FBCB 2010 - Still Pressing and Trapping
 

I did a dynasty in the original FBCB to teach myself the "steals" system that was so prevelant in our online league and that many considered to be an exploit/auto win strategy.

That dynasty is here: FBCB: Learning the System - Front Office Football Central

One of the best things that was changed in FBCB 2010 was to tone this down so that, at least looking at our multiplayer league, one didn't *have* to follow this strategy to be successful. I've been on autopilot though with my old ways since the conversion. This dynasty is going to do the exact same thing using the new version of the game to see how successful it can be. A team still needs a gameplan, and I still really like this one.

Team Philosophy:

-- More possessions than the other team = wins. Generate these extra possessions by rebounding well and generating turnovers. Defensive Rebounding and Shotblocking are more important than any other abilities for my big men. Steals are more important than any other ability for my backcourt.

-- The pace should be fast. We're going to press and trap after every basket and play tight defense at all times. We're going to try to fast break at every opportunity. Thus, we need depth.


The rest of this is copied word for word from my other dynasty. Remember the goal is to play basically the same way I was in the original game and see the results:

In my last Dynasty I started at Chicago State, so I looked there first. Their prestige is 17 now though, that's too high. So I went looking for a similar scenario. I want a team prestige below 10, conference prestige of 1, and I want there to be some good (as good as possible) teams in the conference. An 8 prestige team where the best team has a prestige of 50 is better than a 0 prestige team when the best team is 25.

I found what I was looking for in the SWAC. I'll be taking over the 7 prestige Central Arkansas Bears.


In the old version I was confident enough in my ability to read stats + scouting anomalies to totally ignore scouting as a rating until the end. I'll attempt that here as well.

The goal here is to pump out seasons, set things and go and just stop to recruit and account for injuries as needed. The first few seasons until I have my recruits in place will hopefully be especially fast.

2009/10 Season


Coaches

We have a recommended coaching total of $90,000, and a full team budget of $167,500.

Limited to the minimum of $30k/coach we have to take whatever we can get. Recruiter has a 33 recruiting rating. Scout has a 35 scout rating. Assistant has a 7 offense/53 defense rating (I'll try to balance this out more later on but until I can afford to its all defense all the time)


Scheduling

I schedule a game every 3-4 days, I've got 13 games and only 4 can be at home. Every day I look to schedule I grab the lowest prestige team available. Remember the goal is wins, wins raise prestige. I don't care about testing myself or my RPI. I want wins.


Recruiting

I have 4 scholarshpis available. I'm graduating a guard and 3 bigs, but I don't care about that. Ideally I'd recruit 2 bigs and 2 guards, but early on with such a crap budget we'll see what we can manage.

We have $7,750/month to spend. I'm going to have to stay local to get any volume at all in my evaluations. I scout a grand total of 10 players. I sort by steals and scout anyone cheaper than $850 who isn't in the top 150 players for my backcourt guys. For the bigs I sort by rebounds and do the same.

I probably should have limited myself to guys ranked below 250 or even 300. One guy I scouted gets an immediate offer from Kansas State! Others get offers from 35 prestige teams and its a waste of my time to even try on them. I make 4 offers and spend my money doing what little I can.

Very quickly I'm down to only two guys with offers. Cincinnati comes after a guy ranked in the #400 range and Oklahoma after a guy ranked ~#350. This lets me go a little harder after the two I have left who have no other offers.

I get my two recruits both to sign in December!


Glenn had 3.1 steals/game in high school. The 45/A steals rating is all I cared about here, my options were pretty limited. I'd love it if his handling ability could actually get over 50 (46/C is real nice for this level) and if he can make a 3 pointer great.



In the old game this guy would be a near guarentee to be a steals genius. 4.4 spg in high school, 69/A scouting even with a bad scout, he might come in as a B but no way he'd be worse hardly ever. Rated #415 overall.


I've still got a few months to recruit, and I would love a big. There are exactly 3 big men left in the world with no offers though. One of them is the #24 overall recruit, Mr Basketball in Florida. I offer him and hope the game isn't broken :P ... and good, he goes to West Virginia in January.

In January I look at 2* guys. I never would have in the old game but I'm curious. In my first year I'd take a guy who can rebound but knows nothing else about how to play basketball...

I can't get any of the 2* guys anyway. We get two players this class.



Results

I use the recommend button for everything. Sorry, current players, I just don't care about you.


We're bad, but my non conference scheduling keeps our record semi-respectable.





The top 8 teams in the conference go to the conference tournament. Divisions are ignored for this. So Lamar was #5 in the West but their 7-9 record was better than my 6-10, so we stayed home.


3 seed Southeastern won the conference tournament. They earned a 16 seed and lost by 37 to Kentucky in the first round of the big dance.

(4) North Carolina beat (1) Oklahoma State 79-59 to win the national championship. 9 seed Texas and 3 seed Arizona were the other two final four participants.

2010 Offseason

Prestige drops from 7 to 6. AD is satisfied. I need to avoid last place in the conference.

Transfers

I've never done this before, but i have two scholarships available. After the first round of transfers a number of guys have some interest in me. I offer both my scholarships. One is a senior SF with a steal rating in the 60s, another is a sophomore center who can rebound. Both Accept and will sit out a year.


All he can do is steal the ball. That's ok for now. He transferred from Florida Gulf Coast.


Hayden transferred from UNC-Asheville. He can't score and his post defense is atrocious, but I'll happily take this.


Roster

I'll have 3 graduating seniors this year. I'm returning two starters from last year. Not really concerned on the details yet with just two guys guys I brought in. I expect to suck.

Incoming Recruits

My recruiting class is ranked #226 in the country.


Again for my very first year this is just fine.


Beautiful! He can shoot the 3, he does come in with an 'A' steals potential. his ball handling has a C potential which at this level is ok for a secondary skill. In the old version you could redshirt everyone. I doubt I'll be able to do that here.



Not nearly as nice, but for this level he can hold a spot for now. I seem to remember at this level a few guys with A/B steals ratings buffered by guys with C's was good enough. H'll develop a bit of a 3 point shot and is an acceptable ball handler too.


Coaching

I lose no coaches, god bless you HeavyReign for making assistant hiring better.


Scheduling

Same as last year, bottom of the barrell.

2010/11 Season

Scheduling

Same as last year, worst possible schedule at all times.

Recruiting

We have 3 scholarships available this year. I am again only able to scout 10 players. 2 bigs have "high" interest in me so maybe that'll help out.

I offer scholarships in the second month as usual, but two of my three offers are beaten immediately by bigger schools like Mercer and Georgia State. Two bigs ranked in the 400s get tons of offers... Oral Roberts and Wichita State, I can't beat them. After two months I am down to just one contact that hasn't received an offer from a much bigger school. I go out hunting for more players and have a real bad feeling.

The one target we've been on from the start signs in the first signing period before training camps.


I'm not entirely thrilled about this one. #486 overall. The stats aare good, but the 33/A steals rating worries me. In the original game I would expect that to even out to like a 35/C real world rating. That wouldn't be awful for this level if the rest of his ratings are anywhere close to accurate, the C's across the board in shooting and ball handling would make him servicable. We'll see.


I lose a secondary big man target in December. I've got a foreign big that I'm spending a LOT of resources on.

The foreign guy is still stringing us along going into January. My 3rd offer isn't working out well, I'm blind offering the few remaining 3* guys with great stats that have no other offers yet and getting turned down immediately.

The foreign guy signs in February.


#418 overall. The DRB is similar to the steals rating on my guard, 38/A scares me. But he has good stats and even if that just comes out average he seems to have some other abilities too, the blocked shots could be great for example.

That's all for this year, perhaps we look at another transfer player next season.

Results

I spend a little time on the lineup this year but next year is where I'll really start worrying about that with another freshman class and my transfers available. Neither freshman is willing to redshirt. I would have loved to have had both sit a year.

We have lots of injury issues during the non-conference schedule. Entering January two starters are hurt, my starting center is done for the year. We actually have no players on the team taller than 6'6" after that guy. Fun times.

A losing record in non-conference play is going to klil the overall record.


We end up in the exact same position as last year thanks to winning 3 of our last 4. We were close to a real disaster and a last place finish. Can't have that.





We were #1 in the conference in steals, but just 67th in the nation. We want to destroy the conference in steals and lead the nation. Last in rebounds is not good at all, we'll improve on that soon though I hope.



(3) Texas San Antonio beat (4) Sam Houston State to win the conference tourney. They earned a 14 seed in the NCAa Tournament and lost 80-52 to Ohio State in round 1.


In the matchup no one in my neck of the woods ever really wants to see, (1) Duke beats (3) North Carolina 78-73 to win the national title. (1) Florida and (2) Villanova also make the final four.


EDIT: Forgot to look at my first year guys.

The one with the good steals rating out of the gate, Elroy Coffman, was named to the freshman all conference team, but that must just be because the league doesn't start many freshmen. He scored 6.8 points/game and had only 0.9 steals/game. His -4.97 average +/- rating was the worst on the team.

My other freshman was PG Brian Glenn. Only 0.5 steals/game, he put up 5.1 points/game in only 15 minutes, a decent bench contributor.


Totals: 12-17 (6-10) - No Postseason - RPI 330

2011 Offseason

Prestige drops from 6->5. This needs to turn around fast. Our goal remains to avoid last place. The AD is still satisfied.

Coaching

My scout retires. Since my budget still sucks I just have to take the best 30k guy I can get. That's a 36 rated scout.

Transfers

I lose a SG to a transfer. Later dude.

I can bring in two transfer players if I choose. I am getting the feeling that I need to take advantage of to try to help with a little instant success until I can recruit a little better.

I end up with two transfers to help on the inside:


Willhite was #600 recruit overall a couple years ago and maybe the type of guy I need to look to fall back on. He can't do *anything* but rebound. But I'll take some rebounding.



Moen was rated even worse, #800ish overall. But he looks a lot better, he can hit a little bit of a jump shot, can rebound a bit on both ends, and is a solid shot blocker. Moen could easily start for me.


Incoming Recruits


Fenner came in better than I could have possibly expectd. His C average jumpshot and B 3 pointer should be very useful for the offense. His hands won't improve but 46/D is ok for now. He'll be a solid steals guy after a couple training camps, and he can even defend and rebound a little. this guy is alright.



My only complaint here is that Colbert's DRB starts out so low. It'll take him a few seasons to work that number up. Otherwise, I love what I see. A rebounder and shot blocker. He's willing to redshirt but i am so thin inside that I don't think I can afford to unless I want to just give up on my inside rotation for the year.



My recruiting class is about the same as last year, #224 overall. Its right in the middle of the conference which is again alright for now. I worry a bit about seeing 5 teams in the top 150. I need to work my way up there, but of course it won't happen overnight.



Roster

First 5 guys are my starters, second 4 are my backups. This is pre-training camp.





We're going to be awful in half court sets and our ability to steal the ball no matter who is on the court isn't good enough yet. We're also starting a very young team. All of this combines to very low expectations. We've got 5 guys in the lineup and one off the bench that I brought in though, so this is where things really begin.

2011/12 Season

Scheduling

Same as last year, worst possible schedule at all times.

Recruiting

4 scholarships this year. We're losing two SFs and two C's. one is a steals guy I brought in on a transfer. The rest are garbage. I have to remember though that I have two transfer bigs sitting out a year, so my need for bigs other than to balance out the years they graduate, is minimal.

I use my inital evaluations this year to go down into some 2* guys, hoping to find a diamond in the rough with steals, and hopnig that I don't lose all my contacts to other schools in the first month or two.

And... it doesn't help. Before the early signing period I'm down to one guy. No one signs in the early period for me.

I lose two scholarship guys in December. One was the guy I had been targeting since day 1. This looks awful.

Going into December I have no one on my call list. Eveyrone I have looked at has better offers that I cannot compete with.

January is just as bad. Guys ranked in the #650 range are gone before I can finish evaluating them.

This is an unmitigated disaster. The worst luck/results I've ever had recruiting. I don't land a single player going into APRIL. I've got nothing. I find a 1* guy with a lot of steals and try to get him. I don't know what to think about this at all.

Results

A 1-4 November has me in a little bit of a panic. Things are supposed to begin to improve here. We fall to 1-7 before finally getting some wins. But really the season is going almost as bad as the recruiting. My top steals guy, senior transfer Daniel Campagna, can't pass enough classes to qualify academically and will miss the rest of the year.

The conference season gives reason to hope though as we carry a winning record in conference play for two solid months. Luck? Our Young guys improving? The conference falling down a good bit? who knows.



We lose our last few to finish up 8-8, missing a chance for a winning record in conference play. But we make the conference tournament for the first time. We lose 84-62 to Texas-Arlington in the first round, but we were there.






There are improvements here. We aren't dead last in rebounding. Our steals numbers are up. Our turnovers are down. But damn there is a long way to go.



Four guys averaging over a steal a game. Rebounding should improve greatly the next few years. That non-existant recruiting class terrifies me though. I've never had that happen.


Totals: 13-18 (8-8) - No Postseason - RPI 319

Good stuff so far. Really looking forward to reading. This game is proving to be quite the challenge (for me at least). That's a good thing.

2012 Offseason

Prestige raises from 5 back up to 6. So at least something good happened.

Coaching

No changes this year.

Transfers

We can bring in 3 transfer guys if we want. We're going to turn into a haven for the unhappy players around the rest of the league if we keep living off transfers. Viable strategy or taking advantage of the game? I dunno.

We bring in a small forward who can steal the ball but nothing else.



A second SF comes in who can shoot the 3 just a little, his ball handling is beyond atrocious though.



Both of my transfers can basically be counted as this year's recruiting class since they'll be soph's when they start playing for me.

INCOMING RECRUITS



I brought in one recruit at the end of April after the "end season" action. He was a 1* guy with lots of steals and works out ok. Unfortunately 3 dschools in the conference broke into the top 100 in recruting and look at me at 345th.



Roster

Starters/backups in order of position all the way down this time. This is after training camps so we can see how things improved.





We're getting there on the rebounding, the steals has a ways to go. But we are WAY better this year than last. We have a few guys who can shoot the 3 and look at Hayden's 100 DRB, we've got a few shot blockers too. I really expect better this year.

Thanks! It definitely seems more challenging at this level so far for sure.

2012/13 Season

Scheduling

No changes here.

Recruiting

Thanks to our heavy use of transfer players we still only have 3 scholarships to offer this year. In the original game I would rather not give out a scholarship than even look at a 2* player. Its starting to seem like that's changed quite a bit at this terribly low level.

I find two players who like me quite a bit that might be ok. Both are rated in the 450-600 range, one has 2.5 steals/game the other 10 boards/game in high school. A 3rd is a guard from Canada who i decide is right in the right range for me and I am going to commit to him like crazy(this will likely backfire on me).

And my confidence comes back following last year's disaster. We get one early commit before training camps:


We my have really lucked into this one if this is even close to accurate. Graves is Mr Basketball in Arkansas, rated #366 overall and he seems to *really* have wanted to stay in state. This guy could be a star for us if our scouting is close to correct.


Our canadian signs in January. He's rated #355 overall and this should be my best recruiting class yet if I can bring in a big to seal thigns up.

We struggle to find a big and land one that we could be happy with in April, a 1* guy rated in the 1500 range.


If he can rebound and block shots I'll be happy.

Results

We're 4-7 again going into January. 3-0 at home, 1-7 on the road. We need to break through and win a few more road games but that has me optimistic heading into conference play. January sees our starting PG miss most of the month and we don't have the depth to handle that. We dont' have enough depth period really.

In the end this isn't the season where things get better. We struggle to stay near .500 in conference play and end up in a familier spot, 4th in our division. Something happens this year though, we somehow win some tiebreaker among the 7-9 teams to get into the conference tournament and we pull two huge upsets to make the conference fianls. We lose there to Southeastern Louisiana. Still, a bit of a breakthrough!






Our RPI goes up a bit, creeping into the top 300. Our rebounding is a HUGE improvement over last year, we're a bit higher nationally in steals, but we just couldn't score. 40.3% from the field, that's just about 5% worse than our other seasons and that killed us.

Also, despite leading the league in steals, we commit 2.8 more turnovers/game than we force. Taking care of the ball has to be a bigger priority too.


Coffman and Fenner lead the way in points and steals. All of our bigs do pretty well on the boards. The best news is that the entire starting lineup and 8 of our 10 rotatoin guys are back next season. If these new recruits come in decent we start to have the ability to play the way we want to play no matter who is on the floor.

Conference Champ Southeastern is a 14 seed and loses 82-57 to Ohio State. (4) Louisville beats (1) Oklahoma State to win the national title. North Carolina and Kansas also make the final four as 2 seeds.

Totals: 13-19 (7-9) - No Postseason - RPI 291

2013 Offseason

Prestige drops from 6 back down to 5. The AD seems content for us to sit in the bottom 3rd of the conference every year as long as we stay out of last, but I'm really expecting to see some improvement as we fill up our depth chart with "my guys" and start to have some more experienced lineups.

Coaching

No changes this year.

Transfers

Because we were able to fill our recruiting class last year there is no room for transfers.

INCOMING RECRUITS



This is a huge step up for us. Our first top 200 class and back into the middle of the conference. The league is still getting some top 100 classes but this middle of the road stuff at least gives us a starting point to improve from.



Graves may be my best recruit to date even with the steals rating coming in lower than I wanted. If nothing else he gives me a competant ball handling PG off the bench for 4 years.


Welch is my first guard with an INS rating and it will be nice to have someone who is a threat to drive to the basket. He can defend and steal as well, his hands and passing is poor but he could turn into my best offensive player to date anyway.


Eventually we hope to find a big who can score but for now rebounding and shotblocking will earn Lange a lot of time on the court.



Roster

Junior big man Anson Colbert is willing to redshirt. I've got three junior big men so I take advantage and redshirt Colbert to balance out the time all those guys graduate more than anything.




We're inching closer to what I want to see here. We've got 3 guys at or above 70 in blocked shots, I want all our perimeter guys to be 65+ in steals at this level, Brian Glenn is the only real failing there at backup PG. I like my rebounding pretty well also. We're going to rely too much on the 3 point shot this year, but we'll see how it goes.

2013/14 Season

Scheduling

No changes here.

Recruiting

We've got 3 scholarships available this year. We graduate two guards and a big this year, but next year we

graduate 3 bigs so we need to start preparing for that ahead of time. We've got good class balance now (3

seniors/4 juniors/3 sophs/3 freshmen) as long as we can continue to recruit well every year.

There's a local 3* kid aveaging over 15 boards/game who has me as his #1 school! I offer him a scholarship blind to try to keep that lead in case some other crappy school like arkansas pine-bluff goes after him too.

Huge frustration as the big man we want ends up going to Missouri State. I put a lot of resources into him because he really did look good and look like he wanted to stay home.

Great news though as I am able to land one target in the early signing period before games start:


Defense, Steals, not terrible handlnig and a jump shot. I like!

Going into December we're out of contacts and have to scramble for our last two guys. We work on a new set of 2* guys over the next few months and get a big man to sign in March.


He can rebound and not much else. He has the hands to not be a turnover machine I hope. I'm clearly still at the point where "rebounding and nothing else" is ok for a big guy.


That's it for recruiting, we can't land a 3rd target.

Results

I'm frustrated to see us lose our home opener since we have so few home non-conference games. We finish November 2-2 though stealing one on the road. In December we win at home and steal one road game. We can't quite get above .500 but we're staying much closer than we have in recent years.

We steal a couple more road games and win 3 straight to actually have a 9-6 record at one point! It seems going into conference play there is a real chance this is the year we get things moving in the right direction. The end is a real disappointment though. We are up to 7-2 in conference play before the bottom falls out and we end up 8-8, unable to get past that .500 mark.


We do finish 3rd in our division. So much parity in the league, look at all the 8-8 and 7-9. The overall record is an improvement as well.






The RPI goes up a bit more, it was in the #290 range last year. We skyrocket up in steals, forcing 2 more than last season and we're now #1 nationally. Our biggest problem remains turnovers, we commit almost 18 a game and commit more than our opponents. That's not at all acceptable for our style of play. We need to force more and/or turn it over less, lots less. We shoot better this year and its a better season in general.


We get two guys over 2 steals per game this year. We actually have guys on our roster with a positive +/- rating!

Sam Houston State wins the conference tourney over top seed Stephen F Austin. They earn a 15 seed in the tournament and lose by 14 to Xavier in the first round.

In the NCAA Tournament Xavier goes on to win it all, beating 1 seed North Carolina in the finls. 3 seed Texas and surprise final four participant in 12 seed Western Kentucky are the other final four teams.


Totals: 15-15 (8-8) - No Postseason - RPI 273

2014 Graduating Class

These are the first kids I brought in myself (minus a couple transfers that came in as seniors).



Losing Hayden's rebounding is going to hurt. Hayden is the career leading rebounder in our very early history.



4 year starters will become very rare for me but Coffman was an obvious one as one of my first legit recruits. Looking at his turnovers per game is a real good example of why I eventually want all my guards to be able to handle the ball. Coffman sets the early mark for career scoring at Central Arkansas and no one else is close yet. The team will have to get a lot better and a lot higher scoring before someone passes him I bet.


Our 3rd graduate was a 4 year backup b/c of a C steals potential. I'm not going to highlight every player that passes through my teams, just a few worthy ones here and there.

2014 Offseason

Prestige reaches a new high going from 5->7. We lost a scorer and a great rebounder last year but hopefully the team overall continues to improve.

Coaching

No changes this year.

Transfers

We could bring in one transfer but there isn't anyone that really fits what I'd want, nothing this year.

INCOMING RECRUITS



Not nearly as good as last year, but we struggled pulling in players and instead of whiffing completely found what should be a couple respectable additions, so it could be worse.



Can't defend but he can rebound and won't turn the ball over. I'm pleased with how Maya came in.


Extremely disappointing. Career backup at best. The entire backcourt at all times must be able to generate steals. If you can't, I don't care what else you can do, you lose minutes.



Roster

I have 3 guys willing to redshirt, including both my freshmen, but none of them have enough potential to warrant hanging around an extra year i don't think.




I feel like we're a better rebounding team overall this year but our ball handling is worse, our offense is probably worse, we're slightly more well rounded with steals. We have more upperclass leadership than we've ever had as well.

2014/15 Season

Scheduling

No changes here.

Recruiting

Four scholarships this year. We're graduating two bigs and a guard and have the one scholarship we didn't fill last season.

We find two guys we like early on and full court press both of them. One of them signs early, before training camps. This helps a ton.


The steals seem pretty reliable, I dunno what to make of the 28/A inside game. Hopefully it averages out ot a B or high C and he can score some.

We have two promising targets that sign elsewhere in January, leaving us in a bit of trouble.

We continue to lose players but get what could be quite a nice win going into March.


Not a scorer, but Palmieri is rated #298 overall, the highest rated guy we've brought in. No one else seemed interested and if we didn't land him we were done for this recruiting year. He looks like he has the potential to be a really solid true PG for us with ball handling, passing and the ability to steal. A great SAT score helps the academic rating too.


Results

We go 6-6 though non-conference play. conference play opens a bit odd, we get off to a nice 4-3 start in January, but we're 3-0 on the road and 1-3 at home. In the end we end up right where we did last year... right at .500. We're 8-6 in conference play and lose our last two. We earn the 5 seed in our conference tournament but can't pull out a win over the 4 seed there.


The top seed wins the conference tourney, Sam Houston State beats Nicholls State 75-70.






We again lead the league in steals, our offense is just abysmal though, shooting is way back down, 41% from the floor just won't cut it. I want to stick with steals til the end but I wonder if I need to put a focus on scoring ability from my bigs. Either that or I need to try to be much more discriminating in my recruiting choices for guards and *only* look at local guys(which would mean i'd need to go way down into the 1* realm) and try to find more guys who can steal and shoot.


Jason Welch is only a sophomore so we've got two more exciting years with him to go. We need our depth to be better I think this is telling me. Look at how awful the +/- from my backups are, -2 on average in just 10 minutes! The goal of this system is to have 10 guys who can all steal and rebound.


Sam Houston State earned a 13 seed in the tournament, losing 65-48 to Xavier in round 1. Crazy final four this year... 10 seed Mississippi State wins the tournament, beating 8 seed Iowa in the finals. 7 seed Clemson and 1 seed North Carolina were the other two final four teams. With all those underdogs the Tar Heels have to feel horrible about not winning it all.

Totals: 15-15 (8-8) - No Postseason - RPI 281

2015 Offseason

Prestige is up one more point from 7->8. Our goal is now to finish .500 in conference play. We've been pretty

good at that lately! Our AD is now delighted with the job I've done staying out of last place.

Coaching

No changes this year.

Transfers

We can bring in two transfers and it looks like we need to this year if at all possible. Because of the way my

classes got bunched up earlier, and my inability to fill all scholarships lately, I have 3 bigs on my roster this

year, and one of them is graduating.

We end up grabbing two transfer players, one will be a junior, one a soph, to help with our big man depth.


We'll have Pappas for two seasons and by the time he starts playing for us his DRB and BLK may both be in the 80s.



post defense of 4 is slightly scary. But he adds some depth and will develop into a decent rebounder.


INCOMING RECRUITS



Right around 200 seems solid for us, I'd like to see higher but that's clearly hard to do consistently until we

have higher prestige, or better coaches(which comes with higher prestige->more money).



A potential in steals is great, that means he'll get up into the 80s by the time he's a senior hopefully. His

handling and shooting aren't great but we still have steals as the primary goal.



What a great find for a last minute last ditch recruit. His ceiling for steals is a little lower than Peay, but

he is a much more well rounded player, able to at least acceptably handle and pass the ball. Don't discount his

academic rating either, that's extra points not needed for academics in training camp that can get him to his

full potential sooner.


Roster

I have lots of guys willing to redshirt, unfortunately they are bigs and I don't have the depth for it, or guys that are going to start for me.




We'er not nearly as good this year. Not even close. Also, Jason Welch is a shitty student and is going to serve an academic suspension that will have him out til January. Fun times!

2015/16 Season

Scheduling

No changes here.

Recruiting

We again have four scholarships available this year. We're graduating two starters, a big, two SFs and a SG.

With our prestige increase we now have $8000/mo to spend on recruiting, a small but helpful gain.

We are able to hang on to two guys through the ealry signing period that I like a lot. One signs before training camps.


King is a two star guy rated #769. I cannot imagine he comes in anywhere close to this. But holy hell if he does I'll love him.


Spectacular news in December as we land our other primary target.


Some abysmal ratings in there but I'm 100% blnided by the 77/A steals rating.


We're able to make one last grab late, going into March the #597 player in the land signs with us.


Another guy who looks pretty solid. This could turn out to be a really good class for us if our scouting holds up at all.


Results

Even without our top scorer we hold our own through non-conference play, taking a 7-6 record into conference play, far more than I expected with this team with my best scorer out. Conference play, however, is a total disaster. We have a 9 game losing streak at one point and look destined for last. At one poitn two of our 3 big men were hurt. Both were out for about 4 games together, and one of them was out for 2 or 3 more.



Good thing I built up some job security because this was awful. Thanks to northwestern State for sucking slightly less.





Steals were down again this year, something I expected. Shooting was stil bad, turnovers way up, and our 3 point shooting reached a new low this year as well.


Kudos to Anson Colbert for averaging a double double this year!

The 7 seed in the conference, Texas-Arlington beat 1 seed Sam Houston State to make the NCAA Tourney. I'm going to assume they lost the play-in game. (1) Michigan State beats (1) Cal 52-51 to win the national title. 2 seed Tennessee and 4 seed Texas also make the final four.

Totals: 11-18 (4-12) - No Postseason - RPI 344

One graduate this year worth a mention:



Colbert leaves as the leading rebounder and shot blocker in Central Arkansas' still young history. A solid 4 year player. He could have started all four years but we had a senior transfer in 2012 who was better. He really had a great senior season, shooting 58% from the field with only a 54 INS rating.

2016 Offseason

Prestige drops back from 8->6, taking a big hit and killing the momentum we'd slowly(very, very slowly) been building. Our goal remains a .500 conference record and the AD is satisfied.

Coaching

No changes this year.

Transfers

We have one scholarship available for a transfer but this year i don't feel like I have to use it. I look each round closely and don't find anyone that i like enough to make an offer.

INCOMING RECRUITS



Only #272 but the guys we brought in seemed like they'd be great for us. A lot is riding on how they actually turn out.



I'll gladly take it, the more guys we can pull in with an A in steals the better.


Time will tell, but B INS and B jump shooting... this guy could be the offensive superstar we've needed. He's got a good enough potential to steal the ball that I don't have to hide him on my bench, I'd *love* to be able to redshirt King if he'll let me to boost those scoring ratings out of the gate.



He can shoot the 3 and he'll be a beast in steals by the time he's a sophomore.


I'm thrilled with this recruiting class. I of course want better all around players, and we still aren't addressing our turnover problems actively, but we got 3 very solid guys for our system here.

Roster

Freshman Paul King is willing to redshirt and I'm thrilled.




We are a much better steals team this year than last... not totally where we want to be but pretty good. Rebounding looks down, our ability to score in our starting lineup is laughable if Welch can't score every time down court. We may have at least a little bench scoring this year. I dunno about .500 in conference play, but better than last year for sure.

2015/16 Season

Scheduling

Ugh, last year I offered a lot of road/home and home/road series. That seemed to break something. I scheduled 9 series like that last year with the second half happening this year. I did that mainly out of laziness so that I would only have to schedule a few games instead of picking out the worst teams in the league each year. But the game ended up giving me 8 home games instead of just 5 like usual, I may do noticibly better in non conference play as a result. Seems a bug. I won't mess with home and homes again.

Recruiting

Four scholarships again. I need a big this year just to keep the balance going. I'm graduating two guards and a big, one starter only I think.

We bounce around a little before training camps but we do get one early signing and it looks like a good one.


Please come in with A HND and A STL. Please please please. Dude is #683 overall, I expect some of those potentials to be lower but I'm rooting for handling and steals.


Two more committments in December and things are looking great.


Decent hands and he can shoot the 3 and steal.



29/A INS I dunno what to make of that. I hope the ball handling is around a 40 or better, and he looks like a great steals guy too.



We dip down into the 1* guys to find a big, and all he can do is rebound but oh does he do it well.

Results

After January we're 1-6 in conference play and my frustration is building quickly. Yep, this isn't working at all. Terrible. I hope I don't get fired before I have a chance to see these last couple recruiting classes full of steals guys develop.



Dead last.





Amazing. Steals are waaaay up, for the first time ever we force more turnovers than we commit, we're a respectable rebounding team, but we just cannot put the ball into the hole. Our 3 point shooting is abysmal. Our free throw shooting is one of the worst in the country, just godawful. Please, AD, give me another year!



Palmieri, my PG, is a huge problem. He is a 35% field goal shooter and 23% 3 point shooter. But he's stlil taking enough shots to score almost 10 a game.

Stephen F Austin is the 1 seed in the conference tourney and they win it this year. They're a 14 seed and the 3rd team in 4 years to lose to Xavier in the first round, 83-76.

Xavier is the national champion, crushing 5 seed notre dame. 4 seed Florida and 7 seed michigan State also make it.

Totals: 10-19 (4-12) - No Postseason - RPI 347

2017 Offseason

Another hit to prestige after another awful season, 6->5. But, I don't get fired. We need to finish .500 in conference play and the AD is satisfied. They're patient here, thankfully.

Coaching

No changes this year.

Transfers

No transfers this year.

INCOMING RECRUITS



For the second year in a row we have a low class ranking since we didn't get any 3* guys, but we got the guys I generally wanted so I am hopeful.



Starting with our 1* guy who comes in basically as I scouted him. He's a great rebounder and can't do anything else at all.


A ball handling potential! With some steals ability. 4 year starter at PG? We'll see.


Perea is pretty much fully developed already. his steals will go up into the 60s and some of those C ratings will reach the 40s.



Roster





I decide to go with the slightly more experienced guys (and way better steals guys) in York and Palmieri. King and Anderson may take over the starting jobs in the backcourt next year though. I'm attempting to even out the minutes a little bit more than usual as well, 25/15 instead of the usual 30/10 perhaps. I've given up on predicting our potential. Maybe we have a little this year, we'll see.