Zeroed Out Coach: The Vegas Pipeline (FBCB 2K10)
 

And here we are, back to FBCB 2010. Zeroed out single player coach, taking over one of the bottom feeder teams. Nothing new there for an Izulde dynasty, right?

Well, this one is going to have a little bit of a twist. I'm going to try building a pipeline to Las Vegas players. I'm not sure if pipelines are a thing in FBCB, but it's worth a shot anyway just because.

Players can declare after their sophomore season. The NCAA tournament is reset to 64 teams, with the NIT boosted up to 40 teams to make up for the difference. The CBI and CIT are GTFO.

We'll start off in the Southalnd, with Central Arkansas, as that's a state I've actually lived in. I considered one of the Florida schools in the Atlantic Sun, but Florida Gulf Coast already has IRL success, and I've never been to Jacksonville, so North Florida is out. Plus, Florida is a recruit rich state, and Arkansas presents more of a challenge.


University of Central Arkansas Bears
Location: Conway, AR
Southland Conference
Prestige: 7
Claim To Fame: Scottie Pippen

There's a Shakespeare theatre in Conway, and it's also home to Hendrix College, where one of my UArk office mates went to undergrad. I'd classify it overall as an Arkansas college town, which means I want to GTFO as soon as I can.

As you might expect, the roster is a sea of red, with the lone orange/yellow guy a 5th year senior. And a red/orange junior. Basically, we're hunting up any kind of talent we can with our 3 scholarships.

I get a chuckle out of Chris Numbers being our scrubby Lead Scout. I then realize I screwed up by making myself 35 for a 2016 start rather than 37. Oops. Oh well. My alter ego is a couple years younger than me this time. :P

Initial 3 Recruiting Targets
1. SF Ed Terrazas
2. C Darrin Hale
3. PG Sanford Ramos (the Las Vegas target)

We lose Ed Terrazas to Georgia State and Darrin Hale to Western Carolina. Moving on down the line to two more big men. Because our scouting sucks, I'm just going by player stats. This is *real* quick and dirty recruiting here y'all.

Fast sim through this season, because who the fuck cares about these scrubs?

We lose one of our backup big options to Arkansas-Little Rock, but we secure our Las Vegas guy as we were the only school interested in him, even though he's a 3* and we started off with Low interest. Yay!!!!



He really wanted a high prestige West team, and was eager to be a Runnin' Rebel, but he took our full-court press and the chance to be a starter right away.

I'm betting he'll be tons better than Red/Orange, TBH. We take a flier on a 4* player who has no offers and has us Very Low interest, because why not? We're 1-9 when we sign him, by the by.

Swing and a whiff on recruits. We're not walking out of this season with a big man, unfortunately. Boo. That's the one thing that annoys me about FBCB - you can always find PGs in recruiting, but bigs always get snapped up early.

3-26 (2-14) is our final first year record, with 0 home wins. Recruiting has been equally awful. We snap up a couple 1* players, or try to, in April. We do. A transfer spot opens up after one of our guys transfers out.

Next up, the real look at our new freshmen.

Looks like we're putting together a smallball team that can shoot 3 pointers and generate pressure in the backcourt.

We luck out in transfers, grabbing a 7'2, 261 lbs Junior center from Wright State. Of course he sucks, but he's actually a decent player for our current roster:



Oh, and our prestige dropped to 6. :(

Worse yet, our LV recruit this time does get offered by UNLV and goes there.

All three of our freshmen are in the starting lineup, though Anthony Jones has to be a manual input.

November is 0-5 and brings with it yet another missed recruit.

0-7 December as well. On top of it, Kenneth Smith is suspended for the rest of his freshman season. :banghead: :banghead: On the bright side, we land an underrated 1* recruit.

Still winless in January, but both our other freshmen get hurt, including 3 weeks for Sanford Ramos. We do, however, steal a 3* Canadian recruit who should be an absolute whale for our program.

We almost get a win in February, but fall 47-48 to Nicholls State. Then in late February we *finally* get our first victory of the season, 59-55 over McNeese State. Sanford Ramos is PotG with 23 points, a block, and 2 steals on excellent shooting percentages. It's also our first home win of my tenure. In addition to our first victory, we wrap up recruiting with a 2* prospect the rankings hated, but my scouts absolutely loved.

BTW, our recruiting class was ranked #173 last year, 7th of 12 in the Southland. I think this class is going to be much better.

1-28 (1-15) is our final tally, but we had a ton of injuries during the year, to say nothing of our best rebounder's second half suspension.

Shut out of awards.

He is back!!!! Pipelines aren't a thing, but its gonna be fun watching you try to make it one

Disappointing to hear pipelines aren't a thing, though given the fewer number of players in basketball, I suppose it makes sense. I'll try my damnedest anyway. :D

First look at this year's gets - the class is ranked #183, but it's good for 4th in the Southland, as opposed to last year's 7th. McNeese State is again tops in the conference, following up a #102 class with an #82 one. We also had another unhappy scrub transfer.



I'm legit thrilled about Ezra Jones. And we have our first redshirt candidate in David Davis, as we have Kenneth Smith and Darrin Smith able to play PF/C for a year while we develop our dumbass Georgian. :D

The first conference movement occurs, with Gonazaga moving to the WAC and Idaho dropping down to the WCC.

Much to my disappointment, we don't get a transfer scholarship as a result of dude transferring. Further disappointment: our prestige drops another point, to 5.

Whiff on two of our first 3 recruits, including one to conference rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Fuck. I screwed up and forgot to redshirt David Davis before training camp.

Post Training Camp Notes
Two players have jumped up to orange - b]Sanford Ramos[/b] and Romeo Ortiz. Guess we have good luck developing our Latino players. Another big is suspended for the first half of the year, but it's an original scrub, so I don't care.

As for the sophomores:


Continues his steady climb up as a rebounding guru. Too bad he can't defend worth a damn, or shoot for that matter.


Just about maxed out in his shooting ratings, so we can shift focus to exclusively developing his floor general and defensive skills his next two years


Will probably be moved to the bench this year with the arrival of Romeo Ortiz, which shows we're getting stronger.

Starting Lineup
PG Sanford Ramos (So)
SG Romeo Ortiz (Fr)
SF Ezra Jones (Fr)
PF Kenneth Smith (So)
CE Darrin Smith (RS Jr)

Impressive. It took just two years to future an all my players lineup. That's what balanced recruiting gets you, folks. I feel we'll improve on last year's campaign of 1 measly win. The board is proving remarkably patient with me, as I'm still okay.

Our Pace is up to 2, 3 Point usage up to 4, Press/Trap to 3, as a result of our focus on 3 point shooters and guys who can steal the ball. It's a slog, but a system is gradually coming. Ezra Jones is our Key Player.

3 road games, 3 losses in November. But at least our biggest loss was 14 points, and one game was under 10 points. So there's signs of improvement there. On the other hand, we again miss on our Las Vegas target, who goes to Idaho State, and we get rejected elsewhere, too.

Literally half our December games are against Top 25 teams, so you know how that turned out. Still looking for our first win as the calendar turns. We also keep getting spurned by recruits.

Our first win comes against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, a 65-55 win keyed by Kenneth Smith's 8 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and a block. Sanford Ramos has 13 points, 5 rebounds, a block, and 2 steals, and Ezra Jones pours in 16 points and a steal.

We drop our first two Southland games badly, and then Sanford Ramos and Ezra Jones are hurt - the latter for 2 weeks. That costs us our first conference victory.

At long last, get that first victory, 75-66 over Southeastern Louisiana, Ezra Jones going apeshit for 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, Kenneth Smith with 10 points, 10 boards, and 2 steals, and 13 points by Darrin Smith. But you know this can't be good if it's an Izulde dynasty right? David Davis is out 103 days after this win.

On the flip side, we close out January by doubling our conference wins from last year, knocking off Nicholls State 51-48 on the back of 12 points from Ezra Jones and 13 rebounds and a steal from Kenneth Smith. Bad news? Another rejection from a recruit.

A 1 point loss to Nicholls State on our own turf is a kick in the teeth, but we sweep Southeastern Louisiana, winning 50-49 thanks to Ezra Jones' 14 points and a block, and an impressive 11 points, 7 rebounds from Darrin Smith. Hard luck on the recruiting trail, as again, we have rejections.

We finish the season 4-25 (3-13), setting records in each category. Yeah, it's that kind of situation. And in that final loss, Kenny Smith is out 2 months. At least it occurred in the last game of the year.

Third straight season no awards, and we're trying to bring in a trio of 1* recruits. We grab just 2 of them, and have the worst recruiting class in the country other than Houston Baptist, who had a single 1*, and Stony Brook, who signed no one.

Initial review of those recruits looks like we got a couple meh dudes, too. Ugh.

Way to fight the good fight in terribleville. Should be interesting to see how you turn it around!