Fantasy Sports Adventures (CFB, CBB, EPL)

[Young Drachma]

So back in 2012, I was an inaugural member of the NCFA-FCS, the FCS fantasy league over at sportslogos.net. It's just what it sounds like, fantasy football head to head but for FCS rather than FBS.



It's completely insane as a concept, mostly because the lack of information makes competing week to week more difficult than a conventional league. After the first year, I left my stacked roster because I just didn't have the time to participate.

Which was kind of dumb, because my team was literally stacked and I could've skated to a few titles by making relatively modest changes.

Someone kept the Minnesota A&M moniker for two more years before changing it in Year 4. So this season (Year 5), I reapplied to join the league and took over some terribad team that wasn't Minnesota A&M and repurposed them into my old team.

The team was awful though, so I spent the off-season trying to replace the roster of seniors and have been scrambling all year.

I figure I'll do a running dynasty of the team here because if nothing else, you all can help me make sense of FCS and picking better players into next year too.

Think of Minnesota A&M as a FOFC team.



Past seasons:

2012: NCFA-FCS Champions, Big 4 Champions
2013: NCFA-FCS Finalists, Big 4 Champions
2014: NCFA-FCS Semi-Finalists, Big 4 Co-Champions
2015: No team

[Young Drachma]

Here's the link to the 2016 NCFA-FCS season standings & coaches poll.

There are only two conferences now, the Big 4, the conference Minnesota A&M dominated each of the three years it existed no longer exists. The only two conferences are the Super West, where Minny A&M now belongs and the Great 8.

Great 8 Conference
Albany College Patroons
College of the Holy Ghost Dons
Greensboro University Militia
Maxwell State University Griffins
New Hampshire State University Rascals
Stapleton University Admirals
Twin Cities College RailCats
University of Northern Indiana Pioneers

Super West Conference
Anaheim State University Halberdiers
University of Anchorage Kodiaks
Audubon Nature College Naturalists
Dual Spires University Fightin' Owls
Minnesota A&M University Redhorse
The South Texas State University Rangers
University of Washington-Lower Columbia LumberKings
Yuba State University Fighting Prunes

[Young Drachma]

Here's the link to the active NCFA-FCS rosters in case you want to know what the other teams look like.

Here's the current (as of Oct 31st) roster for Minnesota A&M. We're 0-9 and I've been struggling to get engaged. Hell, last week I forgot to submit my roster so we sent the same hapless POS team out to get beat again like we did the week before.



My strategy the past weeks once it was clear the year was over, was to start dropping seniors in exchange for productive underclassmen that aren't already claimed. I figure if nothing else, I can get us into position next year and we'll see what else falls to the FCS level because there's always a decent amount of transfers and being this bad ensures a good waiver position as well as the draft next year.

Here's our season recap so far. You can see weekly box scores here.

Week 9: Yuba State 91.92 Minnesota A&M (0-9) 58.80
Week 8: Minnesota A&M (0-8) 61.18 Audubon Nature 135.76
Week 7: Dual Spires 101.48 Minnesota A&M (0-7) 89.34
Week 6: Minnesota A&M (0-6) 73.20 #2 Anaheim State 106.68
Week 5: #3 Anchorage 256.34 Minnesota A&M 61.60
Week 4: Minnesota A&M 67.16 South Texas State 67.20
Week 3: (OOC) Stapleton 130.20 Minnesota A&M 116.12
Week 2: (Rivalry) Minnesota A&M 127.98 #4 Holy Ghost 130.88
Week 1: (OOC) Minnesota A&M 72.60 Albany 91.50

Week 10 is the last week of the regular season (thank goodness) and we go on the road to play UW-Lower Columbia who are 3-6 on the year.

[Young Drachma]

MINNESOTA A&M ANNOUNCES DEAL WITH UNDER ARMOUR, UNVEILS "LEGACY PREVIEW" UNIFORMS

ROCHESTER, MN -*Despite an uncharacteristically drab season in Rochester, the Minnesota A&M Redhorse football program has reasons to be upbeat. The 2-time national finalist and 2012 National Champions are just happy to be playing top-tier football again. "We knew returning after a year off is unprecedented, to do so with the gentlemen we've had this year has been difficult but we're proud of them," said new Vice President for Athletics Sandy Jorgensen. After spending the entire season in Nike, the school's deal with Nike expired and they began shopping for new deals. In an unprecedented move, the school inked a one-year deal with Under Armour as a "trial run" for both parties.

Next weekend, the Redhorse travel to UW-Lower Columbia for their final regular season game in 2016. Labeled by coaching staff, "the Comeback Bowl" they have gone out of their way to treat the players with the experience of traveling to post-season football including working with faculty from the TV Journalism division to simulate press conferences, busy practices and other trappings of traveling to a playoff game. "We want these guys to know that we won't always be bad. They've been working hard all year. They see those trophies and the banners that hang from our rafters and they want to be there someday soon. Getting a W at the end of a long year against a heavily favored opponent is a huge way to do that," said defensive line coach John "Puck" Wiens.*

With a new coaching staff expected for 2017, this year's staff intends to finish on a high note. Through the 'legacy preview' jersey, Under Armour hopes to roster some simplicity to the Minnesota A&M brand. "We're excited to be partners with Redhorse athletics. It's a championship winning legacy across sports and football has historically been a big part of that. This is a throwback uniform envisioning an era of football that's modern but hard-nosed. We're excited for brighter days in Rochester," said D.J. Canter, a market manager with Under Armour.

[Young Drachma]

I'll assemble my roster after waivers are approved. I have two more moves to make, but no idea who I want and I figure I'll just let my seniors leave and wait until the off-season to figure out how to replace them rather than being stuck with potentially unproductive underclassmen.

[Young Drachma]

Final regular season lineup of the season:

Minnesota A&M (0-9, 0-6) at Washington-Lower Columbia (3-6, 2-4): The Redhorse look to the past in order to prepare for their future as they try to snap a season long losing streak against UWLC

Minnesota A&M
QB: Stephen Calvert, Liberty
RB: Joey DeFloria, Bucknell
WR: Xavier Borishade, Chattanooga
WR: Jean Rene, Valpo
FLEX: Christian Summers, Towson
FLEX: Jerry Louie-McGee, Montana
DEF: San Diego
K: James Madison

[Young Drachma]

We're down 59.20-52.94 but my defense and at least one other player haven't been scored. I messed up because I started a Chattanooga guy, but they have a bye this week and I'm an idiot because it might cost us the game.

But it evened out because UW-Lower Columbia started Idaho State RB Jakori Ford, but he somehow didn't play in a game that ended up being a 62-44 game (Montana won) and I had a WR start in that game.

So we'll end the season with a W. Wow.

[Young Drachma]

Looks like the final score will be 74.44 Minnesota A&M to 59.20 UW-Lower Columbia. Box score below.

[Young Drachma]

A few days ago, while I was traveling for work, I got an email from the college basketball fantasy league over at CCSLC if I wanted to take over a team that a guy started with, but hadn't managed to participate early in the year, so they stripped him of his team and I was apparently first-runner up.

Master Rosters | Scoreboard/Schedule

TL;DR: Minnesota A&M joined the league in time for Game 2 of the regular season.

Here's my roster. I need one more player. Preferably a good scorer from an obscure D1 program or a good rebounder or something.


Here's the score so far from Game 2 of the season:


So yeah, calling all college basketball experts of mid-majors to help me uncover some talent!

[Young Drachma]

We'll lose to Erie Tech 122-157. Dominique Collier got injured this week and so he didn't play much at all and that's what cost me in the end, especially after a big night last night from TJ Leaf for UCLA put the nail in the coffin for us. Plus Melo Trimble just didn't play much on Thursday night.

Oh well, we're down to 0-2, but at least I have a handle on how to play in this league. Will have to release Collier, add some other players and see how next week goes.

[Young Drachma]

LATEST TRANSACTIONS

9/18:

I'm going to drop Collier (Colorado) in exchange for G Paul Miller (JR), North Dakota State

We also have an open roster spot, so I need to sign one other guy. Instead of just looking for a scorer, I went looking for a glass eater.

[collegesportsfanms]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

A few days ago, while I was traveling for work, I got an email from the college basketball fantasy league over at CCSLC if I wanted to take over a team that a guy started with, but hadn't managed to participate early in the year, so they stripped him of his team and I was apparently first-runner up.

Master Rosters | Scoreboard/Schedule

TL;DR: Minnesota A&M joined the league in time for Game 2 of the regular season.

Here's my roster. I need one more player. Preferably a good scorer from an obscure D1 program or a good rebounder or something.


Here's the score so far from Game 2 of the season:


So yeah, calling all college basketball experts of mid-majors to help me uncover some talent!

This college basketball fantasy league sounds pretty fun. I'm interested, I just don't know if I'd have the time. Sounds cool though.

As for mid-major talent.. look no further than Wichita State. They have a guy named Connor Frankamp.. one of the best shooters.. ever. He's struggled a bit at the college level, but I think he's got his confidence up this season, because he's been draining them like crazy so far.

Also, sticking with Wichita State, guy named Markus McDuffie. He's pretty good. Made the Missouri Valley All-Frosh Team last season and has been predicted by several sources to be the Missouri Valley Player of the Year this season. I'd definitely take a look at those 2.

And, although not a mid-major, take a look at Josh Jackson of Kansas. He's probably a one and done. Supreme talent, but a bit of a prima donna hothead. He showed signs of the type of player he can be before fouling out against Duke Tuesday night. So there you go, there's 3 for you to check out.

[Young Drachma]

Josh Jackson plays for Erie Tech in this league. McDuffie and Frankamp are both free agents at the moment though, I'm going to take a look for sure. Thanks for the advice.

I'm going to redshirt Ivan Rabb (Cal) since he's been hurt and hasn't played this year. That frees up a roster spot and I'm going to probably take one of those Wichita State dudes.

Here are my total transactions from today:

Drop: G Dominique Collier, Colorado
Add: G Paul Miller, North Dakota State (JR)

Add: (Open Roster spot) G Nick Dixon, UT Rio Grande (JR)

Redshirt: F Ivan Rabb, California
Redshirt: G Tyler Dorsey, Oregon

Add: F Markus McDuffie (So.), Wichita State
Add: G Sam Cassell, Jr. (Sr.), Iona

I'm obviously trying to double-down on these mid-major dudes, because most people don't seem to be doing as much of that outside of the "Search for leading scorers in the nation and add them to your team" crowd.

I might need to adjust my strategy as the season goes on, but I'm still trying to get my bearings and it's too early in the year to really get a sense of what will work.

[collegesportsfanms]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Josh Jackson plays for Erie Tech in this league. McDuffie and Frankamp are both free agents at the moment though, I'm going to take a look for sure. Thanks for the advice.

I'm going to redshirt Ivan Rabb (Cal) since he's been hurt and hasn't played this year. That frees up a roster spot and I'm going to probably take one of those Wichita State dudes.

Here are my total transactions from today:

Drop: G Dominique Collier, Colorado
Add: G Paul Miller, North Dakota State (JR)

Add: (Open Roster spot) G Nick Dixon, UT Rio Grande (JR)

Redshirt: F Ivan Rabb, California
Redshirt: G Tyler Dorsey, Oregon

Add: F Markus McDuffie (So.), Wichita State
Add: G Sam Cassell, Jr. (Sr.), Iona

I'm obviously trying to double-down on these mid-major dudes, because most people don't seem to be doing as much of that outside of the "Search for leading scorers in the nation and add them to your team" crowd.

I might need to adjust my strategy as the season goes on, but I'm still trying to get my bearings and it's too early in the year to really get a sense of what will work.

Yea, those fantasy leagues and stuff are always a crapshoot. I've tried fantasy football before but I can never stay involved and my teams usually end up sucking anyways. It's fun though. I hope McDuffie works out for you. As a hardcore Wichita State fan, I could tell you about pretty much all their players. I took a look through the other teams rosters, I didn't see any other Shockers on there. I was disappointed with that. Well, good luck, I'll be following for sure.

[Young Drachma]

It's worth noting the scoring mechanism isn't "cumulative scoring" it's "best game of the week for your player" apparently. I had no idea, but glad I figured this out in Game 2 and not late in the season. Should go back and read the rules...

[Young Drachma]

Game 3 we lost again to fall to 0-3 on the year:



Need to drop Chris Brady for someone actually useful.

[Young Drachma]

Going to drop Brady for Hayden Dalton from Wyoming. I don't have anyone who is a primary rebounder or even a ball distributor and we need to do that if we're going to have any luck this year. Also dropped another player the other guy drafted -- G Evan Payne from Long Beach State -- in exchange for another interior presence, Hassan Martin from Rhode Island.

Oh and I realized we had another bad player on this team, I have no idea what the fuck this guy was doing drafting this roster. This team is so bad.

Drop: F Montaque Gill-Caesar, San Diego State
Add: G Jeremy Hemsley, San Diego State (SO)

Hemsley is SDSU's leading scorer so far this year.

[Young Drachma]

Here's my updated roster as Nov. 21st. This week's "game" is from today through next Sunday.

[Young Drachma]

We're going to beat Coastal California to notch our first win of the season, which is delightful because I think otherwise the barriers to getting a possible post-season berth would've slowly been out of reach. Not out of the woods yet, but super happy for the strong showing.

Gonna plot my roster for Game 5 right now.

[Young Drachma]

Here's my Game 5 roster at UC Long Beach (3-1) which lasts from tomorrow through Thursday.

Minnesota A&M (1-3)

G Melo Trimble, Maryland (Tu)*
G Jeremy Hemsley, San Diego State (M)
G Nick Dixon, UT-Rio Grande (Tu)
F Hassan Martin, Rhode Island (Tu)
F Reid Travis, Stanford (W)

I considered Sam Cassell Jr., Goodwin from FGCU or even the dude from North Dakota State (Miller) but the latter two have been inconsistent lately, Cassell had a decent Alaska tournament but Iona doesn't play this week.

[Young Drachma]

Minny A&M win our second straight, this time against 3-1 UC Long Beach. Turns out that my picks of Dixon and Martin were difference makers and now we'll move to 2-3 on the year after tonight's games (neither of us have players on the board tonight.)

Pretty pumped to be turning a corner, probably need to check and see if there's some moves we need to make at some point to solidify things, but...pretty happy to right the ship and get near post-season contention.

[Young Drachma]

This weekend is Game 6. I dropped FGCU's Goodwin in exchange for Baylor's Johnathan Motley who has double-double potential most nights. Got rid of my homer pick Hayden Dalton from Wyoming in exchange for F Tanner Leisner from New Hampshire, who is an offensive weapon low-key. We'll see how these picks do over the weekend.

ACTUALLY Leisner played for someone else. So I couldn't claim him on waivers.

[Young Drachma]

We'll see how this roster goes. Dixon is playing lights out lately, running with two new guys isn't usually my deal but figured I should see what they can do in the non-conference against opponents where they ought to score well. Trimble has been consistent and Martin has been a good addition so far.

GAME 6 ROSTER
We're playing against Dennison State who lost last week and are now 3-2, so we're trying to get to .500 and get into what should probably kick us into the tournament bubble with a win. Not bad for a team that started off the year with a loss before I even took over. Fingers crossed.

G Sam Cassell Jr., Iona (F, Su.)
G Melo Trimble, Maryland (Sa.)
G Nick Dixon, UT Rio Grande (Sa.)
F Johnathon Motley, Baylor (Sa.)
F Hassan Martin, Rhode Island (Sa.)

Since I couldn't get the New Hampshire kid, I went with Cassell and a 3-guard lineup this week. It's risky, but Cassell is scoring regularly and unlike anybody else, he's going to play twice this weekend against competition that I expect him to be able to score on. No guarantees and we do lose something with not getting the other kid, but...if he can put up 20 points and have decent assists at all, he'll have earned his keep relative to anybody else on the roster.

Here's hoping.

[Young Drachma]

We're up by 47 in Game 6. Tomorrow I have Cassell Jr., playing again and Dennison State has Khalid Hart (Marist) and Thomas Bryant (Indiana) but again, they're down by 47 so that'd be a hell of a lead to try to cover. For the 3rd straight game, they've started Cameron Morse (Youngstown State) who must be injured or otherwise not playing, so only starting 4 dudes is a killer in this league unless you get really lucky.

I'm more than happy with it, though because it means we'll move to .500 on the year and given our first loss was the forfeit before I took over, that's not a bad spot to be in with two games left before the conference schedule takes over.

I like where we are, barring injuries. I won't be able to make many more transactions barring injury, because I'd like to keep the roster relatively consistent even if I'm tweaking the lineups as people play, etc.

One game at a time, but I like where we're headed.

[Young Drachma]

That forfeit is really messing with our scoring differential, but so it goes. Really sucks, but we'll have to overcome it and if we keep winning, we will. We won again with a final score 132-100 to end up 3-3 on the year and get to .500. We're not in the projected February Frenzy standings (2nd image) but we've got hopes of getting there with more key OOC wins.

Gonna see if I can pick up somebody to help the roster out this week, Game 7 lasts from tomorrow through next Sunday. Would like to keep the scoring/win streak up, at all costs though.

[Young Drachma]

Here are my latest transactions. Turns out, Ivan Rabb isn't injured anymore and I shouldn't have redshirted Tyler Dorsey because now the only way I can play him this year is to release him and hope he doesn't get claimed by someone else for 24 hours.

I'm probably not willing to take that risk. I burned the redshirt on Rabb because he's way better and doubtful he'll be around next year. Dorsey has been inconsistent.

Turns out, we're a lot more stacked as a club than I thought...but it just takes a matter of looking at your roster to figure it out.

This week's game is against two-time defending national champion California A&M, who are kinda the Kentucky of this league having won three national titles in their history. Their tactics are dudes who rebound heavy and score a lot. I think we can take them, though, if the odds are in our favor schedulewise.

MINNESOTA A&M

DROP
F Hayden Dalton, Wyoming (JR)
G Paul Miller, North Dakota State (JR)
F Markus McDuffie, Wichita State (SO)
G Jeremy Hemsley, San Diego State (SO)

ADD
F Emmanuel Nzekwesi, Oral Roberts (FR)
G Emmett Naar, St. Mary's (JR)
F Deshawn Freeman, Rutgers (JR)

BURN REDSHIRT
F Ivan Rabb, California (SO)

[Young Drachma]

Here's my tentative Game 7 Roster, provided my transactions go through:

Considered using Nzekwesi but Oral Roberts only has one game this week.

The transaction hadn't been processed yet, so I removed the Naar/Hemsley swap, because after looking more closely, Hemsley is a lot more useful scoring wise than Naar who comes up cold more often than not.

F Deshawn Freeman, Rutgers (Tu, Sa)
F Ivan Rabb, California (Tu, W, Sa)
F Hassan Martin, Rhode Island (Tu, Sa)
G Melo Trimble, Maryland (W, Sa)
G Nick Dixon, UT-Rio Grande (M, W)

[Young Drachma]

Seems likely that the next guy for me to drop would be Cassell Jr., he's a solid scoring output guy but doesn't do anything else and really the best way to win this league is to get dudes who are double/double capable each night and who fill stat sheets. So you want #1 or #2 options who start and nobody else. And bonus points for teams that score a lot in bad leagues because ultimately, a SEC point is worth just as much as Big West or MAAC or WCC points/assists/blocks, etc.

[Young Drachma]

Things bode well for us in Game 7, so far. We're up by about 30 points after the 2nd day of the week and that's without Hassan Martin playing at all. If I read the rules right, I'm able to replace him because he never tipped off. If that checks out, I replaced him with F Emmanuel Nzekwesi, Oral Roberts (W, Sa), so we don't even end up losing any points for having him in the lineup before I realized he was hurt.

[Young Drachma]

110-122, we're down after Markelle Fultz last night. I've got four players playing on Saturday, so do they, but they also have someone playing on Sunday. So we've just got to hope 1 or 2 of our guys have a big weekend in them to give us enough of a cushion to pull out a W, but either way, it's good we can go toe-to-toe with a top non-conference foe at this stage of the year.

[Young Drachma]

We're gonna lose and our 3 game win streak is over. California A&M was too strong, but at least we know how to compete against a team like that and it's OOC anyway. We just didn't have my normal Rhode Island guy who would've helped. Many of our other scorers just didn't have a game this week. Can't win 'em all.

[Young Drachma]

Really would like to win this one. I've just been suspect about picking the wrong dudes and leaving the wrong guys on the bench. I think the matchups favor this week's lineup.

GAME 8 ROSTER

Minnesota A&M University

G Nick Dixon, UT-Rio Grande (M, F, Sa)
G Kenrich Williams, TCU (Su)
G Jazz Johnson, Portland (F, Su)
F Reid Travis, Stanford (F)
F Johnathan Motley, Baylor (W, Sa, Su)

[Young Drachma]

Game 8 is going to be a walkover. Kentucky Tech didn't fill out their roster. I think there is a rule that you can't just not post a roster for more than two games or something like that, so you actually have to post and he didn't post but one player so I'm going to beat him given there's only today and tomorrow's games and I'm up by over 100 points.

That'll put us up to .500 and probably within striking distance of a post-season spot, but not actually into the Top 8. Still with the non-conference waning, it'll be good to be close and a good sign especially as I'm testing out this newer roster.

[Young Drachma]

So he did decide to post a roster after all. We're down by 18 points, but his whole slate is done. I need Kenrich Williams to somehow combine for at least 19 points to notch the win. Doable since he's kind of a double/double machine and has notched four straight games of 10 or more rebounds.

But...if Jazz Johnson or Johnathon Motley manage to have a better game tonight than they did the other night, they could also help close that 19 point gap, too. Doesn't matter how we cobble together the points, we just need to chip away at it.

I like our chances and I've learned line construction in this league is almost as much as playing the schedule as it is picking the right dudes.

[Young Drachma]

We're going to win. Williams totals tonight are already at 20 (points/assists/rebounds) and we're not even out of the 1st half yet in that game. Motley added two points overall to his total too.

So regardless, we'll notch our 4th win of the year. Nice.

[Young Drachma]

YESTERDAY'S WAIVER MOVES

DROP:
F Emmanuel Nzekwesi, Oral Roberts (FR)
G Jeremy Hemsley, San Diego State (SO)
F Ivan Rabb, California (SO)
F Hassan Martin, Rhode Island (SR)


ADD:

F Derrick Griffin, Texas Southern (SO)
G Ryan Taylor, Evansville (SO)
G Donte McGill, Florida International (SR)
F Sebastian Saiz, Mississippi (SR)

Martin was my favorite go-to guy, but he's injured and no indication of when he'll be back. Hemsley I've been wanting to drop for a while, just didn't have anyone to drop him for. We pick up some rebounding and some go-to scoring as a result.

GAME 9 LINEUP

We're 4-4 and in 10th place, just two spots out of a playoff spot. We're into conference play now and would really like to start it off right. Calvert, the team we're facing this week is 6-2 and lost last week but they are powered by two of the leading scorers in the country - Marcus Keene (CMU) and Damon Lynn (NJIT).

Both are playing not especially good opponents meaning both should -- in theory -- have big nights. For our luck, they've only got one game.

So we'll need to average around 150 points (so each guy notching 30 points apiece) to win. I think it's doable with this roster if these dudes do what they're supposed to.

I debated who to put in that last spot including UT-Rio Grande's Dixon who are playing a NAIA opponent this week, but I was afraid the coach would sit him to give him rest and he won't score a ton against them.

FIU's new player I signed, McGill is tempting for me to put into the lineup but they're playing North Florida and in general, FIU doesn't score a ton of points and they only have one game this week.

If I have to trust a one-game guy, I'll rely on Rutgers Freeman. They've only lost one game this year, they're playing an in-state rival which should mean big minutes to their leading scorer and rebounder and even if he somehow comes up dry on the scoring side, he'll surely get rebounds because that's been his bread and butter all year.

I like that three of my guys are playing two games this week, too. Gives me extra options. If we can average 30 game points per guy total across all of the stat categories (P/A/R) then I think we can pull out a win based on what I've seen research wise.

Here's hoping.

Minnesota A&M
G Jazz Johnson, Portland (Tu, Th)
G Ryan Taylor, Evansville (Th)
F Sebastian Saiz, Ole Miss (M, Th)
F Reid Travis, Stanford (M, Th)
F Deshawn Freeman, Rutgers (F)

[Young Drachma]

Here's the Game 9 opponent's roster:

CALVERT
G De'Aaron Fox Kentucky
G Marcus Keene Central Michigan
G Alec Wintering Portland
F JaCorey Williams Middle Tennessee
F Shawn Prudhomme Southern

Marcus Keene is the nation's leading scorer. Lucky for me, all but one of his guys have already played. We're down by 68 points, but I still have two players who haven't scored any points at all. He has one guy left playing tomorrow (Portland) but I also have a Portland player who I played deliberately as they're the top two scorers for that team in the hopes it'd cancel out.

The wildcard for me is Freeman. If he sticks to his double/double pace, we're in good shape. Same with Taylor, if he can produce...then we'll beat them.

The real risk with Taylor is that he's streaky. He's had two 20+ games this year, but he also only scored 7 the other night. My bet here is they're playing a NCAA D3 team on Thursday, so I was hoping that he'd get some run and score quite a bit. But it's a risky move because I could've played Baylor's guy tonight and left almost 30 points on the bench that will come back to haunt me if Taylor doesn't show up.

Fingers crossed that my gambling pays off here.

[Young Drachma]

My latest move:

MINNESOTA A&M
DROP: G Nick Dixon UT-Rio Grande (JR)
ADD: G Damyean Dotson Houston (SR)

He wouldn't have saved us even if he did play last night so it worked out okay even though we lost...I feel like Keene is the only reason we lost so I can take solace in that.



In the standings, we're still just 4-5 and didn't lose a lot of ground in the February Frenzy race. The playoff situation works is the three conference champions get into the post-season automatically. Then the next 5 teams with the best overall record get in after that.



We play an 18 game season. I think our chances are good that if we keep up our scoring pace, we can get into the post-season.

My "preferred" lineup going forward is gonna look something like:

F Sebastian Saiz, Mississippi*
F Reid Travis, Stanford*
F Johnathan Motley, Baylor
G Kenrich Williams, TCU
G*Damyean Dotson, Houston

But I like our chances even at 4-5
(considering one of those losses is a forfeit before I took over.)

[Young Drachma]

The nerdiest thing I did to end 2016 was develop a RPI and SOS calculator for this league. Well luckily somebody had already made a spreadsheet for RPI that I was able to adapt, but I had to still input and check all the data!

Anyway, it's not that league will use it...it's just nice to see how the teams/matchups stack up since it's an unbalanced schedule.

As for this week's games, we're up by 23 points with tonight's games to go, so unless his guy somehow doubles his output from a few nights ago to tack onto his score, we should be safe. I have Reid Travis playing tonight again too, he put up 30 total game points for me in his last outing, so it's possible he pads our lead to get us to .500.

We're 5th in RPI right now. 2nd in SOS though. I figured we were playing a tough schedule but I couldn't confirm until now.

SOS through Week 9 games

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
UC Long Beach 30.38
Minnesota A&M 28.54
California A&M 28.53
Calvert 27.93
Continental 26.08
UW Lower Columbia 26.08
Dennison State 26.08
Bloom State 25.43
Redmond 25.42
Erie Tech 24.17
Irvington 24.17
Coastal California 24.17
Southern Atlantic 24.17
Deutschtown 23.57
West Texas 23.57
Golden Isles 22.97
Kentucky Tech 21.11
Lakeshore 19.87

[Young Drachma]

Scored 163 points in my win last week to move to 5-5.



Made a few moves with conference play starting in earnest and lucked into two of the Top 50 scorers in the nation that nobody had claimed. I swapped the Evansville guy for an IU guy because they're in my backyard and figured it'd be cool to have a reason to care about their output, at least through February.

Senglin is averaging 20.4 PPG through 12 games this year, Ross is at 20.9 PPG. The big thing I wanted to do in case we do make the tournament is shore up the line so we're getting around 30 game points a night from each guy or at least as close to that as possible. More ideal are guys who can get you into the 40s, because you win ballgames that way but it's the 15-20 point guys that kill you week to week.

DROP: G Ryan Taylor, Evansville
G Xavier Moon, Morehead State
G Jazz Johnson, Portland

ADD: G James Blackmon Jr., Indiana (JR)
G Jeremy Senglin, Weber State (SR)
G Jalen Ross, Hartford (SR)

Here's my Week 10 roster, this week's game goes through Thursday.
G Jalen Ross, Hartford (M)
G Damyean Dotson, Houston (W)
G James Blackmon, Indiana (Tu)
F Johnathan Motley, Baylor (W)
F Sebastian Saiz, Mississippi (Tu)

[Young Drachma]

Still out of a post-season spot, but right on the cusp of the bubble

[Young Drachma]

I look like a genius. Jalen Ross of Hartford scored 31 points, had 4 rebounds, a steal and an assist in Hartford's loss to Yale today. But that's 37 game points for a dude that wasn't on my roster 12 hours ago. I don't think of the three dudes I dropped today any of them had a 37+ point night the entire year.

So I'm feeling pretty smart right now.

I get to see Blackmon of IU tomorrow night live against Indiana, which is kinda why I added him, but also he's IU's leading scorer and nobody had him because it probably didn't occur to them to blow up their rosters.

Much like the year that I won the FCS football title on this same forum, if I do well in basketball it's going to be the fact that I'm spend time paying attention to this stuff. Doesn't guarantee a victory obviously, but...I think the only carryover on my roster from when I took the team over is Melo Trimble from Maryland and my redshirt from Oregon.

[Young Drachma]

Got too cute. The IU guy was useless and we're gonna fucking lose by a few points because I didn't use one of my more reliable 20+ scorers. Such an idiot.

[QuikSand]

Wait, no stock cars? No pageant winners? No top singles charts?

Sorry, wrong thread. Carry on. (Fun stuff)

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Wait, no stock cars? No pageant winners? No top singles charts?

Sorry, wrong thread. Carry on. (Fun stuff)

Haha.

Here's my Game 11 roster. We've gotta stop losing conference games starting immediately. We have a few more games (it goes to 18 I think) but it's just the principle of it that it's time to tinkering with cute and go for max production from proven dudes, last week we let one game away when it was winnable as hell.

Wasted.

ANYWAY THERE IS GOOD NEWS.

This league does not have many vultures who troll the waiver wire looking for moves. My roster only has two guys on it that I started the year with, noted that we started the year 0-3 or something before I started managing to win games so clearly that shit he gave me to start wasn't very good.

Anyway, Freeman's production has dropped and Blackmon lost me the game this week so both are gone. I replace them with Nate Mason, a relatively consistent assists machine at Minnesota who went for 31 a couple of nights ago and SOMEHOW NOBODY SIGNED IVAN RABB, who I dropped back when he was hurt in November and then completely forgot about him.

He's 10th in the nation in rebounds. He's had three straight double-doubles in his past three games. I think I'll take my chances with him.

MINNESOTA A&M
DROP:
G James Blackmon Jr., Indiana (JR)
F Deshawn Freeman, Rutgers
F Derrick Griffin, Texas Southern

ADD:
G Nate Mason, Minnesota (JR)
F Ivan Rabb, California (SO)
C Michael Buchanan, South Carolina Upstate (SR)

[Young Drachma]

Seriously, the Rabb acquisition coupled with my guard combos make us a title contender. We'll still need a bit of luck, but...I'm saying...this is a HUGE move. To be fair, he was already on the roster and I dropped him like an idiot but the fact that nobody thought to claim him might have been the best luck I've had.

Oh here's my roster for this weekend's games:

G Jalen Ross, Hartford (Su)
G Jeremy Senglin, Weber State (Sa)
F Ivan Rabb, California (Su)
F Sebastian Saiz, Ole Miss (Sa)
C Michael Buchanan, SC Upstate (Sa)

[Young Drachma]

On the bright side, there are 7 more games left in the regular season. Golden Isles is the top team in the conference and we lost to them by 13 points.

We'll get them the next go-round, but my goal is to go 6-1 or 7-0 in the last clip of games. Ambitious, but we've got the roster to do it.

[Young Drachma]

Weber State's game was postponed tonight so I had to replace Senglin with Nate Mason from Minnesota. Which sucks, because Senglin would've scored more probably. Mason will get assists, but his scoring we'll just have to see.

We're down by 63 points with 3 guys to play tomorrow (For me) and 1 (for him) and so we'll see. The guy he has tomorrow is a Wake Forest guy who averages somewhere in the 20+ range for this game, so...I think my 3 guys could net me somewhere in the 80 point range, but it'll take a big night from somebody to drag out the W.

But we'll see how it goes, I guess.

[Young Drachma]

Probably gonna lose again. Senglin going down was a tough blow. Mason played shitty. Ivan Rabb pretty much needs to lose his mind to give us any chance, but I think we're DOA.

[Young Drachma]

Lost again.

Ugh.