Recruiting Against Simmies (D1)

Players 'Overall'?

A players “Overall” is a very deceptive number. It really only means the Overall number of ratings points and nothing more. Just because a player is “Overall” higher then another player does NOT mean they are better. It does give them a better chance of being a better player. What you really need to look at is the players “Core Values”. Core values differ by position and are very much so dependent on the sets you run (ie Defense ratings is much more important in Man to Man then Zone.) Here is my list of Core Values by position in order of importance.

PG: Speed, Passing, Ball Handling, Stamina, Athleticism, Work Ethic, FT%, Defense, Perimeter (In my opinion really only has to be improvable)
SG: Speed, Athleticism, Perimeter, Ball Handling, Work Ethic, Stamina, Passing, Defense, FT%
SF: Athleticism/Speed, Rebounding, Perimeter, Work Ethic, FT%, Low Post, Stamina, Defense, Ball Handling/Passing
PF/C(Are usable Interchangeably): Rebounding, Athleticism, Speed, FT%/Perimeter, Low Post, Shot Blocking, Defense. (At the lower levels any Ball Handling and/or Passing is viewed as a bonus)

Recruits do come into college with an IQ knowledge, Freshmen come in with anywhere from an F to a B- in a set. Most coaches take the IQ a player has as a bonus. You can find out where there IQs might be by calling recruits HS coaches and/or using Scouting Trips.

Low Post means absolutely nothing for any player playing at a guard position. Shot Blocking is pretty much meaningless for guards also.

Players High School stats do NOT mean anything! The only one that matters is FT%! The others are window dressing.

Some coaches will disagree with me on the importance of Perimeter in Big Men. I feel it opens up my game for all of my players and really helps when teams play negative D settings on me as my big men can step out and hit the 12-15 footers, along with the occasional 3-pointer.

Walk-ons

Walk-ons are not the end of the world. Unlike in GD, where you are stuck with the player for 4 years, walk-ons do not automatically get a scholarship. They are on your roster for 1 year, and when that year is over they leave. Giving you another 'ship AND monies to recruit for it. So taking a walk-on or two is a great way to balance out classes and have some extra money available. Also, Its adviced to take a walk-on over a scrubby player who will sit on your bench for 4 years.

Note: Taking more then 2 walk-ons gives your team a pracitce penalty, your players won't improve as fast as normal. So try to keep it at 2 walk-ons at the most! Or if you get in a bind, give your best walk-on a 'ship or just deal with the Penalty. (With the introduction of FSS, the practice penalty is almost non-existent).

D1 Recruiting Tip: During recruiting I find it very worth while when starting to build up a new program to recruit expecting to take one or two walk-ons. The added 15-30k that you will have to use towards other recruits to begin your rebuild can be very helpful.

Ineligibles

At DII and DI these players are not eligible for their Freshmen season, meaning they do not play nor do they practice. Put all Practice minutes into Study Hall (Really it does matter).

These players have a chance of being eligible for a 5^th year of eligibility. At DII they need a 2.0 gpa to be offered a 5^th year (They do NOT have to stay for 5) at DI they need a 2.7 gpa or higher to be offered this extra year.

Also ineligibles may or may not actually report to your team. If you sign them during recruiting there is still a chance that they might go JuCo. If this happens you will receive an email shortly after the CI top 32 Recruiting Classes mail. Then the next season you will have a small built up recruiting advantage for these players, sometimes they will even begin the recruiting period considering you.

Note: Once again all players are eligible at DIII.

Redshirting

First off it takes 1 recruiting cycle to see the results of your potential redshirt. (ie whenever a cycle would sim, you’ll get your response even if you throw it on 1 minute before said cycle)

Using the Redshirt button during recruiting is the only “For sure way” to make sure a recruit you want to redshirt will in fact accept the redshirt. What I have posted before is just a pattern I have noticed and something you can use to possibly not have to use the button. Again It is not 100% guaranteed.

Another way to get a possible recruit to redshirt is to put them on mop-up and leave them off your Depth Chart for the exhibition schedule. You can also keep taking the redshirt on and off the player may entice him to take it, or it could result in an even bigger Work Ethic drop.

It is possible to redshirt a player you promised minutes to as I have noted in the above link. Although its not guaranteed and really doesn’t make too much sense.

Practice Plans

Practice plans are the second most important thing in developing talent for your team (behind recruiting of course and, in my opinion, followed by getting your young guys a little playing time). Each player has 130 minutes of practice time. Each player has an Individual Practice Time of 130 – Team practice Minutes.

Team Practice:

For team practice you decide how much you want to improve your players IQs. The normal is 20 minutes in each Offense and Defense. It is highly recommended to only have one of each (although combo D’s are available at the lower levels players have to much individual improvement that its advised to only run one). Although it is your team so if you want to try having 2 different O’s go for it.

Some coaches change Team practice minutes based on how young/old their team is. With very large (possibly superclass size) freshmen and sophomore classes I advice to bump up the O/D at least a couple points. I usually run my D (I play mostly press where IQ is more important to cut back on excessive fouling) practice at 25 minutes and my O practice at 20. If you have a very big Junior/Senior class you could even possibly choose to cut out team practice altogether. IQ levels do not go down even if they are not being practiced.

Individual Practice:

Here is what each practice category increases:

Practice Category	Improves
Conditioning (C)	Stamina, Athleticism, Speed, Shot Blocking, Durability
Footwork (FW)	Defense, Shot Blocking, Low Post
Passing (P)	Passing
Low Post (LP)	Low Post
Perimeter (PE)	Perimeter Shots (both mid-range and 3-pointers)
Dribbling (BH)	Ball Handling
Free Throw Shooting (FT)	Free Throw Grade
Rebounding (REB)	Rebounding
Study Hall (SH)	GPA

Note: The point of diminishing returns is around 25 practice minutes in a single category. So anything over 25 will give you less then 1 minutes practice. It is ok to put more then 25 into a category, and is sometimes even the best thing to do.

Note: Players ratings are considered “Un-improvable” if less than 20 and over 90. The rate of improvement is very slow so it is usually advised to put nothing into categories under 20 and at least 7 (7 is used to maintain a rating where it is at with no decrease) into anything 90 and above, assuming you have other improvable ratings where the minutes can be used more effectively.

Free Throw Practice:

Once upon a time in HD you could get any player to an A in FT shooting, about a year ago WIS decided to take that strategy away from us coaches. Now a player will improve only 4% (On average, although that is pretty much the norm) over their ENTIRE career. (They did this because apparently the average improvement they did in a study of 1000 D1 players was 4%, I disagree and even found different results) In other words, maybe 2/3 of a letter grade is all your going to be able to get. (Depending on WE a little). So now i practice FTs at 12 minutes (12 is used to keep players from decreasing, I wouldn't go any lower then 12 as FT% decreases MUCH faster then it improves) for all of my players regardless of how good or bad they are. FTs is also now something I recruit for. (With the introduction of FSS players are once again able to increase FT% based on their potential not only 4%)

Also very important, You don’t want your players getting bad grades or they won’t be able to play and you’ll take a rep hit!

This is usually what I use when setting players SH minutes at the start of a season:

Freshmen: 7-10 depending on HS GPA
Sophomore: I usually start them at what they ended with Fr. Year.
Junior: 3-7 depending on Cum. GPA
Senior: 1-5 depending on Cum. GPA.

Note: Treat a Redshirted Freshmen as a regular Fr.

Note: There are 2 mid-terms and 2 final-grades. This gives you an opportunity to change your SH minutes if your players are in trouble of failing. Once you get your 2^nd set of Final Grades. You can take all SH minutes away from players and put them into other categories.

Note: If a player becomes ineligible during the season he will still practice with your team, he is just not allowed to play. So Do NOT move all his minutes over to Study Hall, just enough to get him eligible (Which could be anywhere from 10 to anything depending on his year and his gpa).

Offseason Improvements

These are random, based off a players Work Ethic. Meaning a player with a higher WE has a better chance of gaining more in the offseason. A player that has a lower WE has a lesser chance. Usually a player with under 30 WE losses points in SPD/STA/DUR in the offseason.