I know most people turn off early declarations, but in my 'coach every game' FBCB save I've really enjoyed the added challenge. As a prestige 100 school that makes the Elite 8+ nearly every year, the last 4 seasons since the FBCB2 upgrade have really started to get challenging - yeah, it takes me awhile to coach each game, hence why so few seasons since this version...
I lost my best player (PF, Jnr) and my starting SG (Fr, #1 recruit in country)as well as some key seniors last season and a great combo guard freshman who decided to try his luck in the 2nd round of the draft, and as a result my roster is reallllly light - not helped by my top-50 freshman PF being ruled illegible to start the year.
Despite this we started the current season 12-0 and ranked #1, then had our first big game vs #2 Kentucky, 12-1. We scrapped home with a win to go 13-0, and I'm thinking I'm the best coach in the country to do so much with so little.
Then SEC play really begins. I go 3-3 in our first 6 games, losing to two 50-60 range prestige teams that had no business beating me. We can't put the ball in the basket as all of our guards are spot up players (low INS, high 3PT) who aren't getting good looks with no great playmakers, and our top scorer is an inconsistent sophomore PF who can't hit FTs.
I honestly have no idea how we'll end up doing this year, but it's a ton of fun. I was on the verge of retiring my current coach and taking up a new challenge, but instead I'm going to chase Coach K's 1000 wins. Got nearly 600 now in a little over 20 seasons. I think I'm going to chase a guy in the 100-250 range each season, to try give myself some guys that should stick around all 4 years.
Interesting that the same thing happened to Kentucky in my save... They lost to us, and then went 1-4 over their next 5 games to tumble out of the polls. Top schools are currently a mix of the usual high prestige teams, plus some 'Wichita State' type schools with a lot of 3rd and 4th year guys.