards. Boyce had 10 points.


Dec 8, 2007 -

We play at 6-0 Alabama. We lose 82-75. Bathie had 19 points and Verner had 17 to keep us in it.

Dec 11 -

We host ULM and beat them 75-72. Johnson had 16 points and 10 boards to lead the way. Bathie had 12 and Verner had 10.

Gray is healed and returns to his role as starter.


Dec 15 -

We lose at Lipscomb 64-54. Johnson led the way with 12 points and 11 boards. Gray had 6 points and 11 boards in his first game back as a starter.

Dec 19 -

We lose to UNC 99-62. Also we lose Gray to a strained Achilles. He'll miss about a month. Ellington had 29 points against us and Hansbrough had 22.

Bathie led our team in scoring with 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting, 2 of 5, and 3 of 3.


Dec 28 -

We lay at 7-1 Minnesota and lose 93-63. Friend had 11 points and 5 boards.


Dec 29 -

We win at UNLV 95-74! Every starter was in double digits and Czepil and Lewis off the bench as well. Payne led the way with 15 points and 10 assists. Johnson had 14 points and 10 boards. The speedy freshman small PF is thriving in our quick attacking offense.


Dec 30 -

We lose at home to Kennesaw State, 52-47. Johnson had 0 points on 0 of 8 shooting this game. Verner was the only player to hit double figures and he shot 2 of 11 but was 5 of 5 from the line. He had 11 points.

We are 5-9 heading into conference play.

Thanks for the link. I figured it was something like that.

Our conference doesn't have a rank yet, which is apparently based on last year's total performance. However, it is a small conference.

UT-Arlingotn is the leading scoring team averaging 76 ppg.

Sam Houston is the best rebounding team at 32.4 per game. They are also the best assist team at 15.4 per game.

The best player is center Chris Daniels at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi who is a 7'0 265 pound center who is rated 80 overall.

They also have the best freshman in PF Demond Watt who is rated 63 overall.

Northwestern State has the best shooter in PG Keithan Hancock. He is averaging 10.5 ppg.

Lamar has the best playmaker in junior PG Brandon McThay who is rated 67 overall.

Daniels is the best pro prospect. his current pro buzz is "dark horse." He is averaging just under 20 ppg.

Ryan Bright of Sam Houston State is the best defender. The senior PF is 6'6 210 pounds and is rated 78 overall.

Sam Houston State has the highest rated roster in the conference. We have the worst.

Just call it the "Kangaroo Club". Crickey!

Stephen F. Austin has the 2nd most talent in the conference and start conference play with a game at home against them on Jan 10th, 2008. We beat them 80-56! Verner led the way with 18 points on 8 of 8 shooting. Bathie had 14. Czepil had 18 points off the bench.


Jan 12, 2008 -

We travel to play Sam Houston State. We win 86-58! Czepil had 21 points off the bench on 7 of 11 shooting, 5 of 7 behind the arc, 2 of 2 from the line. Verner and Bathie each had 12.

Jan 17 -

We lose at UT-Arlington 77-74. Worse, Bathie hurts his knee and will miss about a month. Verner led the team with 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting and 6 of 10 behind the arc.

Jan 19 -

We win at Texas State 78-67. Johnson led our team with 16 points and 11 boards. Verner had 14 points. Payne was 3 of 16 but had 8 points and 8 assists.


It has become clear that we have no chance at Jarrad Warzynski. He is going to sign with Tulane or UNO, mostly likely Tulane. I decide to rescind my scholarship offer to him and go after Andrew Ike. He doesn't offer size, but the #50 PF in the nation is a terrific shooter. He is 6'6 195 and is one of the top shooting PF's in the nation. He averaged 12 ppg and 9 rpg in the ABL. TXST is our main competitor for him and he is responding much better to my recruiting visits. He is also a 3 star player.


Jan 26 -

We host SE Louisiana, the team with the worst record in the conferece. We win 68-62. Gray had 14 points on 6 of 12 shooting and Verner had 11 points.

We are now 9-10 overall going into Feb. More importantly, we are tied with Sam Houston State for the best conference record. If we can maintain this spot, we could get the 1st round bye in the conference tourney.


Jan 31 -

One last game in January as we host Northwestern State. They are 6-10. We beat them 94-89! Verner and Johnson each had 20 points for us. Gray had 13 as did Czepil. We are now 10-10 heading into Feb.

Feb 2, 2008 -

We host Central Arkansas who are 4-12. We beat them 65-57. Gray had 16 points and 9 boards to lead us. Johnson had 11 points and 10 boards. Boyce is fouling out too quickly to be a factor in most games. His lack of speed is hurting him in our M2M defense, but we go small when he leaves and it seems to be working.


Feb 7 -

We host Lamar. They are one of the most talented teams in the conference and they are 9-6 overall. We beat them 80-74! Czepil had 18 off the bench to lead us. Paige had 10 points as Boyce fouled out again. Gray and Verner each had 13.


Feb 9 -

We lost at McNeese State 88-55. Gray was 1 of 10, Verner was 2 of 7, and Johnson was 2 of 10 Boye led our team with 13 points on 6 of 11 shooting, but he didn't have enough help.

We are still 2nd in the conference standings.


Feb 14 -

We host Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. They beat us 78-58. Gray was 0 of 8. Verner was 5 of 15 and led us with 15 points.

Feb 16 -

We host UTSA. They are 11-6 and are 3rd in the conference. They beat us 71-68. Verner had 16 points but Payne and Gray were each 1 of 6.

Bathie is healed and will return to the starting lineup.


Feb 23 -

We play at 3-17 SE Louisiana. We win 77-62. Verner led the way with 23 points on 8 of 14 shooting, 5 of 10 behind the arc, 2 of 5 from the line. Bathie had 5 points in his first game back but only shot 4 times. Boyce had 11 and was the 2nd leading scorer.


Feb 28 -

We win at home against Northwestern State 94-76. Payne had 21 points and 7 assists to lead the way. Gray had 19 points off the bench. Verner had 15 points as he was 8 of 9 from the line.


We are now 14-13. Much better than I expected in our first season. We have 3 games left. I'll sim those and then I'll play the conference tourney.

Which school are you???

March 1, 2008 -

We win at Central Arkansas 65-48. They drop to 6-18. We get our 15th win! Johnson led the way with 16 points and 21 boards! He might win freshman of the year in the conference :)

He is averaging 8.9 ppg and 8.6 rpg. Not bad for a small PF. That makes me feel better about going after Andrew Ike although he is leaning slightly towards TXST. However, we came to him late, so maybe we can make up the last bit of the difference in the offseason.


Mar 6, 2008 -

We lose to the tough Lamar squad at their place 82-76. Payne had a great game and finished with 21 points and 8 assists. However, Verner was 4 of 11, Bathie was 3 of 12 and Boyce was 0 of 7.


March 8 -

We finish the regular season with a 82-75 win over McNeese State. Payne had 16 points and 7 assists. Bathie had 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting. Boyce had 10 points and Gray had 12 off the bench.

We finish 4th in the conference in the regular season and don't get a bye.. never mind, apparently, I was mistaken. There is no bye in this tourney. The #1 seed plays McNeese the #7 seed. The #2 Lamar team is playing the #8 seed Stephen F. Austin.

The Southland Standings:

1. Sam Houston State: 17-8 overall (14-2 conference)
2. Lamar 16-9 (11-5)
3. UTSA 15-9 (11-5)
4. Nicholls St. 16-14 (11-5)
5. UT-Arlington 15-10 (10-6)
6. Northwestern 10-16 (8-8)
7. McNeese 13-13 (7-9)
8. Stephen F. Austin 13-12 (7-9)
9. TXAM-CC 12-17 (6-10)
10. Central Arkansas 7-18 (6-10)
11. Texas State 8-18 (4-12)
12. SE Louisiana 3-22 (1-15)



Our first conference game will be against UT-Arlington. Ill play that tomorrow.

I'm Nicholls State - otherwise known as the Australian Junior Olympic team apparently :)


Edit to add: This is the team that I started my dynasty with last year in which I left this team for Drexel before going to Duke. I don't recall realizing I had all of this international talent when I played the dynasty last year on the previous version.

With one scholarship this year, will you work to "even" out the classes/scholarships?

BTW, what is your school nickname?

I'm not going to take any special steps to even it out, but if it makes sense, I'll redshirt guys to try to make it a bit more even. If I don't get this 3 star PF that I've switched to, I'm thinking about going for a transfer player which should make things even more interesting.

I'm in the middle of the game (up early in the 2nd half - pausing the game because one of the cats wants some attention and isn't going to wait for the game to be over :)) so I can't check, but I think we are the Colonials.

UT-Arlington has a very good PF in Vereen and they seem to have the crowd at Reliant stadium on their side, but we have some great shooters. I'm expecting a high scoring game today.


It is really nice to have so many weapons. We are up 38-34 today thanks to 6 of 12 shooting behind the arc. Bathie leads the team with 13. Gray has 9.


We are up 65-61 with 2:44 to go but they get to the line. Guignard their PG hits both FT's.

After exchanging missed baskets, Payne drives into the lane and draws a foul! He hits both FT's to put us up by 4 with 1:20 to go!

It remains 67-63 as we both miss baskets. With 17 seconds left, we get a board after they miss and they start intentionally fouling. Payne hits 1 of 2, but steals the ball after they rebound it. They foul him again. This time he hits both FT's! 70-63 with 13 seconds left. They miss a 3 and Payne gets the board! He is fouled but this game is over. They miss a last 3.

We win 72-63!

Payne was the player of the game with 15 points, 12 assists, 2 steals, and 2 boards. He shot 2 of 5, and 11 of 12 from the line as his speed allows him to penetrate at will against M2M and draw contact.

Bathie had 18 points on 7 of 21 shooting including 4 of 11 behind the arc. Gray had 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting, 1 of 1 behind the arc, and 4 of 5 from the line. Boyce had 9 points and 11 boards. Johnson was 2 of 8 and had 4 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal.


Darn. The game froze before I could save it in the legacy home screen. I think I had one freeze in this screen before. I have to remember not to go to it...

Just checked and the team nickname is the Colonels. Also, I found a conference rank now. We are 28th.

I'll replay this game later.

This time we couldn't stop their junior star PF Anthony Vereen who had 25 points and 12 boards. They win 81-68. Verner led our team wit 17 points and Bathie had 14 points and 10 boards. We end the season at 16-15. Not a bad first year to build on.

The 4 #1 seeds: UCLA, Memphis, Kansas, and Duke.

The Final 4: #5 Arizona vs #4 UNC and #1 Kansas vs #2 Auburn.

Kansas beats Auburn 103-71 thanks to 33 points from PF Darrell Arthur.

UNC beats Arizona 104-73 thanks to 39 points from Hansbrough.

Kansas wins the National Championship 85-73. Hansbrough had 36 points and 14 boards, but Kansas got 27 from Arthur and 21 from SF Brandon Rush. Hansbrough didn't have enough support from his teammates as no one else hit double figures.

Tyler Hansbrough wins Player of the Year. He averaged 26.4 ppg and 7.1 rpg.

Bo McCalebb of UNO won mid major player of the year with 24.9 ppg and 7.4 rpg.

Anthony King of Miami won Defensive Player of the Year. He averaged 2.7 bpg.

Hansbrough won Big Man of the Year.

Michael Beasley of Kansas State won Freshman of the Year. He averaged 19.2 ppg, 8 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.5 spg, and 1.5 bpg.

The All-American First Team:

PG Sean Singletary, Virginia 21 ppg and 7 apg.
SG Chris Lofton, Tenn 23.7 ppg
SF Martin Zeno, Texas Tech 17.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.5 apg.
PF Tyler Hansbrough
C Luke Neville, Utah 24.4 ppg 8.5 rpg.

Interesting Second Team:

PG A.J Abrams, Tex 19 ppg 4.4 apg.
SG Bo McCaleeb, UNO
SF Charron Fisher, Niag 22.3 ppg 9.3 rpg
PF Jason Thompson, Rider 25 ppg 12 rpg.
C Frank Elegar, Drexel, 23.4 ppg 9.8 rpg.

Freshman All American Team:

PG OJ Mayo, USC 14.5 ppg, 5.4 apg. He is projected to go in the lottery. It will be interesting to see if he stays around for a 2nd year this time around..

SG Eric Gordon, Ind 13.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.0 apg.
SF Bill Walker, Kansas State 14.2ppg 3.9 rpg.
PF Michael Beasley, Kansas State
C Deandre Jordon, Texas A&M 10.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg.


Sam Houston State ended up winning the conference tourney.

Northwestern's Coach was the coach of the year in the conference.

Ryan Bright, a SR SF from Sam Houston State was the player of the year with a 12.2 ppg 8.8 rpg.

Joshua Johnson from Nicholls State won Freshman of the Year in the conference! He averaged 8.6 ppg and 8.2 rpg.

First Team All-Conference:

Shamir McDaniel, SR PG from Sam Houston 11.9 ppg 5 apg.
Matthew Barrow, SR SG from Lamar. He averaged 12.6 ppg and 2.0 apg.
Ryan Bright, SR SF from Sam Houston State
Matt Kingsley, JR PF from Stephen F Austin. He averaged 16.8 ppg and 8 rpg.
Chris Daniels from Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. He averaged 16.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg along with 2 bpg.

Joshua Johnson was the only player to win awards from our team.

The 16-15 record has the AD pleased. My job security is good.

Adonis Gray is the only player to graduate. He was an important starter, but we have guys ready to step up.

I gained 4 attribute points. I bump Charisma up to A-, scouting up to a C+, and Discipline up to a C.

Interesting jobs opening up as Texas Tech and UConn's coaches retire.

I'm not in the running for any jobs yet.

Connecticut hires Nevada's Head Coach.

Texas Tech hires Davidson's Coach.

I decide to retain my 2 assistant coaches for now.

We don't get any transfers. Maybe I should have get an open scholarship offer... oh well. Hopefully, I'll get this 3 star PF I'm pursuing.

Actually, no good players transferred. The best player is a 58 rated PF named Ronnie Thomas who left Wright State from Princeton.

Darn, Andrew Ike, the 3 star PF I was pursuing chose to sign with Texas State.

As I expected, Jarrad Warynski signed with Tulane.

The 1 star C who is 7'0 235 is now being pursued by 2 additional schools, but I have a huge lead if I decide to offer him a scholarship.


However, their is a 3 star PF who I've been following who now has no other schools pursuing him except for us! He averaged 11.1 ppg and 8.4 rpg. He is ranked 407th overall and 74th among PF's Michal Lloyd is from Waco, TX and he is 6'9 222 pounds. He averaged 1.9 bpg in the ABL. Our scouts think his potential is only a C, but they think he is an athletic player with good rebonding skills and good intelligence who is a superior defender. We make him our top target as I fly out, visit with him, and offer him a scholarship on the spot.

After my visit Michal is close to signing with us. However, now Florida, FSU, Tulane, and ULM are all pursuing him :( I need to wrap him up before they steal him. We are his #1 choice by a wide margin, but I expect that won't last if I don't seal the deal within the next week or so...


I fly out to visit him again. I call him and email him.

Yes, a week later he signs with us!! A closer look at Michal's rating based on our scouts at this point:

Shot: C+
Skills: C
Defense: B+
Athleticism: B
Rebounding: B
Intelligence; B
Potential: C
Size: A-


With the small class complete, we start working on making contacts with some current juniors.

Thanks to guys like Bogut and the success of Australia in the junior international basketball ranks teams have started to dig recruiting pipelines downunder lately. There are a number of high profile Aussies in the college ranks (Nevill at Utah, Ogilvy at Vanderbilt, Aaron Bruce at Baylor, and Pat Mills at St. Mary's), but Nicholls State and St. Mary's have really outdone themselves. The two teams met for a two weeks ago (I think) with 9 Aussies in uniform between them.

I take it the 360 is ok after the cat scare?

Sounds like the skill ratings and potential don't match up.

Hopefully UConn and Texas Tech got good coaches.

The top recruiting classes:

Arizona, Maryland, Florida, Duke, and UCLA.


I decide to customize my schedule to be easy. We aren't getting in on RPI anyway, we need to win our tourney. I'd rather try for a strong record against some relatively weak teams.

I decide to attend the ABL and scout out the talent. I'll be playing every other game this year.

I decide to watch a game of a SF that I like to see if he could be a contributor on our team. I won't watch the whole thing but will watch part of it.


I watch a few minutes before simming to the end. Braxton is a good looking SF for a 2 star player. He finished with 11 points and 8 boards on 4 of 12 shooting.

The ABL is interesting, but it will be more interesting I think when I'm at a bigger school. I decide to sim it after all.


We have 3 scholarships to fill this year as Bathie, Verner, and Justin Payne are all seniors. We'll need to get some good outside shooters to replace them or we'll fall off.

A look at our roster:

PF Michal Lloyd comes into the season as our best player! He is rated 67 overall and has grown to 6'10 231 pounds. He is a better inside offensive player than I would have expected and is now our best inside scorer. He is a poor mid range shooter and terrible from the arc. He is a poor ball handler. He is by far our best post defender. He is a very good shot blocker already as well. He is a good rebounder but Johnson despite being smaller might be better. He has decent spped for his size. His potential is worse than we thought as it is now a D. However, he is good enough already to be a main force for us on the inside. He'll start despite Johnson's great year last year.

SR SF Ryan Bathie is now rated 65 overall. The best 3 point shooter on our team.

SG Gil Verner is also a senior. He is rated 65 overall, too. He is the next best 3 point shooter on the team.

Michael Czepil is a junior who is rated 62 overall. A good outside shooter but not of the same caliber as Verner or Bathie.

PG Justin Payne is rated 62 overall and his best asset remains his terrific speed.

PF Joshua Johnson is rated 62 overl.. He is now 6'7 205. He has surprising speed for his size that rivals some guards. He is a good rebounder despite his size. He is an explosive dunker. He'll get a lot of time off the bench.

Reggie Shanks is a junior who is now rated 60 overall. He is becoming a bit better at outside shooting.

Ben Martin is now rated 59 overall and has shown the most growth on our team. He has become a decent jump shooter.

PG Bakari Lewis is rated 59 overall and is a very sound ball handler.

SG Anatoly Bose is rated 58 overall and is showing signs of growth as he enters his sophomore year. I decide to redshirt him and see if he can develop into a good player by his Senior year.

C Mitch Boyce is now 6'10 265 and is still improving. He is rated 56 overall and remains a surprisingly good shooter for a big man. He may be the 3rd best shooter from outside the arc on the team.

PF Dominic Friend is 6'7 260 and is rated 56 overall now. He has really developed his offensive post game and is proficient at it now.

Chris Paige is 6'9 216 and is developing slowly. He is rated 53 overall.

Scooter Mallory is a walkon JR PF who is rated 50 overall. I don't expect him to get any PT.

Oliver Minyem is a walkon center who is rated 48 overall. He is 6'9 220 but I don't expect him to get any PT.

Adama Markham is a walkon freshman SF who is rated 48 overall. I doubt he'll ever play for us.

No, it is dead. I went out today and bought one of the newer ones. It is much quieter than the old one was, I think even when it was new.

I'll offer the old one to a friend who might pay to get it fixed.

I think the skill ratings are a measure of where he is currently. They are often off, but now that I've gotten a look at this kid, I think they were fairly on base with him :)

Except for his potential, which is worse than we thought.

A look at the Pre-Season top 10:

1. Duke
2. UNC
3. Memphis
4. Texas
5. Michigan State
6. Tennessee
7. Arizona
8. UCLA
9. Providence
10. Syracuse

USC is 15th.

Texas Tech looks like they got a good coach from Davidson.

Connecticut also made a good hire it appears.


The Pre-Season All-Americans

PG D.J. Augustin, Texas
SG Josh Shipp, UCLA
SF Tasmin Mitchell, LSU
PF Darrell Arthur, Kansas
C Kevin Love, UCLA

The Early recruiting is going very good as I've focused on a 2 star SF that I liked from McAllen, TX. Dante Newton is one of the best shooting players outside of the 4 and 5 star players. At first he was leaning towards UTPA or Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, but two visits later and an early scholarship offer have him moving us to #1 on his list. I think I might get him to sign during the early signing period in a few weeks. My high rating in Charisma is definitely making a difference in recruiting. The only bad thing is this kid is reluctant to shoot at times, but in 14 mpg in the ABL he averaged 6 ppg on 43% shooting.


I'm also heavily pursuing Van Plavich, a 2 star SF from New Orleans who is a good shooter. ALST and UNO are my top competition for him.


Our first game is on November 7th at Stony Brook. I swapped out a lot of games but will still be playing a lot of road games in non-conference play. Stony Brook is 0-2. Stony Brook is equal in talent to our team which has improved it teams talent rating to a 70. Our offense is better than theirs while our defense is slightly worse. Our team unity is better. We'll play this later this week.

How many scholarships do you have to offer this year?

3 - as the starting PG, SG, and SF are all graduating after this year. I'm focusing on getting two good outside scorers at SF/SG first and then I'll start focusing on trying to get the PG that I've been scouting. I'm looking for another speedy playmaker if I can find one.

I don't know how you feel about this, people might consider it a cheap tactic, but if you target a World recruit, say a **** one, that's even 30% interested in you by the start of the season, and continually phone him until offseason recruiting if no one else is interested, I'll almost guarantee you can sign him.

Just sayin'.

I actually looked at several world recruits considering our current roster of Australians. There are only about a dozen world recruits in this year's class and except for one who is a 1 star player, they are all being recruited by multiple big schools. I'm pursuing one in case the big names drop off. He is a PG from Australia which seemed appropriate with the heavy Australian presence on the team.

It seems to me your recruits are better this time around. Are you just going after better players or do you think it's just the luck of the draw?

I think maxing out charisma helped quite a bit. Also, I think I got lucky that the 3 star PF slipped through the interest of other teams until it was too late for them.

So, I just confirmed that the standing dunk bug is causing problems in my career. My young star PF has a standing dunk of 0 as do all recruits once they get on teams. Oh well, I'm going to continue this career despite that, but I'm now much less anxious to finish this season in a hurry as I'd like to minimize the number of draft classes that are effected and hopefully a patch will be out by the time that I get through this season.


The first game of the season is against Stony Brook.

Has a patch been confirmed, or is it just an assumption?

It's been mentioned by people "in the know" at OS, so I'm sure it will happen. Especially with 2ksports' track record of patching games in recent years.

Ok, so CH2K8 and NBA2K8 are definitely on my purchase list. Kool.

Hope there's a sale on them in the next few weeks.

Down 44-38 at the half. We are shooting 40% while allowing them to shoot 51%. Bathie leads our team with 10 points but he is shooting under 30%. We need to play much better defense. Our PG, Payne, is in foul trouble at the half with 3.


Payne picks up his 4th foul early in the 2nd half. I decide to try to let him play through it... he fouls out 2 minutes later with 16 minutes to go :(

We go with Czepil at the point.


With 3 minutes to go, Bathie hits a 3 to tie it at 76.

With 2:11 to go, Johnson gets an open lane and gets fouled on a dunk attempt. He hits 1 of 2 FT's to tie it at 77.

Their center Pitt hits a 2, and Bathie misses a 3 at the other end for us. They draw a foul and hit both FT's to take a 81-77 lead with 1:18 to go.

Bakari Lewis gets a basket on a nice drive down the middle of the lane. We get a stop with 44 seconds left. With 12 seconds left, Bathie drives the lane but has his shot blocked. They get it back and we have to foul.

They drill both FT's to make it a 4 point lead :(

Bathie hits a 3 with 3 seconds to go to make it 83-82. We foul immediately. They miss the first FT, but they get an offensive board! They miss the putback, but we get it as time is expired :(


We lose 83-82.

Their PG, Nick Carter, was the player of the game with 14 points and 10 assists. He shot 3 of 9, 3 of 5, and 5 of 7. He was faster than our PG and got us into a lot of foul trouble. Michael Tyree their SG had 19 points on 7 of 14 shooting including 3 of 5 behind the arc.

Bathie led us with 18 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 5 of 17 including 4 of 11 behind the arc. Boyce had 17 points and 8 boards as he shot 7 of 10. Freshman Michal Lloyd had 9 points, 9 boards, and 3 assists in his debut as he shot 3 of 6 and 3 of 4 from the line. Payne had 2 points and 5 assists in his 18 minuts of PT before he fouled out and Verner added in 14 points.


Nov 14, 2008 -

We play at 1-0 Belmont. We beat them 101-71! We had 4 starters in double figures and 6 overall. Payne had 14 points and 7 assists. Verner had 16 points and 3 assists. Bathie only had 4 on 1 of 10 shooting. Lloyd had 10 points and 5 boards in his 2nd game. Boyce had 11 points. Johnson had 12 points and 8 boards off the bench and Czepil had 16 points in 16 minutes off the bench!


Our next game is a very winnable game at Savannah State.

2ksports developers periodically post on OS and here is the latest post from one on the College Hoops team that officially confirms a patch is in the works. This post was in a thread about the Ivy League Bug:

Hey guys,

We have looked into this issue and a fix is on the way. The Ivy League bug where the same team makes it to the tournament is resolved in the upcoming patch.

I wonder when it will be released.

Does the game develop state/country pipelines?

I posted this in the general forum College Hoops class, but there is a thread that has been posted in by a developer on OS and they said the patch is "coming soon."

I'm not sure. I think there are pipelines, but I'm not sure. I'll check tomorrow night.

Interestingly enough, the top article on the SI NCCA mens BB page is about the St. Mary's Aussie Pipeline...didnt see a mention of Nicholls, but it thought it was related none the less.

From reading the boards at OS, I think I may have made a mistake on lowering the gamespeed and player speed to 40. I thought that would slow down all of the action and both sides would do less each possession keeping scores down even with 20 minute halves. However, multiple people on OS have pointed out that the game speed slider affects the speed of the game clock slowing it down and I see that in the help file as well. So, I'm raising that back up to 50 along with player speed.

Also, lots of the slider makers are turning up defensive awareness and I do think this is a good idea. Most are going with 70 or 80, but I'm going to start with a boost to 60 for both sides.


Now for our game at Savannah State. They are 1-3. They are a weaker team talent wise and team unity wise. Their offense is poor and their defense isn't any better. We should beat them without too much trouble.

We are up 33-27 at the half. We shot 39% for the half while they shot 32%. Czepil leads our team with 13 points off the bench as he is 4 of 4 from the field, 3 of 3 from the arc, and 2 of 4 from the line. Bathie has 9 as our other main scorer. He is 3 of 6 from the fiel, 3 of 5 from the arc.


I definitely like the feel of the quicker game and shot totals seem good. They have shot 25 times at the half while we have shot 23 times.


We end up taking control early in the 2nd half and never give it up. A solid road win as we beat them 68-44!

We held them to 29% shooting for the game while we shot 44%. We were 11 of 24 from the arc. They were 5 of 23. We were 9 of 16 from the line while they were 13 of 17. We had 50 shots while they had 51. We each had 14 assists and 5 turnovers (I might turn up steal success some more.)

We had 3 blocks to their 1.

Bathie was the player of the game. He finished with 20 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 6 of 12, 6 of 10, and 2 of 2. Czepil finished with 15 points, 1 board, and 1 assist. He shot 5 of 7. Lloyd, our freshman PF, finished with 16 points, 10 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He shot 6 of 7, 1 of 2 behind the arc, and 3 of 5 from the line. Boyce and Payne each had 6 points and Verner had 3.

Nov 19, 2008 -

We lose our simulated game at CS Northridge 86-74. Worse, we lose Joshua Johnson to a toe injury. He'll be out 3-4 weeks. Verner led our team with 14 points. Lloyd had 7 points and 11 boards.

Our next game is at 1-2 Portland.

Portland is a slightly more talented team than we are but their team unity is the worst I've ever seen. Hopefully, that will help us get the road win. Their best player is PG Marin Jackette who is a terrific freshman PG who we need to slow down.

An exciting first half in which we led by 8 at one point ends with a run for Portland that gives them a 5 point lead. We are each shooting 47% as both teams are better offensively than defensively. We are down 37-32. Bathie and Verner are our main scorers. Bathie has 14 and Verner has 11.


In the 2nd half, Bather and Verner both cool off from outside and their 7'0 center takes over the boards and that helps them control the game. They win 71-61.

Nik Raivio led them with 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting including 2 of 4 behind the arc. Their 7'0 center had 8 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks.

Verner led us with 24 points on 6 of 13 shooting. He shot 3 of 4 behind arc and 9 of 9 from the line. Bathie had 21 points and 4 boards. He shot 9 of 18, 3 of 10 behind the arc. Boyce had 6 points and 10 boards. Lloyd had 6 points and 6 boards.

They shot 43% as a team while we shot 38%. They outrebounded us 37-32 including 12 offensive boards to our 5.

November 26 -

We win at Louisiana Tech to advance to 3-3. They drop to 1-3. We won 81-61. 4 guys with at least 15 points: Verner had 15, Bathie had 17, Boyce had 16, and Czepil had 19 off the bench. Payne had 8 points and 9 assists on 2 of 10 shooting. Our next game is on the 29th at Florida Atlantic. They are 2-1.

Florida Atlantic is a much more talented team than I expected them to be and they will be a tough matchup. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up getting blown out, particularly since we are at their place. Their PF Carlos Monroe is very good and should be a tough player to guard for us.

We hung tough in the 1st half, but had to gamble and trap some to do it. We are down 37-30. We are shooting 33% while they are shooting 41%.

Bathie and Payne each lead our team with 7.


We were just overmatched. We pressed, but they broke it. We tried man up defense and they were too good. We tried zones and they busted them. They win 80-70.

They shot 47% to our 45%. They outrebounded us 36-31. They had 12 fast break points to our 2.

Paul Graham, III was the player of the game. He had 17 points and 2 boards for them. Monroe, their star PF had 11 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and 2 blocks.

Verner had 16 for us on 6 of 13 shooting. Payne had 14 points and 4 assists thanks to 7 of 8 from the line along with 3 of 6 from the floor. Bathie had 13 points on 5 of 15 shooting.

Dec 1, 2008 -

The first day possible, Dante Newton signs with us. He is a 6'5 193 pound SF from McAllen, TX. He is rated 708th overall and 156th among SF's. I wanted him because he is a good outside shooterHe also is a decent defender and has decent mobilty. He has poor potential and probably won't get much better, but I expect him to be a good enough shooter to either start at SG/SF or at least give some big minutes off the bench.


Dec 6, 2008 -

We play at 2-6 NJIT. As expected, we win 77-62. Bathie led the team with 14 points and 7 boards. Verner had 13 and Lloyd added 10 points, 6 boards, and 2 blocks.


Dec 8 -

The early signing period is over. We almost got another SF, but we couldn't quite wrap him up. Still, we are his leading school.

We are now 4-4. Our next game is hosting 5-2 Middle Tennessee.

No more?

Just been sidetracked by NCAA Football. I'll still be updating this, although I'm trying to wait for the patch before I get into next season. However, with 5 days off (and only visiting family on one of them) this upcoming weekend, this will certainly be getting updated along with my NCAA Football dynasty.

Has the patch been confirmed? I haven't seen it on Operation Sports yet.

A developer on OS has said one is "coming soon" but that was about 2 weeks ago. I'm guessing it will be out within the next 2-4 weeks. The only bug they have specifically said it will fix is the Ivy League Glitch, but from past 2ksports patches, I would guess it will fix many things. I'm hopeful it will lead to the CPU reaching in more to attempt to steal.

Dola -

The developer on OS said today that the patch should be out in 10 days max as long as there are no unforseen troubles.

Thanks EF27, just read the thread. Now to wait for the fix list....

Middle Tennessee has quite a bit more talent, but we are at home and have better team unity so I think we have a shot. Their PG, Kevin Kanaskie, will be our toughest challenge to slow down.

Lloyd played well for the first few minutes, but with 14 minutes to go in the first half, he picks up his 2nd foul and I go to Friend off the bench.


We are down 36-29 at Kanaskie is hurting us from outside. They are shooting 54% as a team, but we are forcing turnovers and getting some rebounds to keep us in it.

Kanaskie has 11 points at the half. Bathie leads us with 8 but he is 2 of 7 from the floor.

They took control early in the 2nd half and never gave it back. 81-61 win. Kanaskie was the player of the game with 18 points, 5 assists, and 3 boards. He shot 6 of 11 from the floor, 4 of 7 behind the arc, and 2 of 3 from the line. Demetrius Green, their SG chipped in 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting and Josh Sain their SF had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting. We did well inside, but those 3 were too much.

Bathie disappointed as he was 4 of 18 from the floor. He finished with 12 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. Lloyd had 13 points and 9 boards including 5 offensive boards which he mostly put back in. He shot 4 of 6 from the floor and 5 of 10 from the line. Boyce added 11 points and 5 boards. Verner and Payne each had 6 points. Paige was our leading scorer off the bench with 7.

Dec 13, 2008 -

Our simulated game is at 3-10 Utah Valley State. We win 71-52 as Verner led the way with 19 points, 5 boards, and 4 steals. He shot 7 of 16 and 5 of 9 from the arc. Bathie chipped in 16. Lloyd had 6 points, 7 boards, and 2 blocks.

We are now 5-5. Our next game is at 5-4 North Carolina State which is a much better team than we are. As a result, I'm going to sim that one, too. After this game, we will get Johnson back which will greatly aid our bench depth.

As expected, we get blown out 105-70. Ben McCauley led them with 23 points and 12 boards. Verner led us with 15 points and 2 boards. Dominic Friend broke his wrist during the game and will miss 4-6 weeks.

Our next game is hosting a 3-7 Princeton squad. We are slightly more talented, but we have better team unity and we are at home. I expect a comfortable win, particularly since we have Johnson available off the bench again. He'll play some 3, 4, and 5 for us this game.

I expected a comfortable win, but I certainly didn't expect to jump to a 20-3 lead. Verner came out on fire and I fed him the ball. Meanwhile, Strittmater seems to be their only consistent outside shooter in the starting lineup.


That type of dominance didn't last, but the early burst kept us comfortably in the lead throughout the 1st half. 43-27 at the half. Johnson has 13 points and is the player of the half. He is dominating their 2nd string. He played mostly SF and PF during 10 minutes off the bench. He shot 4 of 5 and 4 of 4 from the line. Verner cooled off after the hot start and is now 3 of 9 from the floor. He has 9 points at the half and Bathie has 8.

An easy win, 84-54.

Verner was the player of the game. He finished with 20 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and a steal. He shot 6 of 14, 6 of 10, and 2 of 2.

Joshua Johnson had 18 points, 3 boards, and 2 steals off the bench. He shot 6 of 11, 1 of 1, and 5 of 6. Bathie added 13, Boyce 11, and Lloyd 8. Lloyd also had 4 boards, 2 assists, and 3 steals for one of his more well rounded games. If we can keep our starting 5, Johnson, and Czepil healthy, I think this team can do some damage in conference play.

Our next game is hosting a 6-8 CSU Bakersfield team that is slightly more talented than we our. We beat them 67-65. Bathie had 15 points. Joshua Johnson had 7 points and 13 boards off the bench. Boyce fouled out in 8 minutes which led to Johnson and Lloyd sharing a lot of the duties at C when Paige wasn't playing there. Paige finished with 7 ponts, 3 boards, and 2 blocks in 21 minutes.

Our next game is against 4-7 Stetson which I'll play later this week.

Sounds like your a year or two away.

Is the patch out? I hope to pick up the game after the new year (yes, I got the 360 along with two games, one Marvel game (which I'll trade in) and Forza Motorsports 2. Another blow to Missouri B-ball fan. :)

Nope, no patch out yet.

Any word when it will come out?

On December 20th, the developers said it should be out within 10 days unless an unforseen problem comes up. I'm guessing this Thursday.

I think next year we'll probably drop off with Bathie and Verner's shooting being gone from the team and Payne's speed and penetration missing. None of the 3 guys I'm recruiting are likely to be good shooters off the bat, I'm just hoping they can develop into good shooter. Now, in 2 years with a fully mature Lloyd and Johnson down low, I like our chances if we can surround them with some shooters.

Speaking of developing players, how hard is it to do?

I know in NBA, I could draft a solid player, then train him to become the player I wanted/needed. If I needed a shooter, draft a decent shooter, then train him like crazy and he'd become a very good one by the end of the first season. After he got too expensive and I needed to cut salary, trade for a high draft pick, wash, rinse, repeat.

Have you imported a class into NBA yet? Did they fix the bug where the colleges didn't import correctly, or was that just on the XBox in 2K7?

I haven't imported any classes yet, but from Ironhead's work which I respect, I'm sure that the import process still has flaws.

College Hoops has the hardest drill training system that I've seen. With the exception of the passing drill and the rebounding drill, I can't complete hardly any of them with my guys. I imagine it might be easier if I had a stud, but the higher a guy's rating is in a category, the less of an improvement he gets from completing a drill. For example, my 61 passer gets 3/10's of a passing point if he completes the passing drill but my 80 rated passer only gets 1/10 or something like that. The shooting drills are very hard to complete as you need to be nearly perfect to get them done in time and with a high enough score. It's gotten to the point where I don't even try them often. However, the new scheme for dictating what each guy practices seems to be effective. The guards that I have told to focus on shooting seem to be doing nicely at improving their outside shots.

You're at exactly the same point I am with the drills. I haven't messed with them at all this season. I took my best 3 point shooter(rated 80) and ran the 3 point shooting drill about 20 times in my first season and a half, and completed it maybe 3 times.

I haven't messed with the practice scheme though, I'll have to check that out next time I play. do you see any negatives from it when you tell a guy to neglect one area in favor of another?

What import flaws have you heard about? Something minor like hairstyle and college attended (annoying, but still minor), or something major like ratings glitches?

I haven't looked at it in depth, but it appears that other areas improve more slowly if you focus on one area, however, it isn't drastic. With low quality guys, which is what I mostly have, they'll gain about 2-3 points in the areas I tell them to focus on while the guys that I have stick to a general plan will gain about a point in all areas. Maybe, I'll notice a more drastic difference when I get higher quality players.


If I recall correctly, players were importing with low ratings (like the created players in NBA 2k8) with things such as quickness and speed being too low for guards, dunking too low for some players, etc. Also, in latter years, any created players in College Hoops who went into an NBA 2k8 career wouldn't have any shooting tendencies. This wasn't a problem with the original athletes that ship with the game. I'm hoping the patch might address some of these things, but I'm not counting on it.

The only drills that I can complete are the attack basket, passing,stealing, and rebounding. I would have no problem completing the shooting drills if it wasn't for the stupid time limit. I just don't see why there should be a time limit.

Stetson is slightly less talented than we our, but they have better team unity. Being at home, I expect us to pull out a win here. We have to stop their SG Kris thomas who is a talented senior.

It was a sedate first half until about 9 minutes left when they started pressing and running. As a result, we both jacked up our offensive tempo and it became a high scoring half. Verner and Czepil took over down the stretch of the 1st half and pushed us to a 45-41 lead.

Czepil is the player of the half. He has 13 points on 4 of 4 shooting, 3 of 3 behind the arc, and 2 of 2 from the line. Verner and Bathie each have 8.


A crazy ending to this game. We were up 80-76 with 55 seconds to go, but a careless pass led to a turnover and a quick 3 with 42 seconds left.

We worked the ball around the court until 2 seconds left on our next possession, but Bathie missed a 3. That gave them the ball with 7 seconds and they raced down the court, threw a cross court pass into the right corner and their star SG drilled the 3 for the win as the buzzer expired. 82-80 loss :(

Thomas hit the game winner and was the player of the game. He finished with 25 points as he was only 3 of 9 from the arc but 10 of 19 overall. He was aided by PG Brandon Williams who had 16 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals.

We wasted a masterful performance by Czepil off the bench who had 27 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists on 9 of 12 shooting including 7 of 8 behind the arc in just 22 minutes.

Verner had 15, Bathie 10, and Johnson 7 to round out our top scorers.

That loss drops us to 7-7.

The top 10 in the media poll heading into the 2009:

1. Duke 13-1
2. Providence 13-0
3. Texas 12-1
4. Michigan State 13-2
5. UNC 9-2
6. Louisville 13-1
7. UCLA 11-2
8. Auburn 13-1
9. Memphis 7-2
10. Stanford 12-2




Jan 8, 2009 -

We open our Conference play with a game at home against 3-6 McNeese State. We blow them out 98-67. Verner had 20 points, Boyce had 19, Johnson had 15, and Lloyd added 8 points and 10 boards.

Our next game is at 4-6 Northwestern State. I'll play that later tonight or tomorrow.

Northwestern State is slightly more talented than we are, but they have horrible team chemistry. Their freshman center, Darren Admundson is a 6'10 290 pound beast who is talented and should be dominant in this conference including against us.

A hard fought 1st half has us down 35-29. They have held us to 24% shooting while shooting 40%. We are getting to the FT line a large amount which is keeping us in it. Lloyd is our leading scorer with 7 points including 3 of 3 from the line. Bathie and Verner each have 5. Their SF Chris Clark has 13 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. We got Admundson into foul trouble early and he only played 5 minutes in the first half during which he had 2 points and 2 boards.

It became very ugly in the 2nd half, as we stopped drawing fouls and they started getting clean blocks. They cruised to a 78-57 win.

We shot 27% while they shot 43%. C.J. Clark led them with 17 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Verner was our leading scorer with 14 points. Lloyd had 9 points, 8 boards, and 2 blocks.


I've heard people raving about this slider set on OS and despite getting my butt handed to me on Starter, I'm going to give Heelfans's sliders a shot with a few slight modifications that I believe will allow them to work well with full 20 minute halves like I like. I'm also continuing my downward tweak to ball handling and blocking which he leaves at default.

Jan 15, 2009 -

We win at Texas State 90-76 but suffer a costly injury as Mitch Boyce will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist. His shooting touch from the outside was a big part of our offense, but we'll go to a more traditional look with Paige moving into the starting lineup.

Verner was our leading scorer with 17 points while Czepil had 15.

Our next game s at Central Arkansas. They are 7-6. They are about equal in talent with a worse offense than us but a better defense. Their SF Mitch Rueter is one of their best players but he isn't as good as most of the top players we've faced lately.

I'd be curious to see what else you've modified in addition to his sliders. I saw your post on operationsports, I've been ranting a bit on team defense in my dynasty, it sounds like this might be a good change to make.

Well I've enjoyed the first half of this game much more than I have lately. We actually played defense with these sliders. Up 34-18 at the half as Bathie and Verner have both been on fire. Also with these sliders, the CPU is actually getting some steals, although it is mostly (entirely?) from playing the passing lanes. Still, definitely more enjoyable. Also, they are working it into their center more. The last team didn't use their star center enough. Their center is their leading scorer with 8 points and 5 boards.

Bathie leads us with 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting. Verner has 8 points on 4 of 6 shooting. We've held them to 30% shooting while shooting just under 50% ourselves.

They play better in the 2nd half as their defense toughens up, but Bathie kept drilling shots and led us to the 56-44 victory.

Their center, who is their 2nd best player, had 10 points and 10 boards to lead their team.

Bathie was the player of the game. He finished with 26 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists. He shot 10 of 19 including 6 of 14 behind the arc.

Verner and Czepil each had 12. Lloyd finished with 2 points, 8 boards, and a block.

That win raised our record to 10-8. We are currently listd as 1st in the Southland, although we are 2nd in conference record.

1. Nicholls St. 3-1/10-8
2. Northwestern State 3-0/6-6
3. Texas State 2-2/7-5
4. TXAM-CC 2-0/7-8
5. SE Louisiana 2-1/5-6
6. Central Arkansas 2-2/7-7
7. Sam Houston State 2-1/4-8
8. UT-Arlington 1-3/2-12
9. McNeese State 1-2/4-8
10. Lamar 1-1/5-6
11. Stephen F. Austin 0-4/3-10
12. UTSA 0-2/2-10

Jan 19, 2009 -

Dominic Friend is back from his injury and adds some needed depth with Boyce out.


We beat a weaker Stephen F. Austin team 93-61. Johnson led the way with 20 points and 10 boards off the bench. Verner and Czepil each added 15 points. Payne had 11 points and 9 assists.


Our next game is at UT-Arlington who have dropped to 3-13. I'll play that later tonight if the Colts ends up being non-competitive.

Only one game but here is what I used and really enjoyed. It only has a few mods from his:

Skill: All-Conference
Half Length: 20 (he has it at 16)
Simmed: 20
Game speed put at 50 as opposed to his which had it at 60 (to allow 20 minute halves not to give highly inflated stats)

Player Speed dropped to 40 (he has it at 50) to keep roughly the ratio he has. This allows for more fast breaks I think as the ball moves faster in relation to the players than default settings. It also leads to lower scores since players can't race down the court as fast.

He has fouls lower, but I think there aren't enough even with what I have now:

Charging 100
Blocking: 70
Reaching: 60
Shooting: 60
Loose Ball: 100

Everything else is at default except as noted below:

Human Defensive Awareness at 70. This is the key to his sliders I think. It's amazing how much better my guys play defense now. Of course, the CPU shooting sliders that he has helps too.

Human Dunk at 55.

I turned ball handling down to 35 for both sides in my set and I like that. It leads to a few more turnovers even if they are sometimes due to the stupid fall down animation.

I upped rebounding to 55 for the human, both offensive and defensive, as I think the CPU gives a bit of a boost at AC level.

I lowered block to 40 for both sides as default has too many blocks.

Human Steal at 55 as in his.

I upped Human Speed to 51 and dropped CPU speed to 49 as I've read and noticed that on AC it is harder to get fast breaks. That helps compensate for the slight delay I have when I steal the ball.

I lowered Team Unity to 50 as he does for both sides.

Everything he did is the same on this screen:

Steal Success, Help Defense, and Help Recovery to 55 for both sides.

From my previous sliders, I kept Injury Frequency and Effects at 60 for both sides. Injuries are still rare and usually not serious (many more when I sim games.)

I used his shooting sliders exactly:

Inside Success, Mid Range, and 3 pointer lowered to 45 for the CPU. Mid Range Tendency at 55 for the CPU, 3 point tendency at 45 for the CPU. Everything at default for the human.

I've only played 1 game, but it felt more fun and a bit easier than my previous sliders as my guys actually defended. Lots of guys over there have praised them, so I'm going to stick with this slightly modded version of them for the rest of this season unless the patch makes it necessary to modify them.

Time to get the UT-Arlington game in. Anthony Vereen, their SR PF, will be a tough machup for Lloyd. Their outside shooters don't worry me too much.

They play tough defense in the first half and we end up playing very even. We are both shooting 36% after the first half. We are up 28-27. Verner is the player of the half with 10 points. He is shooting 4 of 7 and 1 of 3 behind the arc.

With 4:03 to go, Bathie drills an open 3 to tie it at 59 in an exciting 2nd half. After we get a stop, Bathie hits another 3 on our next possession! Their SG misses a shot at the buzzer and we get on the break which Lloyd finishes with a monstrous dunk! 64-59! We get another stop as their SG misses a 3 and Czepil hits a 18 footer to make it a 7 point lead. He is now 2 of 10 for the game, but a big shot there. We exchange missed shots and they have to start intentionally fouling with 45 seconds left. We get it to Verner for the FT's. He misses the FT but gets a steal after they rebound it. They make a basket after we miss the Ft to make it a 5 point game. Payne hits both FT's to put it away.

Final score: 70-61, we win.

Bthie won player of the game with 20 points, 1 board, and 1 steal. He shot 7 of 17 and 6 of 12 behind the arc.

We held them to 39% shooting while shooting 45% ourselves. We were 10 of 25 behind the arc. They were 4 of 18. We each had 34 boards. We each had 6 turnovers. They had 8 fast break points to our 4.

Verner was our 2nd leading scorer with 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting, 3 of 6 behind the arc. He also had 2 boards and an assist. Payne had 3 points and 3 assists. Lloyd finished with 10 points, 9 boards, and 2 blocks. Paige had 8 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, and a block. Johnson had 6 points and 8 boards off the bench. Czepil had 5 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists.



Jan 31 -

We host Sam Houston State and lose a heartbreaker 64-63. Verner had 15 points, 5 boards, 3 assista, and 4 steals. He shot 4 of 10 including 4 of 9 behind the arc. Lloyd and Paige each had 10 points. Czepil had 14 points but shot 3 of 15.

Our next game is hosting Lamar who are now 8-7.

Lamar has a slightly better offense and slightly better defense, but their team unity is much worse and we are at home. Lawrence Nwevo, their senior PF, is a tough player who should be a good matchup for Lloyd. They also have good shooting guards.

They played a very high temp first half and it didn't work well early as we were up by 16 at one point, but our best 7 tired late in the half and they caught up a bit. 46-37, we lead at the half.

Bathie is the player of the half with 17 points, 2 boards, and 1 assist. He is 7 of 10 from the floor and 3 of 4 behind the arc. Verner and Czepil each have 8 points scored.

They tied it up at 64 with 8 minutes to go, but then our rested starters came back in and led us on a 13-0 run for the next 5 minutes. We used that momentum from the crowd to cruise to an easy victory in the last 3 minutes. 82-71 win.


Bathie was the player of the game with 22 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists. He shot 9 of 17, 3 of 6 from the arc, and 1 of 2.

Czepil added 21 points off the bench on 8 of 12 shooting including 5 of 9 behind the arc. Verner chipped in 15 points, 6 assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals as he shot 6 of 7. Payne had 5 points and 5 assists.

We shot 56% as a team today and held them to 39%.


Feb 7, 2009 -

We lose a game to 3-14 (now 4-14) UTSA 73-70 :(. Bathie had 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting, 6 of 10 behind the arc. However, Verner was 3 of 15 and only had 8 points. Paige fouled out in just 14 minutes.

Our next game is on the 12th against TXAM-CC.

Does this mean that CPU Defensive awareness is at 50 at this level? I had it at 60 for both sides on starter difficulty.

Yes, he kept it at 50. I've won my first few games but we have a lot of good shooters. If I start beating teams that I don't think we should, I might bump the CPU Defensive Awareness to 60.

So, what exactly is the change in your settings/sliders from the first post?

Most of them are different. I'll post a clean set of what I'm using the next time I play (possibly this weekend - depending upon what my wife has planned for my birthday.)

Ok, I tweaked the OS sliders just slightly more (by raising CPU shooting 1 and decreasing human shooting 1 as well raising CPU Defensive Awareness by 5) to reduce the human advantage as I was winning some games a bit too comfortably. Here is the most recent set:

All-Conference Difficulty
Simulation
Game Speed: 50
Player Speed: 40
FT Difficulty: 55
Real Player FT%: On


Fouls:

Charging at 100
Blocking at 70
Reaching at 60
Shooting at 60
Loose Ball at 100


Human/CPU

Inside Shooting: 47/45
Mid Range Shooting: 49/46
3 point range shooting: 49/46

Midrange Tendency: 50/55
3 point tendency: 50/45

All others on that screen at default.

Attributes:

Offensive Awareness: 50/50
Def Awareness: 70/55
Dunk: 55/50
Ball Handling: 35/35
Offensive Rebounding: 45/45
Defensive Rebounding: 50/50
Block: 40/40
Steal: 50/50
Speed: 51/49

Gameplay:

Steal Success, Help Defense, and Help Recovery at 55 for both. All else default.

Fitness:

Injury Frequency and Injury Effects at 60 for both. All else at default.


Now, onto TXAM-CC which is a more talented team but we are home and they have struggled on the road.

Lloyd gets into early foul trouble with 2 in the first 3 minutes. We put Johnson in at PF.

Balanced offense from us as Lloyd came back strong in the last 10 minutes with 10 points on 5 of 5 shooting while our outside shooters are shooting reasonably well. Up 35-24 at the half.

We've held them to 37% shooting while shooting 40% ourselves and we are outrebounding them 19-12.

We win 63-54 as Verner and Bathie hit big shots down the stretch.

Verner ends up winning player of the game with 17 points, 5 boards, and a steal. He shot 5 of 10 including 5 of 8 from the arc. He was 2 of 2 from the line.

Bathie had 13 points, Lloyd finished with 15 points, 10 boards, and 1 block. Czepil added 8 off the bench.

We each shot 37%.

Feb 14, 2009 -

We win our simualted game 82-76 aainst a 8-9 SE Louisina Squad. However, Chris Paige breaks his wrist and we are now down our starting and backup center. Johnson is an explosive player but is undersized to play Center. We'll move Lloyd to center and Johnson will go into the starting lineup as a small PF. However, we now are hurting for big man depth. Fortunately, Boyce will be back in 5 days and our next game isn't for a week. So, forget that. Boyce will start at C, Lloyd at PF and Johnson will provide high energy off the bench.

In the game against SE Louisiana, Verner led the way with 15 points and 4 steals. Lloyd had 9 points, 11 boards, and 5 blocks!

We are now 15-10. Our next game is at 6-14 Stephen F. Austin. I'll play that later tonight or tomorrow. Once the patch is out, I'm planning on playing much more. I just don't want to finish this season until the patch is out.

Stephen F. Austin matches up closely talent wise, but they don't have the outside shooters that we do. Jason Rogers, their SG, is their only dangerous outside shooter.

We started off with a 11-0 run as we held them scoreless for the first 7 minutes, but then they started trapping and pressing and it got them right back into the game as we turned it over several times. 30-26, we lead at the half. Verner leads our team with 9 points.

Lloyd with a huge second half as he was on fire down low and started drawing double teams and kicking it out for my perimeter guys. Thanks to their shooting and his play, we cruise to a relatively easy victory. 71-62 win.

Verner was the player of the game with 20 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 8 of 11, 3 of 3, and 1 of 1. He also held their star SG to just 11 points on 4 of 10 shooting, 3 of 6 behind the arc.

Lloyd had 14 points, 11 boads, 4 assists, and a block. He shot 7 of 10 (despite me lowering our inside shooting slider to 45.) Bathie chipped in 13 points and 7 boards. Johnson had 6 points and 13 boards off the bench while Boyce had 10 points and 5 boards in his first start back from his injury.



Feb 26, 2009 -

We lose our simulated game at UT-Arlington 74-65 as their star PF Anthony Vereen put on a clinic against Lloyd. He had 20 points,10 boards, and 3 blocks as he shot 8 of 17. Lloyd finished with 9 points, 6 boars, 3 assists, and a block. Verner led our tema with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting, but everyone else shot poorly including Bathie who was 1 of 13.

We are now 16-11. Our next game is at 10-13 Sam Houston State on the 28th. They are a team with poor shooting that we should be able to beat.

I really wanted to wait for the patch, but I'm jonesing to play after watching college basketball all day yesterday. So, now we face Sam Houston State. They are slightly more talented than we are, but their team unity is worse. However, they are dangerous at their arena. Lebron Ruffin is a talented SF that we will have to guard carefully.

In my perpetual tweaking of sliders, I bumped defensive awareness down a bit for both sides as we were actually defending too well since we are a very poor defensive team ratings wise.


A high tempo first half has us down 42-41. We are shooting 60% while they are shooting 48%. Verner is leading the way for us with 12 points. Ruffin has 13 for them.

Verner with a 3 with 1:03 left to cut it to 5. Then, after forcing a quick turnover, Verner with a strong drive into the lane hits the shot and the foul! He hits the foul to pull us within 2 with 44 seconds to go!

Their center hits a little 4 foot turnaround jumper in the lane to make it a 4 point lead with 24 seconds to go. Verner with a bad play in which he steps on the line to turn it over. We intentionally foul, but they hit their FT's. Verner misses a 3 and the game is over, but we foul anyway.

74-68 loss.


Ruffin wins player of the game with 11 points, 8 boards, an 2 assists. He shot 4 of 11, 2 of 6, an 1 of 2. They outrebounded us 35-29 which was the difference in this game. We shot 45% to their 43%.

Verner led our team with 18 points on 5 of 11 shooting, 1 of 4 from the arc, 7 of 7 from the line. Bathie had 16 points on 5 of 10 shooting, 1 of 6 from the arc, 5 of 6 from the line. Lloyd had 6 points and 7 boards. Czepil had 11 points off the bench.

I'm going to play the next game rather than sim it as I'm anxious to see how it plays post-patch. Today, we play at Lamar, a team that is slightly more talented. They are small at the guard positions though and I'm hoping we can take advantage.

A strong first half in which our guards shot very well while providing solid defense. Bathie and Verner are leading the way as we are shooting 60% as a team. We are up 41-29 at the half.

On a side note, it is great to see the CPU players reaching in and trying to steal the ball. It makes the game more realistic playing.

We cruised through the 2nd half as Bathie was torrid in this game. Verner was very good as well. We played subs most of the last 6 minutes as it was well within hand. 85-70 win.

Bathie was the player of the game with 32 points on 13 of 19 shooting including 6 of 8 behind the arc.

We shot 60% for the game while holding them to 45%. We had 22 assists to their 20. We each had 4 steals (I'll probably turn the steal success slider up now that the CPU will attempt them. Before it felt like cheating as only I would attempt them.)

Verner added 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting. Boyce had 9 points an 11 boards. Payne had 6 points and 7 assists as his driving into the lane was much more effective post patch.


Our next game is the last game of the regular season before the conference tourney. That is against 8-17 UTSA.

Against UTSA, well be facing a strong PF in Antoine Dade who is 6'8 241 and is a crafty senior which should be a good matchup for Lloyd. Everywhere else, we outmatch them.

We were playing very well, but a very cold last 5 minutes of the half allows them to go on a 14-2 run that leads to being down 47-35 at the end of the half. Boyce is in foul trouble with 3 at the half.

Our cold streak continued early in the 2nd half and we ended up getting into a hole we could never climb out of. Very disappointing as we enter into the conference tourney. 86-69 loss. They had 11 steals to our 3 this game which was a big factor as well as the shooting.

Bathie was our only consistent scorer. He had 26 points on 8 of 15 shooting, 3 of 6 from the arc, 7 of 9 from the line. Verner only had 8 points. Lloyd ha 7 points and 6 boars but he shot 2 of 9.

We end the regular season at 17-13.

We face TXAM-CC in the 1st rond of the Conference Tourney. We beat them 63-54 back on Feb 12th.

A tense first 10 minutes with Justin Payne getting into early foul trouble. Bakari Lewis might be our starter next year, and he is going to get the chance to step up big here tonight.

A hard fought first half with both team having guys in foul trouble. We are down 31-28.

Bathie is leading our team with 9 points on 3 of 10 shooting. Verner has 7 points and 3 assists. He is shooting 2 of 4.


They start off the half with a 8-0 run, but after a timeout we respond with a 11-0 run led by Verner and Bathie. During the run, Payne got his 4th foul but Bakari Lewis is playing well.

Unfortunately, they get another mini-run and are up 56-53 with 10 minutes to go as Bathie has to leave the game due to fatigue. He was our main scorer during that run, so hopefully we can keep up.

With 6 minutes to go, we are down 65-62. Czepil misses a basket and Verner misses one while they get a slam and a basket to make it 69-62. Czepil finally draws a foul but misses the first FT. He hits the 2nd, but we have to get Bathie back in. Verner is getting tired so he might not make it through the stretch run..

Bathie misses a 3 and then we have an errant pass on a fast break slam... we are throwing this game away :(

Bathie misses another good looking 3 and they get a good drive for a layup to make it a 10 point lead with 2:40 to go...

I use another timeout to calm the guys down, but it is doing no good. The team is unnerved and we are falling apart. We can't hit a shot for anything. This talented team is going to fail to go the dance. With 1:27 Bathie finally hits a 3, but it is too late. We are still down by 11.

We lose 79-69 :(

Bathie finished with 30 points on 11 of 26 sooting including 8 of 19 from the arc. Verner had 13 points and 6 assists. He shot 4 of 14 including 3 of 6 from the arc.

The 4 #1 seeds are UCLA, Duke, Providence, and Texas. TXAM-CC ended up winning our conference. At least, I lost to the eventual champs I guess.

The Final 4 are:

#3 UConn which beat UCLA 67-57. #2 Washington which beat #5 UNLV 79-75. #3 Villanova which beat #5 Oklahoma State 73-71. Finally, #3 Michigan State which beat #8 Georgia 83-79.

Washington beats Georgia 85-72 to win the National Championship Game.



Ryan Bathie won Southland First Team All-Conference with an average of 14.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg, and 1.5 apg. Verner was 2nd team all conference with an average of 14.6 ppg and 3.4 rpg. Lloyd was on the Freshman All-Conference Team with an average of 7.5 ppg and 7.2 rpg.

Off Season:

Justin Payne, Gil Verner, an Ryan Bathie all graduated. Reggie Shanks a junior guard who I planned on starting this year quit the team due to lack of PT.

My job security is igh right now as we finished the year 17-14 and my career record here is 33-29.

Belmont offers me their head coaching job, but that seems like a lateral move at this point although they do have a very talented team for a small conference. Still, I pass. I'll leave, but only when it is to go to a bigger conference. I get offered multiple other jobs at small schools and pass them all up including Chattanooga and Boston University.


Now, it's time to recruit. The good news is that with Shanks leaving, I have an extra scholarship. I want to try to get a difference maker at C as far as size goes or a truly big SF to play some shut down defense.

The first day recruits can sign, we get our second recruit to sign.

Van Plavich signs. He is a 6'5 211 pound SF from New Orleans, LA. He is a 2 star SF. He is a decent shooter who has good athleticism according to our scouts. Post patch this could be better than I expected as driving is much more viable. Still, he is nothing to write home about and will hopefully only be a starter for a year or so until I can get a better player in to replace him as a starter. Next year, we'll be setting our aim higher. He is ranked 699th overall and 150th among SF's in the nation.

A reminder of the early recruit we got to sign:

Dante Newton is a 6'5 193 pound SF from McAllen, TX. He is ranked 708th overall and 156th among SF's. He is a 2 star player. Our staff believes he is a good shooter particularly from midrange.


After a week of recruiting, we get the other player we've been working on all year. PG Ted Swoger is ranked 616th overall and 142nd among PG's. He is a 2 star player from Houston, TX. He is a decent shooter with good ball handling skills and decent defensive skills according to our staff.

As I expected, the talented C from Austin TX that I was pursuing chose to sign with LSU. So, I decide to go after a C with some size with that extra scholarship rather than focusing on the most talented player. Damarcus Weatherspoon is a 7'0 250 pound C from Overland Park, KS who is a 1 star Center who is unranked. Only WIU is pursuing him and they haven't offered a scholarship.


In the 2nd to last week of recruiting, we get Damarcus to sign with us.
Our staff thinks he is slow, can't shoot, doesn't play defense well, but he can rebound, block the ball decently, and he can dunk it decently.

A look at the roster in the new year:

SO PF Michael Lloyd - Rated 68 overall and our undisputed star of the team with the graduation of our outside shooters. We are going to have to be a grind it out team and Lloyd will be a big part of that. He is now 6'11 236 pounds and we'll pound it inside to him. He has the ability to be a 16-10 guy this year at least.

JR PF Joshua Johnson - Rated 65 overall. I'm tempted to play him as an athletic big SF. He has the quickness to pull it off despite being listed as a PF. However, that would really weaken our bench as he is explosive as a quick PF that most PF's can't guard. He'll likely stay as our main guy off the bench playing both PF and SF, but if our other guys fail to step up, he'll slide into the starting lineup.


SR SG Michael Czepil - Rated 64 overall. He isn't the shooter that either Bathie or Verner was, however, he is a streaky player and when hot he can be dangerous. He is also a better passer than Bathie which helps, but doesn't have either of their size at just 6'2 189. Still, he'll get a chance to be our starting SG and will likely do so for the year.

JR PG Bakari Lewis - Rated 61 overall. He will be the starting PG by default. The true freshman, Swoger isn't ready and may never be ready to start. Bakari is the best option on te team but he isn't anything special.

RS SO SG Anatoly Bose - Rated 60 overall. He might get a chance to be the starting SF due to his long frame. He is 6'7 206 pounds. He doesn't have very good athleticism at SG but would have good athleticism at SF. He isn't a very good shooter and would be more of a slasher.

JR SG Ben Martin - Rated 60 overall. 6'4 177 and he doesn't do anything particularly well. Ok shooter.

FR SF Dante Newton - Rated 58 overall. As expected, the freshman SF is a good mid range shooter. He doesnt do much else well, but he can drill the mid range jumper. In fact, he might be the best on the team at it. Therefore, I'm considering making him the starter at SF. It's between him and Bose. One factor working against him is that our staff doesn't believe he is going to blossom much more..

RS SR C Mitch Boyce - The center is rated 57 now and has gotten bigger and is now 6'10 276. He is still a very good mid range shooter and with the departure of Verner and Bathie, he'll become a primary scoring option. I'm expecting him to put up at least 14 points a night. He'll definitely start at C this year.

RS SR PF Dominic Friend - The PF is rated 57 now and is 6'7 265. He is a good mid range shooter and I wish I had used him more last year. With the lack of stars this year, he'll get more time this year.

Van Plavich - Rated 54 overall. I'll redshirt him this year to see if he can develop some.

SR C Chris Paige - Rated 54 overall. He was hurt during the tourney and I think we missed him. 6'9 220 and he is another decent inside presence for us.

FR PG Ted Swoger - 6'0 176 pounds. Rated 54 overall. He'll be our backup PG this year. He is an ok passer and is about what I expected, except maybe not as good of a shooter as I thought he would be.


FR C Damarcus Weatherspoon - Now 7'1 260 pounds! He is rated 48 overall. We'll redshirt him this year since we have Paige, Boyce, and Friend to man the inside. I might as well give him some time to develop and see if he can become a useful player next year.

The season is underway and we are aggressively pursuing 4 3-star players. If we get 2 of them, it should be the start of a successful recruiting class.

Meawhile, we kept a slightly tougher out of conference schedule this year. I'll be playing 1, simming 1 again. Our first game is against Jackson State which is 0-1. We are hosting them and they are equal in talent to us which should enable us to win at home.

I've decided to give Dante Newton the start at SF. Two reasons. I want to have a freshman of the year in the conference and with him being one of our few outside shooters, he could do it. Secondly, I want Bose's versatility off the bench.

What's your feel on the game with the patch?

Do you control your subs or let the computer handle that? Is there a way to set your sub rotation if the computer handles it?