No surprise - my coaching abilities have grown. I feel like I improved a little bit in every area this time and am now:
Recruiting: 56
Scouting: 11
Offense: 30
Defense: 63
I'm developing a reputation as a pretty good recruiter whose strength is on the defensive end and a rapidly growing awareness of the Xs and Os of the offensive side of the ball. Still can't scout well, though.
Code:
2027 Recruiting Rankings
# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
113. UC Davis Big West PF Bill Miller *** 0 0 1 1 1
116. Cal State Northridge Big West SF Richard Larrabee *** 0 0 3 0 0
130. UC Irvine Big West PF David Raymer *** 0 0 1 1 0
135. Cal Poly Big West PG Charles Rankins *** 0 0 1 0 3
171. Cal State Fullerton Big West C Richard Baker *** 0 0 1 1 2
176. Long Beach State Big West PF Gerardo Perez *** 0 0 1 2 0
219. Hawaii Big West SF James Shivers *** 0 0 1 0 2
252. UC Riverside Big West SG Lyndon McCarthy ** 0 0 0 1 5
275. Pacific Big West PF Robin Banda ** 0 0 0 2 0
340. UC Santa Barbara Big West 0 0 0 0 0
Our second best recruiting class in school history behind the six-player
Robert Serra and
Brian Klingensmith group that is seniors now. Next year is the turnover and new map if I'm still around.
Shockingly,
Richard Larrabee comes in as Red/Yellow, although already a good post defender with a 3 ball to burn.
Nat Freezer will battle senior
Bradford Taylor, who has long complained about lack of PT, for the starting PG spot. You already know our wings, and our post will be some combination of Klingensmith and
Alfred Beadle probably, if both players can stay academically eligible. In fact, all three of our key big men are rock-dumb and at-risk.
It's a really, really good time to jump ship. Our prestige has climbed to 45, which puts us second in the Big West behind
UC-Davis by a single point. Wait, what? What happened to
UC-Riverside?
Conference Movement
We haven't had a team move since 2023 - 4 years ago. Now,
UC-Riverside has left us and joined the
WAC, while
Utah State has joined our conference.
But that's not the only move.
Idaho State joins the
Mountain West, while
Colorado State, one of the worst teams in the country despite being in a high-major conference, drops to the
Big Sky. Lot of movement out west.
The AD is meh whatever on our second round appearance and still wants a conference title. I'm over it.
17 job offers hit my inbox. Some really interesting ones, including
Kansas, which in this universe has one postseason appearance - an NIT first round exit the first year. They're a prime candidate to get forced out in a season or two. Obviously the only expectation is to avoid last place.
Hilariously,
Cal Poly and
CSU-Fullerton offered me to switch in-conference. [b]Colorado State/b] also wants me to revive the laughingstock program with the #320 recruiting class and take the Rams to .500 in their new conference my first year. Still, the Rams haven't made a postseason in this universe and it's an interesting rebuild project. But getting them back to the Mountain West would involve UNLV, which, no.
[b]San Diego/b] is really tempting. My favorite city and the Toreros had a fluke Sweet 16 run in 2022, but otherwise have never made a postseason. But the WCC is a 4 prestige conference and that might be a jump too far.
Similar feelings about
Western Michigan and I hate the divisional split of the MAC anyway.
Central Connecticut State is interesting - .500 conference record request and the
Northeast is a 3 prestige conference. They have much better facilities - 37 rated - and a slightly larger budget. But one of my friends works at CCSU and it'd feel weird to be there based on that, so I'm going to have to pass.
Radford looks too much like
Rutgers in the logo so that's a no.
On to Round 2.
UC-Riverside got
John Mclain poached by
Creighton (who offered me in the first round), and the Highlanders offer me the spot to move up with them. Nope, not betraying the Matadors like that. Everything else is a no.
And then in Round 3, I get an offer I like. I take it, and it's off to a new adventure.
CSU-Fullerton and
Cal Poly both hired guys who are God-tier scouts and great defensive coaches, but awful recruiters and offensive coaches. Going to be interesting to see how that pans out for them. Neither of the guys they fired, despite having quality, landed a head coaching gig, so they'll work their way up through the assistant ranks again.
As for my replacement? 54 year old
Sonny Johnston, who is getting his first crack at the brass ring. He followed his first mentor from North Florida to Loyola (MD) and after they got fired, found a new acolyte at
Liberty and moved with him for a single season to
New Mexico before he got offered the job with the Matadors. Literally average everywhere but awful as a defensive coach (11). Curiously enough, he was hired as the Lead Scout with both mentors even though his strength is recruiting (58). I think it's a terrible hire, but we'll see how it pans out.
Eutropio "Trop King" Rey decided to put in for the assistant ranks.
Level 0 coach, of course.
Much as I'd like to hire him, he's just not ready to step in to this position. Hopefully he catches on somewhere as an Xs and Os assistant or a recruiting coordinator. He did great work landing us that excellent-looking class that was my final one at CSU-Northridge.
He came to me absolutely thrilled to say he'd landed the recruiting job at
Chicago State. 26 prestige program tied for tops in the no-bid
Great West. The Cougars have had a few 20-win seasons, but literally none of the teams in the conference has ever made a postseason tournament. Gotta start somewhere.
As for me? Next post.