FBCB2: Rhode Island and more 3 ball

[Marmel]

Rhode Island, 2010

This dynasty is another attempt at building a team centered around an extremely fast paced, high scoring, 3 point shooting team, with little to no regard for defense.

Here is my first try, with the Hartford Hawks:

FBCB2: Hartford Hawks - Front Office Football Central

It failed miserably. Part of the problem was the type of player I could recruit. With a 20-30 prestige team, I was limited to 2 star recruits and the occasional 3 star guy. Most of these guys who are great 3 point shooters have very little other skills. I had one decent year and that was abut it. Also, I think the AD's expectations were way out of line.

So, I'll try again with Rhode Island, a 59 prestige team. Here is the basic setup.

No academic suspension, no injuries, no players leave early for the draft. Transfers can play immediately.

I am going to expand my criteria a bit when recruiting.

PG: Must be B or better at 3PS, and I'll look for good hands, passing and inside shooting ability (drive and dish or score)

SG: Must be B or better 3PS and good JPS. INS is nice but not necessary.

SF: Must be B or better 3PS and either good INS or JPS.

PF/C: Must be B or better in either ORB or DRB and competent in the other. Also needs to be a competent INS.

Defense doesn't matter.

Pace will be set to 10. 3 point shooting set to 10. My go to guys will be my best 3 point shooters.
If this was a real life team, I want to see us push the ball up court, and take the first open shot we get, preferably a 3 point shot. The bigs should rebound and tip in or kick back out for another shot.

On defense....I don't really care what they do, I just hope the other team shoots quick, so I don't think we are going to play tough man or pressure defense. I just want to get the rebound on a miss and go the other way quickly.

Rhode Island plays in the A10 conference and has a team prestige of 59 to begin. The AD expects me to finish 500 in conference. Seems reasonable.

The first season gets simmed pretty quickly because I don't really care about the current players on the team. I just want to get my guys in the program and start implementing my system and see if I can have success.

This first recruiting class is essential!

I have 3 scholarships available and the only pressing need right now to field a balanced team is a SF. I'll try to grab a guard and a PF/C as well, but probably go for best overall.


I lock onto a guard and a center early on and I am in a 2 way recruiting battle with each of those guys. I'm having trouble find an SF that I like with mutual interest.

I lose the SG to Delaware, which is pretty disappointing. The other team drops out on the Center I am after, so that should be a done deal for me.

I have an offer out to 2 SFs who I like, but I am not in love with. I also keep heavily recruiting a couple other SF's that I like as well.

Nobody signs with me in the early recruiting period.



December Signing Period.

I miss out on on SF. He chose Holy Cross. I did land the other:

SF Elton Stevens, 3 star, #228. A potential in 3PS, currently rated 71. C's pretty much acros the board in all other scoring categories.

I am still almost assured of the Center and I now have an offer out to a PG who I overlooked a bit at first, but after further review should make an excellent SG in my system.



January Signing Period

I wrap up my first recruiting class with 2 more signings!

C Mitch Lukas, 3 stars, #336 overall. Potentials of: A in ORB, B in DRB and B for INS. And for a bonus a B in Steals.

PG (soon to be SG I think) Jamal Oller, 3 stars, #408 overall. Potentials of B in 3PS, A in JPS, A in FTS, C in INS.



Fast Forward to the end of the season...

We finish the regular season up at 17-13 (9-7), good for 6th in the A10 (a 14 team league). Our RPI is 87 so maybe we are looking at an NIT bid or something...



Postseason

A10 First Round: RI 83, Umass 71
A10 Quarters: Charlotte 109, RI 91

Temple beats Charlotte for the A10 Title and the Auto Bid.

No post season tournament invite for me, which is fine.


NCAA Top Seeds: Michigan State, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky

Final Four (with seed): Clemson (3), Texas (1), Syracuse (2), Wake Forest (2)

Villanova beats Maryland for the NIT Title.

Texas beats Syracuse by a bucket for the National Title!

We had the conference player of the year and he is only a junior, so I have that to look forward to.....

On to the first real season!

[Marmel]

2011-2012

Our prestige dropped 1 point putting us at 58. The AD is delighted with my performance so far and still expects me to finish 500 or better in conference play. My recruiting class was ranked #92 in the nation.

Memphis was invited to the Big East while USF was booted to Conference USA.

Recruiting

I have 3 more scholarships to give out this year. I should grab a big man or two if I could. No 3 star recruits have a high or very high interest in me this year so I cast a wide net, evaluating about 30 3 star players who have average interest in my team.

I find a couple of guys I really love and then a few more that I would be happy to land as well. I have a fairly tight budget and end up handcuffing myself into chasing a couple of guys who I am trailing one or two other guys on. By the time I bail on them, my backup plans garnered new interests from other school. This could end up rough.

I don't sign anybody in the early signing period. I lose a PG to Seton Hall.

I seem to be in the lead on a great looking PF. He has interest from ODU as well.
I also seem to be in the lead for another great looking SG and I can't see missing on him at this point.

I offer my 3rd scholarship to a PG who initially seemed interested, but when I failed to give him some attention, I dropped down his list. I also get some new evaluations going on a handful of 2 star kids and one foreign 3 star recruit.


Our Lineup

PG Gordon Scarborough, Senior. Last year's conference player of the year.
SG Jamal Oller, Freshman. I have to get at least one of my guys in the starting lineup. The AI recommends somebody else, but Oller is a better 3 ballers and only slightly worst overall.
SF Derek Schutt, Junior. He is exactly the type of player I would recruit. 88 rating in 3PS.
PF Herman Goldstein, Senior. Put back specialist. I wish his DRB was better.
C Newton Powers, Senior. He will do a good job on the defensive boards and that's about it.

Bench

PG/SG/SF Orval Harbour, Sophomore. A young guy who I wish would just transfer. He projects to be a tremendous player and really should be starting. I'll use him as my super 6th man. If he works on his 3 point shooting, he could be end up starting, but at a current rating of just 50, I can't do it right now.

SF Elton Stevens, Freshman. Tremendous 3PS (second best on the team) and should develop a nice jumper as well.

PF/C Mitch Lukas, Freshman. Should be an excellent rebounder. His INS probably will never be good enough for me.

In tight games, I hope we stick to an 8 man rotation. (I sim games, so I have no control over this).

[Poli]

Good luck with it!

[Marmel]

November

Game 1 is exactly what I envision. We win on the road at Albany 101-91. Freshman Jamal Oller is named game MVP with a game high 22 points. Fellow Freshman Elton Stevens chips in 11 off the bench. The other freshman, Mitch Lukas adds 8 and 6 boards in 18 minutes.

I'm sure it is all downhill from here!

We actually finish the month 4-1, but we never topped 100 points again. Oller is the real deal early on and with Scarborough, they make a deadly back court. Scarborough leads the team in scoring with 17.8 and Oller is close behind with 16.2. Scarborough is also handing out 7.2 assists per game.

The other two freshman, Stevens and Lukas are combining for 10 points and 9 boards a game and about 28 minutes.

In recruiting, I predictably lose the PG who I ignored for 2 months. He goes to Yale instead.
I do land my first recruit of the year:

SG Chris Flores, 3 stars, rated #232. Potentials of A in 3PS and JPS and a B in INS. Perfection.

I am still in a heated battle for a PF, with Old Dominion. I think he is leaning ODU and if I lose him, it is going to kill my chances at a decent class.

I also offer a scholarship to another PG who is a JUCO. He has a lot of interest, but no offers so far.




December

6 wins in a row was a great start to the month. We made it all the way to the title game of a preseason tournament, but lost to Minnesota. That was the first of a 3 game losing streak to end the month though. We wrap up the year at 10-4.

We land the JUCO recruit, but lose out on the PF I really wanted, to ODU.

PG Erick Culbreth, 3 stars, rated #480, JUCO. A potential in 3PS and JPS.
He just saved my recruiting class. If I do pick up a third recruit, he will be just roster filler.




January

We kick off our conference schedule this month, but with only 6 games in January. We split the 6 games, going 3-3. One of the wins was a home victory over one of the conference favorites, George Washington. We are 13-7 on the year with an RPI of 79.

Scarbrough just missed a triple double two times this month. Falling just a couple of rebounds short. Oller has taken over the team lead in scoring at 17.6. Scarbrough is at 15.3. SF Schutt is at 15.2. Lukas has had some great rebounding games off the bench. He has some bad games too, so if he can just get consistant, he will be a fine player for us.

Nothing to report on the recruiting front. Still searching for a 3rd recruit.



February

The shortest month seemed like the longest month ever for me. We suffered a 4 game losing streak, and finished the month losing 5 of 6. We had a 122 point scoring outburst on the road at Duquesne early in the month and that was the only highlight.

We are 16-13 (6-9) with one more league game to go.



March

We wrap the regular season with a win against Richmond to finish 17-13 (7-9), below expectations.

We scored 82.7 ppg, 2nd in the A10 and 11th nationally.
Our 3 point % was .380, 4th in the A10 and 53rd nationally.



Post Season

A very short, painful one. We get killed, 99-63 to LaSalle in the A10 first round game.
St. Louis beats Xavier for the A10 crown.

NCAA top seeds: UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma

The West bracket is blown to bits as #13 Michigan State tears through their half of the bracket as a much underseeded team. On the other half, #14 Charlotte pulls upset over upset over brand named teams Tennessee, Syracuse and Texas to meet Michigan State in the Elite 8.

In the East, #12 Arizona State had an easy road, but still had to beat #1 Oklahoma to reach the Elite 8.


Final Four: Michigan State (13), Wisconsin (6), Kentucky (1), Arizona State (12)
Is there any doubt Kentucky takes this thing?

First, Dayton beats Illinois State in the NIT.

And in an upset, Wisconsin cuts down the nets after beating Kentucky on Monday night, 85-76.

[Marmel]

A quick note on post season awards:

Jamal Oller was named A10 Freshman of the Year and took a spot on the National Freshman 1st team.
PF Mitch Lukas was named to the A10 Freshman team.

[Marmel]

2012-2013

Our prestige tumbled 3 points, down to 55. We start turning it around this year. The AD is no longer happy, but just satisfied with me so far. The goal is still to finish 500 in conference this season.

We have 4 scholarships to give out this year. One big man and one PG then the other two to the best players at any position is the early plan.

The early signing period turns out to be a great success. While we lost a great looking PG to Rider, we did sign 3 other kids early on. The Center is going to be a really great player for us too, I think.

C Isidro Gamble, 3 stars, rated #224. B in DRB and an A in INS.
PF Erick Steffen, 3 stars, rated #257. B in ORB and A in INS.
SF David Fleming, 3 stars, rated #439. B in 3PS. B in INS. B in passing and C in handling. He could be converted to a PG. At 6-8 that may or may not work, but he seems to have the skills.

I also have another offer out to a PG, who looks more like a SG to me.


Depth Chart:

We have 5 really good perimeter players and only 3 spots to start them. The first one out of consideration for a starting spot is actually the best player overall on my team, Orval Harbour. He doesn't have the 3 point shot to start on my team.

PG Jamal Oller, Sophomore. His handle is what makes me slot him into the PG spot this year. He won Freshman of the Year in the A10 as a SG, but we are weakest at the point, and he can handle the ball the best.

SG Elton Stevens, Sophomore. Tied for second best on the team in 3PS, along with a decent jumper gives him the nod here.

SF Derek Schutt, Senior. A holdover player from the old regime, but a perfect fit for my system. He is rated 95 in 3PS!

PF Mitch Lukas, Sophomore. Very solid rebounder with some INS skill.

C Jeremiah Bergen, Junior. The weak link in my team right now is a 2nd quality big man. Bergen will have to do for now.



Bench:

PG/SG Erick Culbreth, Junior (JUCO). Should be a super 6th man for us. 86 in 3PS, 71 in JPS.
PG/SG/SF Orval Harbour, Junior. Just an all around great player, but weak in 3PS.
C Freeman Hageman, Junior. Just the third best big man on a team where the quality down low is lacking tells you all you need to know.
SG/SF Chris Flores, Freshman. Still developing, but has nice potential. Lat guy of the bench in any close game for us this year.

[Marmel]

November

A very tough start to our season. All the games were on the road, against a bit tougher competition that I usually schedule, but still no real good teams. I go just 1-3.

Nothing to report in recruiting yet either.



December

A much better month as we just about wrap up our out of conference schedule. We go 6-1 in the month to put our record at 7-4 overall. The one loss was at home to a pretty bad Albany team. We really should have gone undefeated.

PG Oller leading our team in scoring with 23.6 ppg. SF Schutt next best at 15.9 and Stevens also is in double figures. PF Lukas just under 10 boards a game (9.9). Our two big guys are combining for 13 points a game. We are averaging 82.7 ppg, best in the A10.

I lose out on the PG I offered. He chose to go to Maine.
I evaluate a few more players to see if I can pick up a useable 4th player.




January

A 5-2 month, but it turned out even better than the record would indicate. We lost our first A10 game, on the road to Temple, but then rattled off 4 straight, including 2 early road wins to finish the month 12-6 overall but more importantly, 4-1 in the A10. We are in a 5 way tie for first place.

Recruiting for that 4th spot is not going well. Anybody worth offering has been scooped up. I am trying to take a late look at a foreign player, but I don't think that will work out.




February and End of Regular Season

We start February with 3 games against teams we are tied for first place with. We drop the two road games and win the home game. Then we lose 3 of the next 4 to fall way out of contention and back to 500 in conference. Winning 3 of the last 4 on the year saves us. We finish the regular season at 17-12 (9-7) good for the 7 seed in the A10 tournament.

Oller finished the season with a team high 24.1 ppg. He finished 3rd in the nation in scoring.
Schutt finished at 15.3 while Stevens was at 12.6.

Our season scoring average was 81.7, tops in the A10 and 16th in the nation. Our 3 point shooting percentage was .414, 7th best in the nation. These are nice to see.



Post Season

Between this dynasty and the last one with Hartford, I am officially the worst post season coach ever. We drop the first round game to the 10th seeded St. Bonnie team, 91-83.

Charlotte wins the A10 Tournament.


NCAA Top Seeds: Mississippi State, Texas, Duke, Connecticut

Final Four: Georgetown (3), UCLA (2), Memphis (2), Connecticut (1)

Louisiana State beats Cincinnati for the NIT Title.

In an all Big East Final, my 2 most hated teams battle. Georgetown, the great of two evils, beats Connecticut for the National Title. Should I just resim the tournament now???


PG Jamal Oller was named to the A10 Second Team.

[Marmel]

2013-2014

Despite achieving the AD's expectations, our prestige dips 2 more points, down to 53. The AD is satisfied with me at least. He still expects a 500 finish in conference. That should not be a big problem.

Our recruiting class was ranked #95 overall.

Utah State was promoted to the PAC-10 while Oregon State was demoted to the WAC.

We have 5 scholarships to offer this year. No pressing needs position wise, although I could always use competent big guys. I'll be getting the best players possible this year, regardless of position.

The early signing period turned out to be a total disaster. Everybody I was pursuing took another offer and I am left with nobody. To strike out that many times with such a big class to fill spells disaster. I scramble!


Starting Lineup

PG Jamal Oller, Junior.
SG Erick Culbreth, Senior.
SF Elton Stevens, Junior.
PF Mitch Lukas, Junior.
C Isidro Gamble, Freshman


Bench:
PG/SG Orval Harbour, Senior
SF Chris Flores, Sophomore
PF/C Erick Steffen, Freshman
PF/C Jeremiah Bergen, Senior
SF David Fleming, Freshman

[Marmel]

November

A very ugly start to the season as we go 1-3, losing 2 home games and our only win was against Northern Arizona. Oller's scoring is way down at 15.8 and nobody else other than Stevens is getting it going. Good thing it is very early on. Lots of time to figure things out.

No recruiting news this month. This large recruiting class I need to bring in, and the lack of results I am getting could hamper our growth for years to come. A very bad sign.




December

Much better this month. We go 5-1 to take our overall record to 6-4 on the year. Oller is up to 19.1 ppg. Stevens and Culbreth averaging double figures as well. Lukas is a solid 8 and 8 guy at PF. We even finished the month with two 100 point scoring games.

We get 3 devastating rejections in the recruiting this month, only able to sign one guy. He is pretty decent, but we failed this year in recruiting.

C Raul Edgar, 3 stars, rated #279. B potential in both ORB and DRB and a C in INS.
I currently have 2 offers out that I would say I am about 50/50 to land. I throw a couple more offers out to guys sight unseen, only because they are 3 star prospects and have no current offers. That never really works out too well, but if I can just hobble together a few bodies, at least I'll have some bench guys moving forward.




January

We had a couple of non-conference games with we took care of, then entered A10 play this month. We opened the A10 schedule with a win at Temple, always a good league team. We then dropped 2 in a row to Umass and richmond on the road. We rebound with 2 home wins against Umass and Temple (completing the season sweep against them).

Our record is 11-6 and 3-2 in conference. Our RPI is 103.

4 scholarship rejections. Nobody signed. 1 signee out of 5 so far. Very disappointing. I am battling Hawaii for an Australian kid and then blindly offer 3 more scholarships just so we have some bodies on the practice floor next year.




February

Well, any thoughts of us actually being a little bit good are gone. We had a challenging schedule to star the month with league leading Charlotte and fringe top 25 (#25 and #24 to be exact) Xavier and Dayton. We drop all three, plus 2 more before we rally to win our last 3 at home. We finish this month at 14-11 and 6-7. We really can't afford to lose any more conference game if we are to finish above 500. Perhaps an 8-8 record will meet demands?

Four more declined scholarships and I blindly throw offers at 4 new guys, all 1 star, but top 1000 players. One for 4 different positions. I've never had a recruiting year as bad as this one. I'm not sure how far reaching the effects will be.




March

3 more losses to wrap up the regular season leaves us at 14-14 (6-10). The AD will be pissed and I probably have 1 more year to turn this thing around.



Post Season

Another quick one. We lose to Temple, who we beat twice this year, 84-79.
Temple beat Umass for the A10 Title.


NCAA Top Seeds: Michigan State, Texas, Memphis, UCLA

Final 4: Michigan State (1), Texas (1), Duke (2), UCLA (1)

USC beats Arizona State for the NIT title.

Michigan State beats UCLA for the National Title.


C Isidro Gample was named to the A10 all Freshman Team.

[Marmel]

Considering I have a 7 man roster, with only 5 really able to contribute. Oh, also I am on the very hot seat....so I think my 3 point shooting experiement with 2 different teams has been a huge fail. I need to work on my FBCB game.