FBCB Hoop Dreams Pt. 2 (Chicago State & DePaul)
 

This dynasty is using the same universe as my Hoop Dreams dynasty.

I just wanted to do this, sim a bunch of years and then put the game away for a while because I am spending too much time trying to sim haha.

I figure I'd take both a program and their rival, the idea being that you'd want both programs to be good and while there will be down years, it's college basketball and so you could keep reloading over time.

My normal tendency is to create a school and take them over because I just prefer non-D1 schools and storylines, but for once, I'm going to take over an existing program that's in the basement and see if we can invest and recruit and coach our way into acceptability. They'll need a rival from the same area, so we'll find a program that either has a rival or we'll invent a rivalry for them.

DePaul and Chicago State have one thing in common -- they're both garbage at men's basketball. DePaul has made only one appearance in the NCAA tournament ever. Chicago State has yet to participate and after this season, will be dispatched from their latest conference and either sent to purgatory to become an independent program.

We're going to try to turn both of these programs around, both at opposite ends of the spectrum. At least DePaul is already in a good conference, whereas Chicago State will be harder to navigate, but I prefer the indy schedule so I can schedule whoever we want and get some interesting matchups as the team gets better.

In both cases, we'll try to find regional players who will sign with them rather than trying to cast a wide recruiting net. I'll play AD so I'll sign the coaches and improve the recruiting pool, and setup their schedules, but otherwise, I'm not going to coach any games at all, but we'll be able to get to know the kids who'll be attending the schools and since they've been terrible for the longest time, maybe by the end of 25 years, we'll see a program history book filled with guys that we remember.

Also, if it came down to it, we can follow their post-college careers too since I have a pro save going solely for that purpose.

I went back to the old dynasty golden era of 2007-08 when people were regularly doing FBCB dynasties to find a format that'll suit my speed driven ways.

Even though we're using the same universe, I've decided to do was turn off injuries, early entry (sophomores had been previously able to leave and before that it was juniors) but I'll leave transfers on since no one good really ever leaves anyway and it means a bunch of walk-ons will probably go somewhere and actually play someday.

Academic suspensions were already off. I just want to see what the best players can do over a 4-year period and maybe see if anyone breaks any records too.

I went back to the old dynasty golden era of 2007-08 when people were regularly doing FBCB dynasties to find a format that'll suit my speed driven ways.

Tourney Champions
 

NCAA CHAMPIONS


FINAL FOUR TEAMS

NIT CHAMPIONS
CIT CHAMPS


CBI CHAMPS

CHICAGO STATE

It's been a revolving door of coaches and a pretty abysmal history at the real-life commuter school. Going to find them a coach who is young, hungry & can actually coach. Louis Olson, is an assistant Purdue and we're going to hire him as Chicago State's newest head coach. The hope is he can turn things around with whoever shows up.



DEPAUL
A lone NCAA tourney appearance is the highlight reel for Depaul. They've had the same head coach since 1938, but he's about to be dispatched.


DePaul is going to hire former Penn State HC Colt Walker who was fired despite leading that program to a national title. He probably could've gotten a better job, but because he was fired in the first stage, the best jobs were all dried up. It gives DePaul an opportunity to force resign a coach they've had for entirely too long. Hopefully, he'll be a key part in restoring his own reputation while rebuilding the Blue Demons into something less garbage.

1951-52 ROSTER

Given neither program had a Top 150 recruiting class nationally, not expecting anything from the current crop. We'll do our best to seek out wins where we can get them in the OOC part of the schedules and that's about it for Year 1. A post-season bid for DePaul would be a huge win [and a stretch] but that's the stretch goal. Realistically, .500 for either would be a coup. DePaul with the better coaching I'd expect to maybe be a little better, but Chicago State is now an independent and will surely play a garbage schedule so anything is possible there.

DEPAUL

CHICAGO STATE

1951-52 SEASON RECAP

DePaul's season is over, but a respectable 14-16 regular season is worth celebrating. The first double-digit win season in years and the most wins since 1944. 10-8 in the Big East is especially surprising, but perhaps with good recruiting things could be turning around? Fingers crossed.

Super impressive upset of defending national champs Seton Hall on the road by DePaul, too. I just noticed!

1951-52 SEASON RECAP

All I did for this program was: 1. Find them a new coach 2. Kick them out of the MAC and into the independents again and 3. that's it.

For whatever reason, the magic was there because the Cougars had their best season in school history and managed to claim an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a First Four 11-seed against perennial contenders Wichita State program that just left the Yankee Conference for the Big 12. Wichita State has missed the post-season only once [1923] in their history thus far.

Should they stay independent or is it time to find a conference again? I kind of prefer to indy schedule for now, it's fun to be able to find matchups that fit the team's level, but I have no idea if lightning will strike twice like this again with such a wild confluence of factors. Also, can we hold onto their coach? Surely after winning national coach of the year [or at least surely he's a finalist] he'll be able to leave this job and get a more prestigious one.

Nonetheless, I'm agape at their success and really excited to see if this is a thing we can build on or if it's just a blip. With five seniors leaving, it'll come down to how successful recruiting was this season.

1951-52 TOURNAMENT
CHICAGO STATE GOES DANCING
I still can't believe this is happening. But here we go.

Opening Round

We get 6-seed Alabama in the 2nd round on Thursday. It's a winnable game, Alabama is similarly bad at defense, so it'll be a track meet. Just getting here is absolutely wild, but would love to see them make a run.


Unfortunately, the magic ended on Friday as we fall to the Crimson Tide. Still, an amazing season for the Cougars and we hope this is the start of something special rather than Cinderella heading to the ball. Because all I'm doing is playing AD, there's not a lot I can do besides replace the coach if/when he leaves and hope they reload on players.

I'm still debating whether they ought to join a conference for next season or not.

1951-52 SEASON REVIEW
Final Four:
6) Alabama
1) Seton Hall
1) UConn
4) Ohio State

UConn beat Seton Hall to deny the repeat and claim their first national title two years after themselves losing in the national title game. It's UConn first national championship.

1951-52 NATIONAL AWARD WINNERS

BIG EAST AWARDS 1951-52

1951-52 INDY AWARDS

The good news is that we get one more year of POY Fernando Fischer, though we'll lose both of our glass-eating big men at Chicago State. Super curious to see how recruiting went for both programs, it's going to be the real factor for how much better the next couple of seasons will be. A tournament appearance was not in my wildest imagination for Chi State.

While a 1-bid league would make it hard to make the tournament as an at-large someday, trying to get into the tournament as an independent is especially difficult unless you win a lot of games every year, but I don't think it's realistic that they'll win 20-games every year even if we schedule really easy as we did this past year.

As far as conference options, the Continental Divide Conference only has 10-teams and I'd prefer it would have 11 or 12. The Southland Conference which I sort of abhor on principle (I got rid of it, made most of those programs independents for a while, but finally gave them their auto-bid back this year) makes zero geographic sense but would be a landing spot too. This program had previously been in the WAC, Summit and Horizon League at different stretches too, so we're not going to revisit those right now, though the latter two would obviously present more regionally appropriate rivalry options each year and would maybe just be more interesting.

We're going to move Chicago State to the CDC for next season, along with fellow indie program NW Missouri State as a travel partner.


Other conference changes that don't matter:

1952-53 SEASON PREVIEW
Who is in the CDC? It's in the original dynasty as a vehicle to create a Mt. West version of the WCC/Big East someday, except it's not full of private catholic schools.


My Big East is also home to Holy Cross.


Recruiting was not kind of Chicago State, they came in at #204 nationally. DePaul did better, landing the 51st best class in the nation, 5th in the Big East.

CHICAGO STATE 1952-53 ROSTER

DEPAUL ROSTER 1952-53

As expected, Chicago State HC Louis Olson will be leaving after one season, to take over the program at Indiana University. IU is on a 12-year post-season drought, so he'll still have a rebuilding job on his hands except with better amenities and in a better conference.

For this search, I cast a net looking for assistants who haven't coached before who have strong recruiting capabilities. I'd take a coach with experience, of course because they're likely to be more filled out. But when I ran across Louis Anderson, a third-year assistant at Temple who'd previously coached in the city at Loyola, I felt like he was the right fit to bring back to town for a second stint.

While he's also not an elite recruiting, it's an improvement over our last guy and his maxed out coaching skills make me hope that he can work with whatever talent we do have to win close games and to develop talent.

1952-53 SEASON REVIEW
Chicago State had a strong non-conference season, whereas DePaul just stayed afloat treading under .500 To make a return trip to the tourney, Chi State will likely need to win the CDC tournament, but at least it's clear last year wasn't a fluke.

I peeked at recruiting for both clubs and it's pretty clear the AI coach is not very good at identifying talent, so that's why recruiting classes are so bad because prestige really does impact who they go for and more often than not, those players are not as good as who they might be able to get otherwise. Lots of good talent gets left with no offers. but I'm just going to let it go for right now.

DePaul (12-19) will miss the post-season again, but with another new coach and the abysmal recruiting job he did, it's not a shock they weren't able to build on last season. I think all you can do is chalk this up to the rebuilding process and hope that the future is going to be brighter.

No signature wins at all.

1952-53 SEASON REVIEW
Chicago State had a strong non-conference season, whereas DePaul just stayed afloat treading under .500 To make a return trip to the tourney, Chi State will likely need to win the CDC tournament, but at least it's clear last year wasn't a fluke.

I peeked at recruiting for both clubs and it's pretty clear the AI coach is not very good at identifying talent, so that's why recruiting classes are so bad because prestige really does impact who they go for and more often than not, those players are not as good as who they might be able to get otherwise. Lots of good talent gets left with no offers. but I'm just going to let it go for right now.

DePaul (12-19) will miss the post-season again, but with another new coach and the abysmal recruiting job he did, it's not a shock they weren't able to build on last season. I think all you can do is chalk this up to the rebuilding process and hope that the future is going to be brighter.

Meanwhile, Chicago State (23-9) claimed the CDC conference title in their first season and will return to the NCAA tournament for a second straight year, this time as a 13-seed.


CHICAGO STATE COUGARS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 45 Record Vs 1-50: 0-0 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 23-9 Record Vs 51-100: 4-4 RPI Rank: #106
Conference Record: 11-5 Record Vs 101-200: 2-2
Home Record: 9-3 Record Vs 200+: 17-3


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 99.5 1 57 Points 89.9 5 150 Points 9.6 2 47
O.Reb 19.9 1 18 O.Reb 18.2 8 320 O.Reb 1.7 1 91
D.Reb 22.7 5 95 D.Reb 20.8 4 151 D.Reb 1.9 3 79
Rebounds 42.6 1 27 Rebounds 39.1 4 235 Rebounds 3.5 2 49
Assists 23.8 1 55 Assists 20.3 12 237 Assists 3.5 2 59
Steals 10.9 8 314 Steals 10.3 1 24 Steals 0.6 5 173
Blocks 2.9 1 123 Blocks 2.5 8 244 Blocks 0.3 4 145
Turnovers 19.4 1 25 Turnovers 21.5 8 249 Turnovers -2.0 4 118
Fouls 26.3 2 131 Fouls 27.1 11 250 Fouls -0.7 6 148
FG% .504 4 163 FG% .474 1 28 FG% .030 2 83
FT% .616 5 235 FT% .628 11 284 FT% -.012 6 284
3P% .371 3 260 3P% .385 11 242 3P% -.015 8 270
PPS 1.49 6 188 PPS 1.39 1 19 PPS .101 1 51
Adj. FG% .580 2 122 Adj. FG% .539 2 47 Adj. FG% .041 1 63

SECOND ROUND
Chicago State will take on Penn State (26-7) in their first tournament matchup. It's a rough test against a team that was Top 50 in the nation in defense and can also score points.


As I expected, the Cougars lose and end the season at (23-10), but nonetheless, this two-year stretch with these seniors leaving as the greatest class in program history to this point is absolutely worth noting.


Both Fernando Fischer and Lewis Ownens would have their jerseys retired if such a thing were possible. This team won THREE whole games two years ago and flipped that into back-to-back NCAA appearances in two different conferences. I don't care that their schedule got easier, they won the games they were supposed to win more often than not. It's an impressive run, and one we'll hope we can sustain upon their departure.



1952-53 FINAL FOUR
For the 2nd straight year, the team that Chicago State played in the 1st round ends up making the Final Four. Joining Penn State are 2-seeds Arizona and St. Mary's, as well as fellow 4-seed NC State.

Arizona beat NC State to claim their first national championship in school history.

1952-53 AWARD WINNERS
An unexpected surprise as Lewis Owens is named a 2nd team All-American. Again, this guy was on this team when they won THREE games two years ago. It's amazing what a little coaching can do for a guy's potential. I doubt he's NBA material, but we'll be checking on his career and maybe someday, he'll end up as a coach.



DePaul's David Montanez was the lone DePaul awardee, being named to the All-Freshman Big East Team.

RECRUITING RANKINGS
DePaul landed a Top 50 class. Are things turning around?


Chicago State has an even better class than DePaul, landing in the Top 25?!

1953-54 PREVIEW

CHANGES


The Big Ten was always a little weird in this universe, because they only had 12 teams while the other major conferences had 14-16 (or more for a bit, the Pac-12 got to 20 at one point before they reformed....and the Big 12 came back.) So now things are a bit more balanced with the ACC losing a few programs, the SEC rebalancing and a few other programs reviving.

After the 4th season, we'll do the slower style monthly recaps so you can kind of see it playing out more in real time. Plus, you'll be able to see what other programs are doing throughout the year. Chicago State's relative fast ascent -- with no real help from me besides coaching changes -- makes me wonder what the ceiling is for that program and/or focusing more hands-on with trying to get DePaul to be a player in the Big East which is already good.

But with DePaul, UIC, Chicago State, Chicago & Northwestern all in/near the city, I'm considering setting up a recurring pre-season event between all of them so we can see their annual progress since none of those programs are in the same conference, along with three other programs. All of them are between 33-57 prestige, so it's evenly matched.

I'll setup a separate 4-team invitational regional for the Philly-area programs too (with St. Joe's and LaSalle swapping every other year since they're in the same league)

1953-54 TEAM ROSTERS

1953-54

NOTES
A clerical note: I operate the pace of the season in three stages. The OOC until January is very up-tempo, then the game slows down during the conference season, then we slow it down way more during the tournament period, because I find this gives bad teams a chance at being competitive and creates the potential for more upsets. I'm able to control this by changing the "Time" modifier in the FBCB.ini file. I started doing this ages ago, because I felt like the game doesn't generate high enough scoring using the defaults and spending years IRL playing fantasy college basketball, I got a sampling of what the stats looked like and the game didn't really fit what I thought the modern game was looking like.

The other thing I did was change the height modifiers, so it's possible to get bigger guys playing guard positions because Ben Simmons wouldn't have been generated in the stock version of the game. So it's possible in my universe if you're paying attention to play more "position less" basketball. I haven't tested it with a team myself as a coach yet, but I suspect given where we are in the calendar, it's something I'll attempt down the road.

The last under the hood thing worth noting is that I will relocate recruits to create more geographic balance. The game by default generates too many players in some states and barely any other in others. Obviously the big states like California and Texas have a glut of players, but at least the South has enough schools to bring those guys to college, whereas the west didn't until I added more programs. Even with that, even states like Massachusetts and other other Northeast states just don't have their same share of talent relative to the number of schools located there.

The game should do a better job of distributing those players, but since those schools typically are lower prestige, they're not able to compete for guys who'd otherwise be at their level meaning that a lot of guys who are good enough for scholarships end up as walk-ons, especially in my universe where I've already increased the default/recruit talent levels (which is why you see so many 5/4 star recruits being signed to even minor programs) because it's a way to simulate things like Loyola Chicago being able to make a Final Four or Gonzaga getting elite recruits to go there, because if you essentially make it like real life -- where a 5-star rating isn't necessarily a guarantee that a player is going to be good, just a guideline -- it means you have to scout but it also means that there's a bit of randomness and luck to it all just like real life. (I think a lot of people play in online leagues expecting this kind of certainty, but in this line of thinking, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry would've been Hall of Famers, and Mike Piazza would've sold insurance. Text sims are just not especially good out of the box at generating these kinds of random outcomes without a lot of tinkering. Luckily, I've spent a lot of time over the years trying to find a sweet spot that appeals to my sensibilities.)

If I had injuries on like I did before, it'd increase the level of randomness even more and eventually I will turn it on again, but for now, I'd just like to see what guys can do with 4 years in school and without having to worry about them getting hurt.

I'm thinking the next iteration of this experiment is to flood a particular city/market with lots more local talent -- in-game you just don't have big city players proliferating like you would IRL -- to see if you could assemble a team of relatively local talent in a major market and then seeing if how far you can take a program like that. Right now, we're futzing with Chi State/DePaul, but in the future, it could be cool to see if you could take over a program like New Orleans or CCNY or whatever, flood the local city with more talent (from game-generated players..I usually just repatriate foreign players since they're ready made and just change their names) and see if you can create a legacy of talent by doing this.

You kind of have to be more hands-on here, because the AI just isn't very good at finding these players *at all* and will always opt to recruit elsewhere first, plus you can only change the name/locations of players after the game generates them in June or something, meaning teams will fill their call lists before you can relocate anybody which is problematic. Still, it's an effective strategy for getting international guys who will get zero interest or very few feelers into highly coveted recruits because you've gotten them out of international distance purgatory and its cheaper to try to woo them no matter where in the states you stick them -- even Alaska or Hawaii, tbh

1953-54 SEASON RECAP

DePaul finishes the year 13-18. Nothing truly notable to say about this club other than how difficult it appears to be for them to build a winner. We gotta give this coach a few years to build it before we overreact, but seeing Chicago State immediately turn into a winner makes me wonder what DePaul's deal is other than the tougher conference schedule.

Meanwhile, the Big East had SEVEN bids to the NCAA tournament this year.




This year's most notable win was an upset over #2 Villanova back in February.

Meanwhile, Chicago State makes its *third* straight NCAA tournament appearance after winning the CDC for the 2nd straight year. It seems in their best interest to continue playing in this league as it's been good for them, but I wonder if a more geographically appropriate league would suit them better. The Summit League would be my preference, even though you'd just be trading the western plains for the central plains. Horizon League would make the absolute most sense, except then you have to contend with UIC being in the same conference and I'm less interested in that for obvious reasons.

So it's basically stay put or take a look at a possible Summit League bid. I don't think it would dramatically diminish their prospects, especially if we adopted a tougher OOC schedule so that the team could possibly qualify for an at-large if the lose in the conference tournament.

Anyway, ho-hum another 20-win season. Unlike the previous two clubs, this year's team is Top 25 in defense and that's surprising. We'll see if it yields anything come tournament time.




NCAA TOURNAMENT

Chicago State is a 14-seed in the Midwest Region and will face a first-round matchup against Nevada who went 28-4 on the year out of the Mountain West Conference. The team is ranked Top 50 in both offense and defense, so it's going to be a tough slog for the Cougars. If history is any indication, we have to consider the Wolf Pack a Final Four favorite since the previous two 2nd round matchups for Chicago State have gone to the Final Four.


They did keep it close, but ultimately, the Cougars season will end at 23-10 after a loss to Nevada. Too many turnovers and the 3-ball just wasn't working tonight.

TOURNAMENT RECAP
SWAC team and 3-seed Alcorn State made the Elite 8 -- a first for that league -- before losing to Villanova. The Heritage League has actually emerged to surpass the SWAC (there were 5 Heritage League teams to make the tournament this year, only 2 SWAC teams did) but this is quite the breakthrough for that league, even as my prestige boosts they got some years ago (read my Pt. 1 dynasty) have worn off and most of those programs have leveled off. Conference prestige seems not to impact anything for these teams, it's all about what the teams themselves have to offer coupled with how close they are in proximity to talent in the regions.

The Final Four this season is top seeds Florida v. Villanova and the other semi-final will pit 7-seed Kentucky against 2-seed and perennial Final Four team Tulsa for whom championships have been elusive. This is Kentucky's 5th Final Four and they have yet to win a title. Florida is in their 7th Final Four, winning their first-ever title 5 seasons ago. Villanova is in their 5th Final Four, but their only title came in 1930. Tulsa has made EIGHT Final Fours, but are 2-5 in national championship games.

Villanova won their 2nd national title in program history over Tulsa, winning 80-65. Tulsa now 2-6 in national title games. Kentucky still winless.

1953-54 AWARD WINNERS

DePaul made 3/5ths of the All-Freshman team for the Big East, which maybe means that the future is pretty bright?


CDC Freshman of the Year and two players made the All-League 2nd team.


In thinking about where Chicago State should go, another idea emerged. Opting out of a regional approach entirely and picking another league outside of the midwest and being the 14th team to join the Heritage League. That league is peaking right now and it would be a huge challenge to jump in and be successful, but it gets the Cougars out of the 1-bid purgatory if they were ever to start to drop down a notch, because they're able to access to Chicago talent pool they're (much like in the CDC) able to stay competitive in ways their opponents won't, but though they'd immediately become the lowest prestige program in that conference as opposed to the highest prestige team in the CDC as they are now.

In the Summit League, only Wayne State (57) has a higher prestige than Chicago State so that league only provides better regional opponents but not necessarily better competitive opportunities. The Horizon League is actually more competitive than both of those leagues with prestiges ranging from 33-62 and it's the most regionally appropriate of the non-football conferences, but it's a 1-bid league with a local rival sharing the league (albeit in much worse shape than the Cougars are now after three straight tournament appearances.)

Joining the Heritage gives that league a shot in the arm, but it could backfire and reverse any momentum they've built over the past few years, which is why it worries me, but if the Cougars can maintain upper echelon status in a league that sent 5 programs to the tourney this year, it'll mean getting into the NCAAs with seeding better than the 13-seed range as they've been the past few years.

Here's where the prestige for conferences sits as of the 1954-55 season.


RECRUITING WASN'T GREAT

COACH RECORDS
I started this league with a real coach file, so the names started off as IRL coaches despite the weird years, so the milestones are harder to reach, which is fun.

1954-55
After two 20-win seasons, Louis Anderson is at a crossroads at Chicago State. What's the ceiling for this program? He's 47, he previously coached in the city at Loyola before getting canned after three straight no postseason appearances after making the tourney in his first year. So if teams are talking to him, he has an obligation to pursue it. Being on their third coach in 4 years would be less than ideal for the Cougars who were hoping to establish a bit of consistency, but we always knew that getting a coach as good as he was for a program like this meant that if he had an opportunity to escape he might do it.

I think that it also gives us an opportunity to shore that program up into a league that will sustain them for a while and then look for a different 2nd program to operate. DePaul is setup well in the Big East for us to focus on that program and see if we can turn it around, whereas Chicago State, they got better without any real help (I mean, maybe if I hadn't hired those coaches?) and so the only real story now is "can you get them into a consistent tournament team?" And while that'll be interesting, it's just a matter of getting them into a conference where it makes sense.

The Heritage League would be an interesting story, creating a HBCU version of the ACC basically and being part of that would be kind of hard to pass up. The Summit League appeals to me for purely matchup reasons, but I think you can still schedule those teams in the non-conference if you really want to play against the Wayne States of the world and ultimately, if it doesn't work out in the Heritage, you can always downgrade someday to one of those midwest leagues like the MVC/Summit or even the Horizon. I forgot about the MVC and unlike the other two leagues, Chicago State hasn't yet been a member of that league and it makes lots of geographic sense, there are interesting matchups and the prestige level is comparable. While they might get beat up, it's a more sustainable place to hang out. I'd just hate for them to end up in a power league against teams where they have no real connection and then get pummeled. In the CDC, at least they're still the big dogs on the block.

DePaul Head Coach Colt Walker is leaving after three seasons to take the job at Houston (65 prestige) which isn't really a promotion despite the prestige bump because the Big 12 probably isn't as good a league as the Big East, but sensing he was not going to win at DePaul he got out while he had a chance.

Chicago State Head Coach Lou Anderson had a different dilemma after two years at the helm and probably reaching what he viewed as their ceiling, despite the bump to the MVC next season. When Cincinnati's head coach left for Ohio State upon the retirement of Randall Le, he was offered and accepted the promotion.

That means both our programs need new coaches this year. DePaul is going to target a successful but beleaguered head coach of a top program, whereas Chicago State is going to aim either for a former head coach or a young assistant.

So we're gonna take the Missouri Valley option and join the MVC for next season.

CONFERENCE CHANGES


NEW COACHES ALERT
DePaul hired former Kansas head coach Stevie Banks, who spent a decade there making the tournament six times and before that was in Louisville. He's a coup for a program where DePaul is, but the hope is that he can use his skills to build programs to have success in what should be his final act.


Meanwhile, Chicago State wooed former Iowa Head Coach and current San Francisco head man James Stringer to the Windy City after 5 years on the west coast where he led the Dons to 3 NCAA tournament appearances.

This has been a lot of fun to follow so far! Keep up the good work. I'll be reading.

Thanks!


-------------------
1954-55 RECAP

We knew losing two key seniors who were part of the Cougars renaissance and joining a tough new conference was going to make things difficult for Chicago State this year. After 3 straight NCAA appearances, the team finished the year 11-19 (5-13 in the MVC). It's a rebuilding year, but the hope is James Stringer can make something of the program himself in the next few years once he's able to restock the cabinet talentwise. Losing guard Mike Sanders (23.7 PPG) will not help things at all, though.

DEPAUL
Meanwhile on the other side of town, DePaul has finally broken the drought! For the first time since 1942, the Blue Demons will be playing in a post-season tournament. It's only the 4th post-season appearance in program history. A win in the NIT would be the first-ever 21+ win season in school history.

It's a turnaround after several years of sputtering, but Colton Walker did not leave the cupboards bare and made it a lot easier for first-year Head Coach Stevie Banks to jump right into a team that had the potential to succeed. Best of all, the team's two leading scorers are both underclassmen.

The bracket gods have a sense of humor too, because the 2nd round matchup in the NIT is against Houston. Their head coach? Colton Walker.





Houston is a formidable opponent out of the Big 12 and ranked among the best teams in the country in points against. It'll be a steep test against a coach that knows this program well, but if there was ever a need for bullet board material, the Blue Demons have it.

Despite his knowledge, DePaul had a lot of reasons to be motivated and with 9 seconds left in the game, forward Michael Little sunk the game-winning shot propelling the Blue Demons over Houston 72-70, making this the winningest season in program history!

What a year!


In the next round, DePaul took on New Mexico (24-9) who were Top 10 in the country in points allowed. On paper, it would appear that DePaul was overmatched. But a last-second three-point attempt by the Lobos was no good and the Blue Demons have advanced to the Elite 8 of the NIT.


In the NIT Final 8, they'll take on 6-seed Morgan State (22-13) for a chance at a trip to the NIT Final Four. For a long-suffering fan base and program, this is a dream that I cannot believe is occurring, even if it's "just the NIT."

Unlike their previous two opponents, the Blue Demons will be the favor against the Bears of Morgan State who are middle of the pack nationally in points allowed. The difference is, Morgan State made the NCAA tournament last season. These players are battle tested for post-season basketball. Seeds aside, I'd have to think Morgan State are the team to beat. They demolished 7 seed Bowling Green in the last round, so I think it'll take a pretty flawless game for the Blue Demons to pull out a win.

It looks like the shoe fit though, because Cinderella is going dancing all the way to Madison Square Garden after knocking off the Bears.

WHAT A SEASON!

It's the 1954-55 NIT SEMI-FINALS

DePaul has a very tough test in 1-seed and perennial post-season team NC State (23-12). The Wolfpack are disappointed to be in the NIT and DePaul hopes to capitalize because they're very much the underdog in this matchup.

In the other semi-final, top-seed Pepperdine takes on 5-seed Loyola Chicago. How fun would it be to have an all-chicago NIT Final?! Chances are, this will not happen because both teams are overmatched and playing against programs that are a lot better.

In any case, just *being* here with this DePaul team is absolutely wild and crazy. We've far exceeded any expectations for the program, though obviously the goal is to build sustainability. Still, this run is magical and it would a delight to keep it going all the way to raising a banner. We're not getting ahead of ourselves though, let's just go have fun against NC State and test ourselves against the kind of program we'd hope DePaul could be someday.

NIT SEMI-FINALS


I cannot believe my eyes. It wasn't just a win, it was a true victory despite Frank Raymond's 22 points. The balanced attack coupled with Ward Thomas' continued brilliance in the post-season means that the Blue Demons stand one game away from the most improbable title imagined. Okay, that'd be an NCAA title. But this is pretty wild in its own right. For context, the furthest this program had ever been was the 2nd round of the NIT and that was in 1920 the first season of this simulation. Since then, they've had a lone NCAA (!934) appearance and a CBI (1942) bid. That's it.

Loyola Chicago (26-12) did their part against a very heavily favorited Pepperdine team meaning that we indeed get a Windy City matchup for the NIT title. Either way, just having our names in the record books will be meaningful and these players will be remembered for that no matter what happens next.


Senior Kelly Weeden paired with Alfie Mitchell and Ward Thomas to have the games of their lives, propelling the Blue Demons to the most unlikely of NIT championships. I am speechless.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
In the Final Four, top seeds UCLA and Villanova advanced with 5 seed Portland and 4 seed Seton Hall. In the national final, Portland upset UCLA to win the national title for the first time in their first-ever appearance beyond the Sweet 16. The last time UCLA was in the national final was 1939, they lost then too. Both programs were sporting new coaches in their first year.

AWARD WINNERS 1954-55

Neither DePaul nor Chicago State had any conference award winners.

CONFERENCE CHANGES
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I think we're nearing the point where I'm gonna just find one school to focus on, but we're gonna do at least one more reason for DePaul/Chicago State, just to see how they do. From there, we'll devise a plan moving forward because ideally it'll be the right mix of detail with recruiting players, while zooming out to do deep dives.

DePaul ranked 85th in recruiting, Chicago State in the 200s.

I think it's okay to say that at least for now, both programs are on the right track. For the first time, DePaul and Chicago State will have winning seasons in the same year. I think our work here is done. Will it sustain? No idea, we'll keep checking on them over time to see how things evolve.

Chicago State finished 16-15 on the year, improving their conference record to 11-7. It was not good enough to appear in any post-season tournament, but it does represent progress especially in a tougher league than their previous seasons.

Still, we're a far cry from the program that couldn't last in any league they played in and hadn't been in the post-season, so I'd say things are officially turned around and it's time to find a new pet project.

DePaul meanwhile is headed back to the tournament. We'll get to them next.

After winning the NIT last year, nothing short of a NCAA tournament appearance was going to be satisfying to DePaul. They met their goal, going 20-12 (11-7 Big East) this year and entering the tournament as a 10-seed in the Midwest region, where they'll get a date against Wright State (27-4) in the first round.

Regardless of how this turns out, this is DePaul's 2nd NCAA appearance ever (1934) and so it's a massive opportunity and a real joy for the seniors on this club who have officially turned things around for the future.


If Alfie Mitchell and Ward Thomas have big games, this team could win a game or two, but it'll take lockdown defense.



The Blue Demons fell to Wright State and ended their season. Still, a successful year.

1955-56 AWARD WINNERS

After two years at Chicago State, James Stringer took the Prairie View A&M job. He was replaced by former Chicago State star Fernando Fischer who I made a coach because he did not make it into the draft pool for the pro league at all, effectively ending his pro basketball ambitions. The hope is he can provide some stability to the program moving forward.

I'll make sure he hangs out for some time and that they don't replace him, etc.

DePaul NCAA appearance makes me feel like both of these programs are in much better shape than when we took them over and I did not expect it to go this fast. I imagined it was going to be much longer slog for both programs which -- beyond their city -- is why I chose them.

What I want to do now is pick a program where I can flood its immediate city (or state) with surplus talent, see if we're able to recruit said players and then see what the ceiling is for the program. AI recruiting is weird, so I'd be curious if you had more advantages whether you could convert minor programs into major ones.

After two years at Chicago State, James Stringer took the Prairie View A&M job. He was replaced by former Chicago State star Fernando Fischer who I made a coach because he did not make it into the draft pool for the pro league at all, effectively ending his pro basketball ambitions. The hope is he can provide some stability to the program moving forward.

I'll make sure he hangs out for some time and that they don't replace him, etc.

DePaul NCAA appearance makes me feel like both of these programs are in much better shape than when we took them over and I did not expect it to go this fast. I imagined it was going to be much longer slog for both programs which -- beyond their city -- is why I chose them.

What I want to do now is pick a program where I can flood its immediate city (or state) with surplus talent, see if we're able to recruit said players and then see what the ceiling is for the program. AI recruiting is weird, so I'd be curious if you had more advantages whether you could convert minor programs into major ones.

1956-57 CONFERENCE MOVES
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We're just doing a fly-by for this season since we're technically unattached. Still, as I expected both Chicago State & DePaul are having good seasons. Chicago State is 24-6 and if they don't win the auto bid, they're surely a NIT team. DePaul meanwhile is a lock in the Big East for a tournament spot. What a different a few years makes!



FINAL REGULAR SEASON POLL
[Before the tournament]

Texas A&M won the national title, beating Arizona. A&M HC Edon Cortez wins his 3rd title with his 3rd program [Previously won with Tulsa and NC State]


In interesting news, DePaul made the Elite 8 before losing to the eventual national champs.

Tulsa, Purdue & Arizona were the other Final Four teams. This was Tulsa's 9th Final Four, but still only one title in the books.

1957-58 CONFERENCE MOVES


There's a part of me that wants to bring the D3 Midwest conference into this league, but the last thing this save needs is more Midwest programs? Is there enough talent to support such a thing? I'm sure there is in California, but in the Midwest? Doubtful.

Speaking of the Midwest, while I figure out what I want to do next, let's take a look at Tulsa's program. I've told you how success they've been throughout this save for some reason but they had two coaches leave back to back after successful seasons -- Edon Cortez left after a title -- and then assistant Zac Foley took over and they've been still very good.

He's won two titles and they are a perennial Final Four team and few programs would turn down that option. I can't decide how they keep reloading especially when they don't even play in the best league in the game at any point, but it's been fun to see them be a legit power program.

Both DePaul and Chicago State had down seasons after the heights of post-season basketball last year. DePaul, after making the Elite 8 went (11-19) on the season. Chicago State went (13-19) so neither program did well, but it was not surprising that neither of hem were able to replicate the same success if they're not recruiting well. The key to these Chicago programs doing well is finding ways to keep regional kids home and getting a few gems. We'll do our best to keep Fernando Fischer at Chicago State since he's an alum for a while, even if they struggle for the next few years.

Is this the year Tulsa finally wins their elusive 3rd national title and get their coach Zac Foley a 2nd ring before his career ends? Will the post-season be wild or full of chalk in the Final Four?

1957-58 TOURNAMENT RECAP
16-seed Charlotte (20-15, CAA) toppled 1-seed Buffalo (30-4, ACC) in the East region. The 49ers were a First Four team that beat SE Missouri State (15-18, OVC) in the opening round.

In the same part of he bracket, 15-seed Montclair State (23-11, AEAST) beat Marquette (26-7, Big East) on a buzzer beater. They faced a 10-seed Ohio State in the 2nd round. (Ohio State advanced)

Some fun stuff, Gonzaga (28-8) was a 5-seed out of the WCC and made it to the Sweet 16 before losing to Clemson, a 9-seed in the West Region. It was the Zags first Sweet 16 appearance (and tourney appearance) in 4 years.

Longtime Tulsa assistant Douglas Greenlaw had only been with the Golden Hurricane and no one else in his 9-year career as a coach, so I went to look for a good program that could use a steady hand and chose Kansas. In his first season with the Jayhawks? They're 27-8 and in the Final Four. Not bad for the Zac Foley coaching tree. For context, Kansas had missed the post-season in each of the last 5 years and 6 of the last 7. Their last Final Four appearances came in 1932-33, so this was a big team taking a team of recruits who hadn't seen a winning season since 1951-52 and dragged them to a Final Four. Huge.

The other Final Four teams are 9-seed Clemson (1st time), 3-seed Coppin State (First Heritage League team to make a Final Four) and 2-seed Oregon (first appearance)

So it'll be full of interesting storylines and no matter what, we'll crown a first-time champion so that's cool. Clemson beat Tulsa in the Elite 8 to get here, btw, depriving them of their 10th Final Four appearance as a program. Would be crazy of Zac Foley assistant wins a title a year after leaving his boss and having as many titles as he does.

Western teams have not faired well in the tournament, which either means they're beating up on each other and we need to invest in them. Only 4 teams west of the Mississippi have won since 1935. Portland (1954) knocked off UCLA in an all-west coast final. And Arizona (1952) won one two years before that. Though besides those two programs, no team west of the Mississippi won a title since Pepperdine (1936) and Stanford (1935) went back to back.

This year will be another season denied as both Kansas and Oregon lost in their Final Four matchups. Clemson toppled Coppin State to claim their first national title.

AWARD WINNERS

Top 25 Poll

How are you role playing as AD? I’m curious as it seems impossible even with commish mode?

I know you can make Ai human coaches, but hiring/firing is harder

Basically you can turn AI coaches into human coaches, fire the assistants you want at the assistant hiring period. You can't really hire who you want there, but you can try to influence it some. Then when it's time to sim, I auto-sim so it makes everyone a AI controlled coach again and I don't have to manage anything.

If I want to fire them, I make them human and then you can fire them without a problem. Technically, they are resigning but it's okay. Other times, I'll just move them to programs manually since I don't have human offers on in this save.

So basically, I have no influence other than picking the coach I want, which makes it feel a bit more realistic since it's pretty random whether a coach in this game is going to impact stuff one way or another.

Then once it's the off-season, I do the same thing. If there's a coach I don't want to retire prematurely, I try to remember to make them human ahead of time. It's not too bad.

The other big AD workaround [that I did not use in this dynasty] , is related to timing of when you intervene [basically you change the assistant salaries to $1 right after they sign, then it gives your program all of its available budget for recruiting.

Had some Chicago State news worth sharing. The program had a wild run to the Elite 8 some years ago, with a coach that only stayed two years before retiring. The whole thing made my head spin, as I hadn't paid attention to the program in many years.

Coming off a tourney appearance last year, their latest coach left for Furman (which I don't get it) and I hadn't noticed it until mid-season. The replacement had this team sputtering, so I made the unprecedented step of replacing him with a former Chicago State assistant who was at Ohio State, Myron Castro.

For whatever reason, Castro (who is only a Level 2 coach and I never edited) turned this team on its head into the Summit League schedule. They won the conference tournament, making it back to the NCAAs for the 2nd straight year, but this time as a 16-seed in the First Four.





After knocking off New Orleans, they had a date with perennial contenders Florida State, whose longtime coach retired and they have a young coach in his first year. Somehow, Chicago State slayed them in the first round in an ugly box score game.


In the Round of 32, they took on Loyola Marymount, an upstart who themselves were in the Final Four last year. Didn't matter, the Cougars won and advance to the Sweet 16. I've never seen a 16-seed into the Sweet 16.


Looking at their team stats, by all accounts, this is not a good team. In any way on any real measurement basis. So I'm not sure why these dudes are playing so lights out through 3 tournament games, but it's kinda fun to see. The bracket is setup for them too, because in the Sweet 16, they're playing another bracket buster in James Madison, a 12-seed out of the Beach Belt conference.

The party ended in the Sweet 16, with a sufficient thumping by James Madison (themselves with a new coach) but still a really surprising run by a team that I wasn't expecting to see do anything.

Final Four (1974-75) will be the Big East Invitational.


Pretty impressive stuff. Seton Hall (34-3) had their legendary coach Danny Velez (1177-401) retire after 29 seasons, 2 national titles, 16 conference titles, and 16 All-Americans. Both titles he won at Seton Hall. Mike Tuttle, their current head coach was an assistant under Velez before eventually spending years at Kentucky. He left there for UMass, but only spent a season there before moving to Seton Hall when this job opened up. Hilariously, UMass faced Seton Hall in the Elite 8 this year.

Syracuse (29-6) are in their first Final Four since 1948 when they won the whole tournament. This team's appearance in the NCAAs was not foretold at the start of the year. They'd missed the post-season 4 straight years, which is why head coach Michael Watt was fired. The Orange last made the tournament seven seasons ago, so it makes what first-year coach Ernest Mitchell -- who came over after years at Arkansas -- did all the more impressive.

Creighton (32-4) are back in the Final Four for the third time in school history. Both other times (1962, 1969) they won the whole tournament. 9th year head coach Mike Shipe sports one of those title rings and is aiming for a 2nd, as the only coach in this tourney left with national title experience as a head coach.

Marquette (26-9) have been to 11 Final Fours, but only have 2 titles to show for it. Surprisingly, this off-season they lost HC Brendan Carlsen after only two years to Florida, which was not the vision when they tapped him to replace longtime legendary coach Casey Velasquez. Velasquez reigned from 1948-71, elevated an already excellent program to new heights. 6 Final Fours, 3 national titles games, 2 national titles.

To replace Carlsen, they elevated former Georgia State head coach Willis Dunbar, one of the hottest young coaches who was sputtering at Georgia State since their elevation to the ACC. Dunbar, 42, has taken his 4th program to the NCAAs in his young career after starting at Wyoming. He led Denver to a surprise Final Four in 1966, meaning he's the 2nd most experienced coach in this Final Four field.

No matter who wins it all, we're talking about some pretty accomplished programs and a generation of legendary coaches down the road.

Castro still has the Cougars (19-13) as consistent tournament team. They made their 4th straight appearance in the tournament this season (1976-77) and again as a 16-seed (they had to win the Summit League to get into the tourney at all) they faced a very good Texas A&M (28-7) team who made the Final Four last year, were ranked 2nd in the nation in the last poll.

Anyway, none of that mattered when they beat them handily 77-66. I can't imagine Castro will be able to stick around another year, having successfully turned himself into one of the hottest coaches in the country, even after their 2nd round loss to Tulsa.


It was their first Top 50 win of the year and they sure picked a good time for it. Super wild.

Turns out, I had an old FBCB directory that wasn't the one the game exe was located in, so for decades I'd been thinking I was making changes to the ini but knew something was wrong (aka the scoring was too low for my tastes) but I finally did some digging and realized it was using all the defaults this whole time.

Anyway, I kinda wanna start over, but I'm invested in these decades of outcomes. So if nothing else, now it just means things are gonna get way more uptempo in the subsequent years.