FBCB2: Hartford Hawks

[Marmel]

Hartford Hawks: The 3 Point Game

I'll be taking over the head coaching duties of the Hartford Hawks, out of the American East Conference. Our starting prestige is a 20. This is the 2nd worst prestige rating in the conference. The big dog is Vermont with a 52 prestige.

A few items on this dynasty....to for a change of pace, I turned off injuries, academic suspensions and once a player commits to school he is staying 4 years. Transfers can play immediately. That's about it. Let's get right into it.

My philosophy with this team is pretty simple. When recruiting guards and small forwards, I'll be looking for 3 point shooters. We'll take as many 3 point shots as we can. Our pace will be as high as possible. I'll don't really like the 3 guard offense, so I'll really need to recruit forwards who play a perimeter game, but have some size. As for forwards and centers, they will be interchangeable in my system. I just want them to be good rebounders.

For the first season, I just quick sim through all the games, not even aware of who my starters are. I just implement my system and see what happens with the players I am given.

The important thing this first year is to start getting my type of guys into the program. I identify 3 players who have mutual interest and go pretty hard after them, with a few token visits to a couple other backup plans.

After the initial recruiting period, I land one of those players.

SG Richard Nelson out of Hall High School in CT. He is a 2 star player, rated #663 nationally. He is shooting over 40% from 3 land in high school and is rated 69 in 3PS currently.


November

We load up on cupcakes, even for a prestige 20 team, these are some easy games. We go 4-1 in the month and we are shooting over 44% from 3 point range this year, best in the nation!

On the recruiting front, another SG I really coveted surprised me by committing to St. Peter's instead of us. It seemed I was in the lead most of the way for him. His name is George Wampler. I add him to my watch list to see what could have been.

The good news is that I land a nice looking SF from John Glenn High in New York. He is a 2 star player and rated 72 in 3PS! Very nice!

I clear out my call list, as there is nobody left I am interested in and throw another large net around my general recruiting area. We'll see what shows up next month.



December

We lose our first three, but then win the next next 5, including a home victory in our AEC opener against favorites, Vermont. We are 9-4 on the year, but with an RPI of 316. Our 3PT% is 40.4, good for 2nd in the nation. I actually have a really nice senior SG on the team. James Rodriguez is 2nd in the nation in scoring at 25.8 ppg.

I find a PG who is A rated in 3PS and has a current rating of 76. I am all over him, hoping to gain his interest. He has a few midwestern teams after him that I will have to beat out. There is another SG and a PG that I also contact as backup plans, but I am not nearly as excited about those guys.



January

We were respectable in conference play this month. We stand in 6th place (9 team league) at 4-5, 13-9 overall.

PG Mike Zuber commits this month! He must have realized that his strength plays into my systems perfectly and knows he is going to see the court early in his career. I am very excited about our first recruiting class of 3 kids. He was rated 2 stars and #748 overall, out of Bethesda Chevy-Chase High in Maryland. Despite the star rankings, I think I am happy with these kids.



Regular Season Wrapup

We finish the regular season 16-13 (7-9) in conference, and are the 6 seed in the AEC tournament.

We lose to the 3 seed Albany team in our first game and that should be it for our season.

Vermont beats Albany in the championship game for the auto bid to the tourney.


In the big dance, your #1 seeds are: Ohio State, Xavier (???), Kentucky and Duke.

Your final four, with tourney seed in brackets: Marquette (4), Texas (2), Oklahoma (4), Duke (1)

Illinois beats West Virginia for the NIT title.

Marquette stuns the nation and beats Texas for the National Title on Monday Night.

OK, so much for the first season, but now I get some of my own recruits in the gym!

[Marmel]

2011-2012

Our prestige crept up 1 points. We are now 21.

Recruiting...

I go hard after a great looking 3 star SG, but for some reason he loves BC and I cut ties before I tie up too many resources on chasing him. Oh well, would have been nice.

In the early recruiting period, I sign 2 star PG Jonathon Smallwood out of Canton High School in CT. His 3PS potential is an A, but he is currently only rated 48.

My other 2 scholarships are being offered to a couple big guys. One seems a sure thing, the other I am in a battle with Maine for, but it does seem I lead them.


The season is about to get underway, and I'll be starting my three freshman. Here is opening day starting lineup:

PG Freshman Mike Zuber
SG Freshman Richard Nelson
SF Freshman Jonathan Bonds
PF Senior Chris Anthony
C Junior Joshua Penny

I fully expect a pretty bad season. My hope is to avoid getting fired for a couple of years until all my own recruits are fully integrated, a few have some seniority, and we'll see how my system plays out.


November

We start out the season, 2-2. One loss comes on the road to national ranked Uconn. The first thing that is obvious is that we have a player in SG Richard Nelson. It is only 4 games but he can score! He is averaging 24.5 per game and even put up 24 against a top 10 team on the road.

On the recruiting front, we beat out Maine for PF Jason Washington. He is a 3 star player, ranked #474 overall from Wilmington High in Massachusettes.

My other prospect, who I thought was a slam dunk to sign is now wavering after Monmouth has shown some interest in him.



December

Rough month. Our record drops to 4-7 and we drop our first two conference games to open up the AEC season at 0-2. Nelson's average has come down to under twenty, but none of the other starts are helping out. Our season 3PS% is just under 35%. Not good. This is going to take some time.

We do finish up recruiting with C Bobby Magallanes from Hunterdon Central in New Jersey. He is a 2 star recruit, ranked #541 overall.

[Marmel]

January

We are inconsistent all month, but manage to we did win 3 out of 4 in one stretch to put our season record at 9-12 (3-7). We are tied for 7th place, but 3 games ahead of last place Maine, who is 0-10. The AD said I need to avoid last place, so I should be safe for now.

Richard Nelson has been very good for us, scoring 19 points a game. Fellow freshman SF Jonathan Bonds is starting to get the hang of the college game. His average is up to 10.6 and he is grabbing 6 boards a game as well.


February

Our regular season ends and we finish up at 12-17 (5-11). That is 8th place out of 9. We will face Main in the dreaded 8-9 opening round game of the AEC conference tournament.

Al 3 freshman starters have upped their averages over 10 now. I have them all playing over 30 minutes a game. I hope this helps us in the future. Nelson hit the freshman wall this month and his average has dropped down into the 17's, but I am confident he is going to be a great player for us.


Post Season

It is short and sweet for us. We drop the first game to 9th place Maine, 88-74 and that is the end of our season.

BU and New Hamphire battle for our conference auto bid, with BU, the top seed taking a 72-64 victory.

NCAA top Seeds: Duke, Marquette, Tennessee, Maryland

#15 Morehead State is the big story of the opening day of the tournament. They knock off the #2 seeded Xavier Muskateers!
Also, on Saturday, 9th seeded BYU knocks off top seeded Duke!

Final 4: Washington (6), Clemson (3) – they knock off defending champs Marquette, Tennessee (1), Maryland (1)

UCLA wins the NIT over Miami of Ohio.

The two top seeds lose on Monday, setting up the ultimate underdog title game between Washington and Clemson.

Washington wins 65-62!

Jonathan Bonds was named AEC Freshman of the year!

[Marmel]

2012-2013

Our prestige creeps up one more point, to 22. Now the AD expects me to finish 500 in conference.
My recruiting budget is going to be spread very thin this year. I have 5 scholarships to offer. We need more big guys, but I am always looking for great shooters.

After evaluating a whole slew of guys, I am somewhat unimpressed with the guards and small forwards, so I just target on the best of the bunch and focus on a bunch of big men to go after. With such a small budget, I'll probably only land 3 or 4 players and then scrub the 1 star recruits for a sharpshooter, diamond in the rough type of guy.

I land one guy in the early period, C Cory Downey from Windsor Locks High in CT. He is 3 star, but nothing to brag about. He is ranked #385 overall.

I redshirt PG Jonathan Smallwood for the season. He could be a really great one for me, so the extra year of development will help. It leaves our team young and thin this year, but I expect growing pains for another season or two anyway.

Here is our starting lineup:

PG Soph. Mike Zuber
SG Soph. Richard Nelson
SF Soph. Jonathan Bonds
PF Freshman Jason Washington
C Freshman Bobby Magallanes

Yikes!

[Marmel]

November

We start the season with 3 straight wins, then a loss on the road at Uconn, which is to be expected. Nelson starts off great, averaging 24 a game over the first 4. Bonds is at 13.5. Freshman PF Jason Washington an early surprise, chipping in 11 a game and 5 boards. Freshman center Bobby Magallanes grabbing 10 boards a game is a big help.

We pick up our second recruit, SG Ned Livingston, a 3 star recruit, ranked #353 from Lawrence high School in New York. He is an A rated 3PS and is currently rated 61.

We are still in the running, and likely the favorites for 2 big men. I sweep through the 3PS% stats for a bunch of kids that I haven't evaluated and add them to my recruiting net to see if I can find a diamond in the rough for the 5th scholly.



December

Things get pretty ugly in December. We only manage to win 2 games this month and had to deal with a 4 game losing streak. We also drop our AEC opener.

Everyone's stats are way down, except for Nelson, who is still over 22 a game. Bonds is the only other player over 10, and just barely at 10.5. The freshman are struggling and Zuber doesn't look like the answer at PG at all.

Luckily for us, we land a 3 star PG, Brian Finnell, ranked #356 overall, out of Caro high School in Michigan. He is a B rated 3PS.

We also land 2 star center, Richard Simonton out of Penn CC. He is a Juco.

With my 5th scholarship open, I take a flier on a 1 star recruit with an A rating in 3PS and a 78 current rating. He also plays a pretty damn good defense, not that I care about that side of the ball right now. He doesn't do much else though. I can't not see him accepting my offer by next month.




January

Things are maybe just starting to come together. We put together a 3 game winning streak soon followed by winning 3of 4. We finish the month at 11-9 (5-4), good for 4th place, only 0.5 games behind a top three finish. Nelson is really starting to be a threat. In the last game of the month he hung 40 on 2nd place Binghamton in a big win for us.

Nelson's average is up to 24.5 per game now. Bonds crept up to 11.8.

We do land that 1 star SG, Elden McBroom. I don't know what to expect from him when he steps up to this level of competition, but in high school he is scoring over 20 a game and hitting almost 46% of his deep shots!

[Marmel]

February (and early March)

We take a major step backwards this month. Our record falls to 13-16 overall. At 7-8 heading into our final game, at home, against Albany, we lose to finish 7-9. Not quite 500 in conference, but not horrible either. I'm sure the AD will keep me around a bit longer.

We finish up in 7th place, just 1 game behind a three way tie for 4th though!



Post Season

Another very short one for us, as we lose in the first round of the AEC to 2nd seeded Binghamton, 84-68. Top seeded BU wins the tourney and the auto bid.

NCAA top seeds: Arizona, Duke, Mississippi State, Syracuse

15th seeded Cornell upsets #2 Baylor in the first round! 13th seeded Villanova upsets #4 Missouri as well.

Cornell continues its Cinderella run into the Sweet 16! Also, in the same bracket, all hell breaks loose as #9 Louisiana State knocks off top seeded Arizona. 12th seeded Texas beats Marquette and 6th seeded Carolina beats Florida to set up the most unlikely Sweet 16 matchups.

In the Sweet 16, Cornell continues its amazing run by upsetting North Carolina. They will face the 12th seeded Longhorns of Texas for a spot in the Final 4!

Texas finally ends Cornell's dream season, but they make it to the Final 4 as a 12 seed!


Final 4: Texas (12), Duke (1), Mississippi (1), Syracuse (1)

Michigan State wins the NIT over Dayton.

Texas finishes its improbable run to a national title by upsetting Syracuse on Monday night, 63-47 and claiming the title as the lowest seed ever to do it in tournament history.


SG Nelson is named to the AEC first team.
C Magallanes is named to the AEC All Freshman team.

[Marmel]

2013-2014

Our prestige moves up 2 more points, to 24. The AD is satisfied with me, although not excited by any means. He still expects me to finish 500 in conference play this season.

I only have 2 scholarships to offer this year, so I can afford to be really picky and real hard after the best reasonable players I can find.

After casting a wide net, the two players I want and have a reasonable chance to get are both 2 star. Now, I know what I am after when I look at guys, but I am worried I am under recruiting here, at least based on star ratings. But this is the strategy for this dynasty, so I am sticking with it.

I land both of them:

C Timothy Sharpe, ranked #549, from Washington High in New York.
PG Vito Baird, ranked #597, from Winthrop High in Mass.

I red shirt promising young SG Ned Livingston.

This year's lineup:

PG Jr. Mike Zuber
SG Jr. Richard Nelson
SF Jr. Jonathan Bonds
PF Soph. Bobby Magallanes
C Soph. Jason Washington

Key Bench players:

Freshman (RS) PG/SG/SF Jonathan Smallwood
JUCO C/PF Richard Simonton
Freshman SG Elden Mcbroom
Freshman PG Brian Finnell
Freshman C/PF Cory Downey

Our starters have another year under their belt and we are starting to build some nice, albeit inexperienced depth.

[Marmel]

November

We drop 2 out of our first 3 games, and I begin to get frustrated with the lack of development of anybody not named Richard Nelson. But then we head out to the Boulder Classic preseason tournament with 3 other small potato teams and win the whole thing!

We finish the month 3-2.



December

We continue to be a very inconsistent team and go 3-3 on the month against a soft schedule. We also lose our AEC opener. We stand at 6-5 overall. Nelson is great as usual, averaging over 25 a game. Zuber and Bond have shown very marginal improvement over their time here. Zuber is averaging 10.5 and Bonds 12.5. The bigs are OK, but not really excelling. I decide to up all the playing time for my starters and rely less on my youthful bench and see if that helps going forward.



January

another real up and down month. We win 3 of 4, then drop the next 3 of 4. We are 10-10 overall and 4-5 in conference play, good for a 4 way tie for 4th place. If Nelson has a great game we win, if he is just good or worst, we lose. We are a one man team right now.



February and end of Regular Season

This team is maddeningly frustrating! We win 4 of 5 to set ourselves up nicely, then drop the final 2 regular seasons games in conference to fall to 7-9 again and in a 3 way tie for 5th.

We end the regular season at 15-14 (7-9). We are the 5 seed in the tournament and will face Vermont in round 1, still looking for our first AEC tourney win.



Post Season

Vermont crushes us, 82-55 and we are still winless in the post season.
Stony Brook gets as high as #12 in the national polls. They win the conference touney and could actually be a real threat in the big show.

NCAA Top Seeds: Mississippi State, Syracuse, Duke, Kentucky
Stony Brook gets a 4 seed in the East!

15 seed Northwestern State upsets #2 Tennessee in the first round. They also knock off Wisconsin to advance to the Sweet 16.

Stony Brook wins their first game, but loses to 5th seeded Villanova in the second round.

Northwestern State continues their amazing run, much like Cornell last year, by taking out 3rd seeded Missouri and advancing to the regional final.

Creighton ends NW State's run, but as a 6 seed and a mid-major, they make a cinderella final 4 run of their own!

Final 4: Illinois (3), Syracuse (1), Creighton (5), Kentucky (1)

Virginia Tech beats Gonzaga for the NIT title.

Syracuse beats Illinois 76-66 for the National Title!

LETS GO ORANGE!

SF Smallwood and C Downey were named to the AEC All Freshman Team
SF Bonds was named AEC 2nd team.

Stony Brook's SG was named first team and league MVP, but Richard Nelson is robbed by BU's Edison Jones for second team SG. Jones averaged a mere 13.2 ppg to Nelson's 23.4. Outrageous!

[muns]

Liking it Marmel

[Marmel]

2014-2015 Season

We get another 2 point bump in prestige this year so now we are up to 26. The AD is concerned about my performance though. He expects me to be 500 or better in conference again this year. I don't know if I will be fired if I don't get there, but I'd really rather not find out.

My first recruiting class are seniors this year and it is past time for them to get something done!

This year we have 4 scholarships open. The only pressing need is a SF. The rest will go to the best players I can find. It turns out it is a nice year for SF recruits, so I can load up on a couple ond play one at SF and maybe one at PF or SG as well.

In the early recruiting period, I land PG Lawrence Jacobson from Oneonta High in New York. He is a 3 star prospect, rated #357 overall. I out recruited Cornell for him.

I'm in a battle for a 2 star JUCO with Lehigh, a 3 star SF with Army (and they seem to have the upper hand), and a 3 star SG with New Hampshire and Stony Brook (I seem to be the third choice there).

Our starting lineup is the exact same again this year. Our 3 senior outside players and 2 junior inside players. The bench is more mature, but I am going to run the starters for 30 minute plus a game if I can.

[Marmel]

November

A 2-2 start to the season against an easy schedule is not exactly what I am looking for. Nelson is great as usual, scoring over 25 a game. Bonds and Zuber, who are every bit the 3PS that Nelson is, are both hovering around 10 a game. Washington, our center, is proving a bit of a scoring punch and both big guys are hitting the boards hard.

This month we land 2 star JUCO SF Cesar Webster from New York CC. He is rated #513 overall and could step into a starting role for us next year.

I pull the scholarship offer to the nice looking SG that I am battling 2 other schools for. I offer that one to a PG who seems to love me, but doesn't have the upside the SG did. My last target is still deciding between me and Army. We both have equal prestige but it seems like they still lead for him.



December

Things start out great this month. We win 5 of our first 6 games, but then drop the final game of the month, and the most important one, our AEC opener. And it was at home. We wrap up December at 7-4, but 0-1 in conference.

Nelson is our only real scorer, despite everything telling me we should have an explosive offense. He is averaging 21.5 a game, but nobody else is over ten. We are scoring 78.5 ppg, which is tops in AEC but only 41st in the country.

Good news comes in the recruiting area though, as I land both of the guys I had offers out to:

SF Edmund Gomez, 3 stars, #295 from Mahopac High in New York. I beat out Army for him.
PG Gary King, 2 stars, #552 from Belmont High in New Hampshire.



January

This month was looking like it was going to be the best month of my young coaching career. We rattled off 5 wins in a row to start the new year and took a 1 game lead in the league standings. However, we then dropped 2 in a row to fall back in the back. We closed the month with a huge win over defending champs Stony Brook to finish January at 13-6 overall, 6-3 in conference, tied for first place!

Nelson went off this month, including a career high 46 pointer. He upped his average to 25.4 for the year and seriously deserves some conference respect.

[Marmel]

February and End of Regular Season

Things start out shaky as we drop 3 of our first 4 conference games in the month of February. I start to dream the 7-9 record as we are stuck on 7 conference wins for 2 weeks. However, my team regroups and are determined not to let this season slip away. They sweep the remaining 3 games in conference and finished 19-10 overall, and 10-6 in conference, which is good for 2nd place all by myself, just 1 game from a tie for the conference title!

Our RPI is 142 before the conference tournament starts. Obviously the goal is to win this thing, but if we don't, and we can pick up a couple wins, just maybe we can get an invite to the CBI? I don't know if we even have a chance but I'll hold out some hope.

Nelson finishes the regular season with a 25.9 ppg average. He is #1 in the entire country.
He will also finish his career in 2nd career points in the (short) history of this dynasty.



Post Season

We are the 2 seed in the AEC Tournament and face the 7 seed New Hampshire. We went 2-0 against them this year.

...and this year we claim our first post season win of any type. We take an opening round 81-72 victory. Nelson was totally shut down. He was held to 8 points, but Bonds and Washington really stepped up for us.

Our celebration is short lived though. We lose 88-78 to the 6th seeded Stony Brook team. Our RPI is around 135. I don't know if that will get us anything.

BU beats Stony Brook for the AEC title. We wait for Selection Sunday...

and we wait and wait and there is no phone call.

I look at the teams who made the CBI and there were a couple of 100+ RPI teams and even one in the 120's. Looks like we came up a couple of wins short.


NCAA Top Seeds: Villanova, Mississippi State, Duke, Syracuse

and your Final Four: Villanova (1), Marquette (4), Duke (1), Syracuse (1)
Three Big East Teams.

BYU beats Troy for the NIT title.

Syracuse beats Duke on Monday night to claims back to back National Title.

LETS GO ORANGE!

[Marmel]

One last note on last season:

I won AEC Coach of the Year. Nelson, or anybody else on my team was mentioned in first or second team awards. Ripoff!

[Marmel]

2015-2016

Our prestige takes a nice 6 point bounce, up to 32 now! The AD expects me to play in the NCAA tournament now. Totally unrealistic expectations this quickly.

This year we have 2 scholarships available. We'll try to target a couple of new big men to bring into our program. I quickly find two guys I like a lot and offer them up, then hit them hard for the summer months. We land one in the early signing period:

C Frederick Long, 3 star, rated #443 from Hopkins Academy in Massachusettes.


Our lineup is going to look different for the first time in years. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about it, but my guards and SF are better 3PS than my last group of guys.

PG Soph. Vito Baird
SG Junior Elden McBroom – This was the 1 star guy I picked out because he is deadly from 3. In most other dynasties he would never see the court for me.
SF Junior Jonathan Smallwood
PF Senior Bobby Magallanes
C Senior Jason Washington

Bench:
SF/SG/PG Junior Cesar Webster
PG Junior Brian Finnell
PG Freshman Lawrence Jacobson
PF/C Junior Cory Downey

[Marmel]

November

We open the season with a loss on the road, but then rattle off 3 in a row at home to finish the month at 3-1. The game is forcing less 3 point shots on me and more inside play because Washington is a very nice offensive option on the blocks. He, Smallwood and Baird are all averaging double figures. McBroom might be a failed experiment at SG, but I'll give him another month or so to show what he can do.


No results on the recruiting front this month.



December

A great month sees us go 7-1 and win our AEC opener against always tough Binghamton. Everyone's scoring averages are up from last month and we are starting to use the 3 ball more now, which is nice. It seems like PG Baird (15.9 ppg) or SF Smallwood (16.9 ppg) could go off for 30 on any given night. C Washington is putting up a consistent 12 a game (actually averaging 13.5 right now).

McBroom is struggling. He is averagin 8.2 per game. The weird thing is his shooting percentage from deep is only 34.1%. This is the worst of his career, although mostly his time has been limited minutes off the bench. His plus/minus is over 10 so he'll keep his start. Last time I mentioned benching him, he came out and scored a career high 17.

We wrap up this year's recruiting class with C Merle Summers from James J Ferris HS in New Jersey. He is 2 stars and ranked #533. I am much higher on him than that.




January

The wheels completely come off this month. We fall to 13-8 overall but only 3-6 in conference play.
I have to make a change to the lineup.

McBroom is benched. Smallwood moves to SG and Cesar Webster joins the starting lineup as our SF.



February and end of Regular Season

Well it turns out this is a total lost season. White we finish with a 17-12 record, our conference record is just 6-10, tied for 7th place, but we lose the tie breaker and end up in the 8/9 game in the AEC tournament.

Baird and Smallwood were the highlights of the season. They can play. Washington also did a fine job. I'm not sure what went wrong this year.



Post Season

We lost to last place Maine, 79-73 and I am pretty worried about keeping my job right about now.

NCAA Top Seeds: UNLV, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Maryland

For the first time ever, a 16 seed upsets a 1 seed. Jacksonville takes down #1 Oklahoma 70-67!

Final 4: UNLV (1), Michigan State (3), Kentucky (3), Washington (4)

Temple beats St. Mary's for the NIT title.

Kentucky beats Washington to claim the NCAA title.


Washington and Magallanes were named to the AEC first team.

[Marmel]

2016-2017

The good news is that I keep my job for one more year. The bad news is that the AD still expects me to play in the NCAA tournament. I don't really believe this team is good enough to get there.

Our prestige stayed level at 32 this off season.

Not much else to report other than I lost an assistant to retirement and had to replace him.

It is going to be a busy recruiting period. I have 6 scholarships to offer! I'm going to adjust my recruiting strategy just slightly when it comes to big men. I want them to score in the paint and rebound. Kind of like trying to have 2 put back guys in the paint for all our missed shots, and then on defense grabbing boards and limiting second chance points.

We have needs everywhere except maybe at Center, but I'm going to try and get best player available anywhere on the floor. The problem with 6 scholarships is my lack of resources. I usually spread myself too thin and end up with just a couple players.

At the early signing period I grab 3 guys but lose 2 others. Here are the three I got:

SF Richard Wolf, 2 star rated #701. B rating in 3PS
C Paul Cone, 2 star, rated #709. A rated in INS and A/C in rebounding.
PG Douglas Garrison, 2 star, rated #532. B rated 3PS.

The two guys I lost were 3 star recruits. I'll be casting out another wide net and see who else I can find to go after.



As we head into the regular season, here is my starting lineup.

PG Vito Baird, Junior. He led the team with a 16.9 ppg average last year. 87 rated 3PS.
SG Jonathan Smallwood, Senior. Second in scoring with 16.8 ppg last year. 86 rated 3PS.
SF Edmund Gomez, Sophomore. 80 rated 3PS. Only average 6 minutes a game last year but made a nice jump in training this season
PF Merle Summers, Freshman. 76 DRB and 79 INS.
C Timothy Sharpe, Junior. 62 ORB and 53 INS.

Bench:

PG Brian Finnell, Senior. Might be our best player, but doesn't fit my system.
SF Cesar Webster, Senior. Started 9 games last year. 70 3PS.
SG/PG Lawrence Jacobson, Sophomore. 60 rated 3PS.
SG Ned Livingston, Junior. 69 rated 3PS.
SG Edwin McBroom, Senior. 85 rated 3PS.
PF/C Cory Downey, Senior. 73 DRB
C/PF Frederick Long, Freshman. 65/60 O/D RB. 47 INS

[Marmel]

November

We won our 3 home games but dropped our two road games. All of this is just preparation for conference play and the AEC tournament. My job depends on it.

Baird runs hot and cold, but is averaging over 18 a game. Actually, the point averages go from highest to lowest as you go down the positions from PG 18.4, SG 15.0, SF 11.0, PF 8.4, C 4.6. Never saw anything like that before.

We lost 2 recruits this month, but did land:

PG Thomas Welch, 2 stars, #691. He doesn't really fit my profile PG too well and is only a C potential in recruiting, but I needed some bodies and he could do a very nice job on most other teams. I would think he will just be a backup on my squad.




December

Pretty rough month for us as we go just 3-4, but at least we split our first two conference games. So we sit at 6-6 (1-1) right now.

No recruits this month, but I find a couple new guys with no offers that I go after. Playing this game in the past, I find that it is very difficult to recruit anybody of note once January rolls around.



January

This month was a month of runs. We start the month with 2 conference wins, then drop our next two.
We rebound with three straight wins and just as we are gaining momentum, we drop our last two of the month.

It is clear to me we are a good conference team, but just not a great one that can compete with the top couple of teams. And we are maddeningly inconsistent from game to game.

We are 11-10 (5-5) and in 5th place.

We land one more recruit:

PG Gerald Cato, 2 stars, ranked #719. He has A potential in 3PS.



February and end of Regular Season

This team is going to make me pull my hair out. We win 4 in a row to start the month and find ourselves at 8-5 in conference play, trending towards the very top. We then lose our last 3 conference games to finish 8-8 in league play and in a tie for 5th place.

We finish the regular season 16-13 (8-8).

I also land a surprise recruit:

PG Gregory Frizzell, 3 stars, ranked #429. B potential in 3PS.



Postseason

another disappointing, very quick post season for us, as we drop the opening round game as the 5 seed to the 4th seed BU, 79-74. I would say it is 90% certain I am fired.


NCAA Top Seeds: UCLA, Kansas, Mississippi State, Maryland

Final Four: Connecticut (7), Kansas (1), Miss State (1), Kentucky (2)

Mississippi wins the NIT title over South Carolina.

Mississippi State beats Kentucky for the National Title.


PF Merle Summers was named to the AEC All-Freshman Team.

[Marmel]

Yep, fired.

I thought the jump in expectations from a 500 conference record to play in the NCAA Tournament was quite a huge leap, particularly for a tiny conference team whose prestige was mostly under 30 for my whole career. How about challenge for league title???

Well, I'll probably give the 3 point offensive system another try, but I think it will be a little bit easier to use a bigger school where not only can I recruit great 3PS, but the ones I do get would be a little more rounded out as players. I want to try to accomplish an offense and game pace that gets as close to a 100 point average as possible.

[lcjjdnh]

Ack, sorry to hear that. Was really enjoying reading. Look forward to your next dynasty.