Five Friends/Foes

[PointGuard]

Tournament Selections:

Conference T teams:

Cornell is the 8th seed in the East in the CIT Tournament
Howard is the 3rd seed in the East in the CIT Tournament
Samford is the 4th seed in the West in the CIT Tournament
Loyola-Maryland is the 6th seed in the West in the CBI Tournament
Sacramento State is in a play in game for 16th seed in the East in the NCAA Tournament

Conference U teams:

Abilene Christian is the 3rd seed in the South in the CIT Tournament
Utah Valley is the 7th seed in the West in the CBI Tournament
Lamar is the 8th seed in the West in the CBI Tournament
Wofford is the 5th seed in the West in the CBI Tournament
SIU-Edwardsville is the 14th seed in the East in the NCAA Tournament

CIT Tournament:

CIT Tournament—1st Round:

Western Carolina—74, Cornell—63
Howard—87, Monmouth—77
Arkansas-Pine Bluff—76, Samford—67
Abilene Christian—87, New Jersey Tech—67

CIT Tournament—2nd Round:

Ohio—90, Howard—80
Abilene Christian—80, Hartford—63

CIT Tournament—3rd Round:

Abilene Christian—74, Navy—72

CIT Tournament—Semi-Finals:

Abilene Christian—79, Arkansas-Pine Bluff—68

CIT Tournament—Championship:

Western Carolina—77, Abilene Christian--62

CBI Tournament:

CBI Tournament—1st Round:

Lamar—74, Brown—57
Utah Valley—73, Washington State—54
Fordham—71, Wofford—67 (The lead swayed back and forth throughout the first half, with Wofford holding a slim 31-29 lead at the break. But turnovers by the Terriers allowed Fordham to jump ahead in the 2nd half by as much as 16 points. Wofford came back in late in the game but the gap was just too much to overcome. C Jamaal Hobbs scored 18 and had 9 rebounds for Wofford and PG Antuan Lackey hit for 12 points and dished out 6 assists while SG Victor Griffin scored 11 and grabbed 8 boards.)
Purdue—79, Loyola-Maryland—63

CBI Tournament-2nd Round:

Fordham—67, Lamar—65
Purdue—82, Utah Valley--67

NCAA Tournament:

NCAA Tournament--Play in game:

Sacramento State—74, Lafayette—70

NCAA Tournament—1st Round:

Syracuse—79, Sacramento State—51
Texas—72, SIU-Edwardsville—64

Tournament Champions:

CIT: Western Carolina
CBI: Purdue
NIT: Indiana
NCAA: Oregon

[PointGuard]

PF Robert Allocco—Conference T 1st Team All-Conference

PF Maurice Braun—Conference U 2nd Team All-Conference


Announcement: Robert Allocco announced that he has accepted an offer to play for Umana Venezia in the Italian professional league next season.

[Wayne23]

Pizza for everyone!

[PointGuard]

Allocco knew where he could be effective...almost all his shots in the post where he converted for a very high percentage.

[PointGuard]

With the exception of Wofford’s Kyle Anders, all of the other 5 coach’s recruiting quite simply…sucked. Anders had 4 scholarships to award and signed 4 recruits with national rankings of #1059, 1414, 1630, and 1742.

On the other hand:

DJ Brower of Chicago State had 7 scholarships to offer, but only signed 3 recruits with national rankings of #1061, 1579, and 1644.

Monroe Thurlow of Cal-Davis had 8 scholarships to offer, but only signed 3 recruits with national rankings of #538, 1321, and 1525.

Parsons Nyland of Jacksonville had 5 scholarships to offer, but only signed 2 recruits with national rankings of #1412 and 1491.

Vernell Strom of Texas State had 5 scholarships to offer, but only signed 2 recruits with national rankings of #1067 and 1241.

Totally inexcusable!

[PointGuard]

Coach and Team Records after 2 seasons:

DJ Brower, Chicago State Cougars, 30-27, .526, NIT (1st round), Reputation: 11, Team Prestige: 13
Kyle Anders, Wofford Terriers, 31-28, ,525, CBI (1st round), Reputation: 11, Team Prestige: 13
Monroe Thurlow, Cal-Davis Aggies, 27-34, .443, NCAA (Play-in), Reputation: 10, Team Prestige: 11
Vernell Strom, Texas State Bobcats, 28-28, .500, NIT (1st round), Reputation: 11, Team Prestige: 13
Parsons Nyland, Jacksonville Dolphins, 28-31, .475, Reputation: 10, Team Prestige: Team Prestige: 10

All 5 coaches remained with their initial teams.

Assistant Coaches:

Wofford—contracts for all 3 assistants expired and were not renewed. (Wofford hired 3 new assistants, 2 of whom had very good skill ratings for scouting and recruiting)
Texas State—contracts for all 3 assistants expired and were not renewed. (Texas State hired 3 new assistants, 2 of whom had very good skill ratings for scouting and player development and one of whom had reasonably good ratings across the board)
Cal-Davis—contracts for all 3 assistants expired and were not renewed. (Cal-Davis hired 3 new assistants, one of whom had very good skill ratings for player development and one of whom had reasonably good ratings across the board)

Starter graduation:

Cal-Davis losing 4 of its 5 starters to graduation.
Chicago St. losing 4 of its 5 starters to graduation.
Texas St. losing 3 of its 5 starters to graduation.
Jacksonville losing 3 of its 5 starters to graduation.
Wofford losing 3 of its 5 starters to graduation.

So none of the teams will go into next season with a depth of experience.

Board Requests:

All of the 5 coaches had their requests denied for improvements that they made to their respective boards.

Promotion/Regression:

Cal-Davis and Chicago State will remain in Conference T and Wofford and Jacksonville will remain in Conference U for the 2018-2019 season. After being promoted last season from Conference U to Conference T, Vernell Strom’s Texas State Bobcats will regress back to Conference U for the 2018-2019 season.

[Wayne23]

I've been meaning to say that it's nice to see someone doing a Promo/Rel dynasty. I thought I was the only one who did these. I find them to be an interesting challenge now and then.

[PointGuard]

Yeah, I've only done a couple tests of it previously. This is pretty different for me since I'm simming all recruiting and gameplay...can't say I really like that part, but for a 5 coach, it's a must. It is showing some issues related to the AI. And because of that the coaches don't seem to be making much headway, but it's still early.

[PointGuard]

The third season (2018-2019) of coaching begins for the 5 Friends/Foes. None of the 5 coaches has yet to show much success. Having been unable to replenish their rosters with any stellar recruits, the prospects for a break out this season appear dim, but hope springs eternal.

[PointGuard]

Following two lackluster recruiting seasons at Texas State, you’ve got to wonder about Vernell Strom. He hired strong scouting and player development assistants, but failed to hire a good recruiting assistant. That doesn’t bode well for the Aggies this season.

On the other hand, Kyle Anders at Wofford hired a strong recruiting assistant. His new scout also is strong. But he was unable to bring a strong player development assistant on board.

At Cal-Davis, Monroe Thurlow hired a strong player development assistant. But his new recruiting and scouting assistants are both subpar. The Aggies also have had 2 poor recruiting seasons, so it looks like Thurlow will be hard-pressed to turn things around on that front this season.