Whatifsports Hoops Dynasty: Norwich University

[drzachary]

As you've seen before, I've been really enjoying my first season of Hoops Dynasty. Recruiting is still ongoing, and we are now in the signing period. I've spent all my money and got 3 of my 4 targets. If the fourth doesn't sign (knock on wood) I'll have a walk-on in his place. I had to rebuild a crappy team recruited by the simulation AI last year (2 point guards, a center and 8 power forwards!!), so it's definitely a project season.

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So far I've signed:

Lester Hine (SG)

6'2", 193

GPA: 2.81

(Note: don't pay attention to sizes too much, they're not important in Hoops Dynasty so much, and they're factored in to the stats. 6'6" centers and such are common at Div-III.)

Lester will, as a freshman, immediately be my best man-to-man defender, and a strong rebounder at the 2/3 (very important in my man-to-man defensive system.) He has average athleticism and speed (both needed to run my offensive system, the fast break), so we'll be working on that a lot this year. The main knock against Lester right now is that he played in a triangle and a 2-3 zone in high school, so he will be a little lost on the floor ... and I promised him a starting spot to come to Norwich. *gulp* He's a decent character kid, with a high work ethic, so he's going to be a fixture for years to come. His D and rebounding will let him play the 3 in college.

I've received some odd correspondence regarding him, including one from my asssistant coach in which I thought he was asking for a bribe (none given, none needed.)

"Lester Hine showed a moderate level of interest in us coach. He wasn't sure how well he'd fit in here. Can you 'do' anything to help convince him?

Alfred Bass

Head Assistant Coach

Norwich"

By far my favorite letter from Lester is a strange one right after he was sold on Norwich:

"Man, my boys and I were just at a party talking about you guys. Then we called the bowling alley to ask them how they carry their 16 pound balls. It was sweet. 16 pound balls! But, yeah cool, I think it would be great to play with the balls at Norwich.

Lester Hine"

Welcome aboard, Les.

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Next up....

Aaron Haskell (SG)

6'1", 174

GPA: 2.97

Aaron will end up being first off the bench at SG, third in depth at PG (until my current PGs graduate), and will see time at SF as well. He's also a great defender, but not a great rebounder (see how height is figured in?) He has above-average athleticism and speed coming in, AND he ran the fastbreak and man-to-man systems in high school, so he'll fit in quickly. Also, his GPA is high enough to where I won't have concerns. He's a model citizen.

His reply brought a tear to my eye:

" I think I would be a PERFECT fit for Norwich! Thank you for contacting me! I promise I won't let you down.

Aaron Haskell"

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Skipping the recruit I haven't signed yet (don't want to jinx), we come to real apple of the bunch:

Russell Grubbs (SG)

6'0", 192

GPA: 2.67

Russell, hoo boy. What a piece of work. He has TRANSCENDENT athleticism and speed, and ran fastbreak and man-to-man in high school, and will immediately take over the starting off-guard position at Norwich. He's an average defender (good at SG), and could easily be the best perimeter shooting freshman in my conference.

That's the good stuff.

The bad stuff, well, there's a lot of it. His work ethic isn't AWFUL, but it's not great either. He'll never be a good rebounder, which isn't a big deal given his role.

He's also not the sharpest knife in the drawer, based on his first response to my original letter:

"my moms says where Norwich is ain't no better than are trailer park. course, i says the parties and the hunnies there gotta be better than this. i'd love to ball for you, but we're gonna need to here and see more.

Russell Grubbs"

His primadonna act continued as I pursued him:

"I don't think you got much chance, but keep spittin game and throwin love at me and maybe I'll turn around.

Russell Grubbs

Then there was a response to a letter I mailed to his house, in which he (derisively?) referred to my efforts as "nice work." He also disturbingly seems convinced that he will be able to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. (The psychologist also suggested that he might, erm, not respond well to discipline.) Here's the disturbing letter from Russ:

"nice work. you ain't one of my top choices, but i heard some things about you i like. i hear you ain't strict and don't push too hard. thats cool cause i do my own thing and i can still score from anywhere. lets talk.

Russell Grubbs"

As you'll see from the next section, I'm not really sure what kind of 'scoring' he's talking about...

The really bad stuff is what kept cropping up in correspondence and calls with a psychologist who worked with him. I'll just paste the entire second letter I received from Dr. Phil Marcelli, noted sports psychologist, after a followup call:

"I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Russell Grubbs and I was very concerned about some of the sexual references he made. It wasn't appropriate but yet he thought nothing of it. That wasn't all. We continued talking and I picked up a very distinct sense of materialism. Not sure if it's driven by social circumstances or he's just greedy.

My standard disclaimer - while I'm a nationally recognized sports psychologist, I'm not doing brain surgery here - I mean it's a 30 minute call so I'm not saying that's the end all and be all of this kid's personality. If you want me to talk to him again, I'm happy to do it - schedule something with my secretary.

Dr. Phil Marcelli"

Bringing this kid aboard is a risk I'm willing to take at this low point in Norwich 's history. However, my AD feels otherwise, as he emailed me this within minutes of the Grubbs signing:

"Well, I guess you're willing to risk the reputation of the school. Russell Grubbs just signed. Do you like the administration breathing down our necks? I don't.

Edwin Powers

Director of Athletics

Norwich"

*gulp*

Wish me luck.

[Lascar78]

I think haskell and grubbs might be related

[drzachary]

Quote:

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I think haskell and grubbs might be related

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Good call... it's a sparsely populated area that I'm recruiting from, so I wouldn't doubt it?

[drzachary]

Oh man, this isn't good. My darkhorse (probably redshirt freshman) hasn't signed yet, but likely will. Since I had a few bucks left over from recruiting, I spent $50 to have a psychological test done (the more info the better!)

Here's what Dr. Phil Marcelli tells me...

"I spent 30 minutes on the phone with (name withheld to prevent jinx) and from our brief conversation, I sensed he had self-confidence issues - seemed highly envious of others. That wasn't all. We continued talking and he flew off the handle multiple times over very routine questions. He's got a very aggressive/explosive personality."

I can't wait. I'm picking some real winners!

[Guest Riv]

Zach you have sold me on this. $10.95 seems well worth the entertainment. I am going to do a college football one though. I'm off from work till 7/5 so I'll set it up sometime this weekend. I do have a question though, who do you compete against, other people or is everything else controlled by the computer? thanks

[drzachary]

Quote:

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Zach you have sold me on this. $10.95 seems well worth the entertainment. I am going to do a college football one though. I'm off from work till 7/5 so I'll set it up sometime this weekend. I do have a question though, who do you compete against, other people or is everything else controlled by the computer? thanks

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I can't answer definitively on the college gridiron one (though I may try it sometime), but the way the college one works is this:

You start off in DIV-III... Virtually every DIV-III team is human coached, and the ones that aren't are run by "SimAI" (which usually does a damn awful job.) When you do well over the course of a few seasons, you can get hired by a Div-II school (there's a Jobs tab in the game.) Then eventually you get a Div-I job. Depending on which World you join, the system will have completed a certain number of seasons. I'm in Rupp, which is in its 16th season. There are a few dozen people in Div-I, but not every team is filled. It takes a while to work your way up, especially for the more prestigious schools, AFAIK. UNC will have tougher standards than Georgia State. Also, you have things like Loyalty and Reputation scores, so if you are obviously using schools as stepping stones, ADs (all controlled by the Sim, not real people) may be less likely to hire you.

In my conf in div-III in Rupp, there is only one SimAI-coached team.

[Guest Riv]

Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. Good times are ahead!

[drzachary]

Quote:

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Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. Good times are ahead!

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Let me know when you sign up. I'd like to follow your team! Also, I might join a college football league at some point.

[Guest Riv]

I definately will.

[drzachary]

Well, I signed Jonathan Waid, who's hopefully going to redshirt as a freshman this year.

The AD isn't happy:

"Let me be the first one to say congratulations - oh, wait, that's what I'd say if I were happy. Let me rephrase that - you signed Jonathan Waid?!? Are you insane? The kid's mental.

Edwin Powers

Director of Athletics

Norwich"

[drzachary]

Here's the info on Waid:

Jonathan Waid (PF)

6'5", 206

GPA: 2.86

He isn't the most skillful player on my roster, but he has the best work ethic of anyone on my team. He definitely has above average athleticism and speed for a power forward. From an earlier recruiting visit, he does seem confident:

"I hoop better than anybody you got at Norwich so next time you best bring your A game to the table if you want to bring this in.

Jonathan Waid"

[Guest Riv]

I created an account w/ whatifsports and went to the College Football Dynasty section but there are no jobs available in any of the 8 worlds. Each one says something along the line of...

Rockne 19 Status: In Progress - Join the waiting list for Season 20

Current season started on: Jun 21 2006 12:01PM EST

Do you know how long I will have to wait or does it vary?

[ersimo2889]

I joined one a few days ago, too, per Dr. Zach's advice, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm in Rupp too, by the way! (Monmouth - maybe I'll see you in the NCAA tournament or something).. except I lost my first exhibition game today 110-43. My lineup of kids who played 5 minutes a game on their high school team looks a little overmatched..

[Guest Riv]

Esi, was there a waiting list or instant openings? I didnt know if the basketball one was the same or not.

[ersimo2889]

No, there wasn't a waiting list, but Rupp was the only one that was open. You have to sign up before recruiting starts, which for me started two days ago. I would rather have done college football, too, but it was all filled up, but basketball is very entertaining! Come to think of it I dont even know where Monmouth is..

[Guest Riv]

Thanks for replying. I guess I'll go on a waiting list. This sucks though, I want to play now!! I am like a crackhead fiening for a hit! This is all Zach's fault. As far as monmouth goes, West Long Branch, New Jersey is the location.

[drzachary]

Esimonds, if you already have next season paid for, we should schedule an out-of-conference game against each other!

[Guest Riv]

Ok I joined a college football one. I am the new coach of Albright University!!

[Guest Riv]

Teams sure go fast!!! At 3:15 the world opened up for new coaches and there was 62 openings. 51 minutes later there are 5 openings. yikes!

[Guest Riv]

My recruiting starts on 7/6 and I was checking out the talent pool and they have the projected level. Are you guys just going after Div III prospects or attempting to get Div I/II guys as well. I wasnt sure and obviously dont want to waste my time on say Div II guys if I wont get any. Thanks.