Hello all. I purchased the game over a week ago and I'm already entering my 5th season with my created coach. I'm having a ball but I'm looking for some help on certain features. First let me go over where I'm currently at and how I got there to clarify things:

I created a 35 year old coach with 30 ability for all attributes. I have the difficulty on Normal for everything.

I'm the Head Coach of the Kennesaw State Owls in the Eastern Sun Conference. I chose one of the worst programs in the game because I wanted to build them up.

These are my general coaching attributes:

Reputation Poor
Ambition Average
Academics Average
Discipline Average
Temper Average

Question #1 - Do these attributes change over time or are they settings that you select? I don't remember selecting them when I created my coach but I haven't seen them change at all.
Question #2 - What exactly do you have to do to change your reputation? I feel like I've done a pretty good job and haven't seen an upswing in this at all.

Entering Year 5 this is what my coach attributes look like now:

Offense 41
Defense 45
Recruiting 46
Scouting 42
Player Dev 45

Here's my roster heading into Year 5:

OVR POT
PG T Cantrell 2.5 2.5 - Senior - is the only remaining player from original roster.
SG J Murray 2.0 3.0 - Sophomore - #1323 national recruit in 2020.
SF A Worden 2.0 3.0 - Junior - was obtained via transfer.
SF R Williams 1.5 4.0 - True Freshman - #155 national recruit in 2021.
C M Howard 1.5 4.0 - Sophomore - #178 national recruit in 2020
SF J Hastie 2.0 3.0 - Senior - #1404 national recruit in 2020 (JUCO).
SG J Chernyaev 1.5 3.0 - Sophomore - was obtained via transfer.
PG J Gibson 1.0 2.5 - Junior (R) - #311 national recruit in 2018.
PF P Ross 1.5 3.5 - Sophomore - #521 national recruit in 2019.
C J Jordy 1.0 3.0 - Sophomore - #1087 national recruit in 2020.
SG T Gailey 1.0 1.0 - Freshman - walk on.
SF R Colter 1.0 1.0 - Senior - walk on.
SG B Carney 1.0 3.5 - Junior - #855 national recruit in 2019.
C(I) J Ward 3.0 3.0 - Sophomore (Transfer)
PF(R) B Rivera 1.0 3.0 - Redshirting Freshman - #679 national recruit in 2021.

I think I'm doing a pretty solid job recruiting considering the team I have is such a small program. Here's some questions I have:

Question #3 - I'm landing some decent recruits, but my biggest hurdle from getting better seems to be player progression (or lack thereof). Does anyone know why my players are progressing so slowly? For instance Center M Howard was a pretty high recruit, I started him all of last year with around 30 min per game. I have an assistant with 50+ player development assigned to handle practices, but he went from a 1.0 OVR to 1.5 OVR from last year and his attributes barely improved. Am I doing something wrong for player development? Or is it because my HC attributes are low? Also I think my team's facilities are rated a "C". Is this impacting my player progression?

So my team's Prestige rating was a 3 when I started, I got it up to 5 when I made the NCAA tournament after winning the conference tournament in my 3rd year. I made the tournament again after winning my conference last year but I saw no improvement in my team's prestige.

Question #4 - What do I need to do to improve my team's prestige? There are some teams in my conference as high as 15, I seem stuck at 5. I have been playing weak OOC schedules, but with my players lack of player progression I kind of have to. But do I need "statement" OOC wins to improve prestige? Winning my conference every year doesn't seem to be making an impact.

Question #5 - My budget has been stuck at $127,000 the entire time I've been with this school. I have requested an increased budget every year and been denied. Is there something to this I'm missing? I even saved right before the Board met last offseason and ran it 10 times, I was denied every time. I asked for improved Facilities and were rejected for those too.

Any general tips or feedback would be a big help thanks.

Whew! There's a lot here. Okay, Reputation goes up with experience. It goes up faster if you win, but it goes up regardless.

Ambition Average
Academics Average
Discipline Average
Temper Average I don't think there's a way to change these.

Offense 41
Defense 45
Recruiting 46
Scouting 42
Player Dev 45 These go up over time. Scouting goes up slowest, for some unknown reason, so I usually set that one higher than the others when I start a new association.

Q 3: While your assistant coaches' ratings have an impact, your ratings, as head coach are far more important. As your Overall Reputation and your Player Dev ratings rise, your players will progress more quickly. And yes, a guy who gets minutes will progress much more quickly than a guy who doesn't.

Q4: Gary, the game developer, has told us that Reputation rises with your team's success, BUT the Conference success and Prestige are also factors.

Q5: You have zero chance of getting a budget increase unless you spend your entire budget (well, under $100 left is okay). The default is for your request to be denied, but I'd say I get an increase every 3-5 years, again, as long as I spend all my money every year.

Finally, this is an active, friendly forum. Welcome aboard, and don't hesitate to keep the questions coming!

Agree with Wayne's comments. In addition:

Q1: Ambition, Academics, Discipline, Integrity, and Temper for your coach are set during your coach creation process as you create your association and can't be changed. They're his "personality".

Q2: Your skills are improving (from 30 to mid 40's), so your rep probably is also. What's your NUMERIC reputation now. The "Poor" general rating relates to a numeric reputation range so you still may be within that same "range".

Q3: How are your players' actually performing? Are they doing better each season? That probably more telling that the number of "balls" rating and the individual skill ratings that derive from your coaches' general evaluations. But generally, you will see improvement in those ratings also, so maybe review this more over a little longer period.

Q4: Team prestige is not only derived from your short term success but also the team's level of success over a longer period of time, so that longer range might still be limiting your team's rise in prestige. But also you are playing in a low prestige conference, so prestige rise may be slowed by that as well. Keep getting to the NCAA tourney (and win some games there) and it should move up.

Q5: Re your rerunning it 10 times and getting the same results...at least the game is consistent! My guess though, is as Wayne hinted at, you weren't spending your entire budget, unless you also were failing some of your AD's goals.

Welcome to the game and the boards.

Thanks for the replys.

@Wayne23 - I did start that Center all of last year and he still didn't progress much at all. However, I played him at PF all year, do you think that had any impact? I don't see why it should?

Also about the budget increases, I can't remember previous years but I know I got down to below $3,000 last year. You're saying I have to spend every penny? That's tough cause I usually like to keep some in reserve for late signings.

@PointGuard - Where do I check my numeric coach reputation?

In regards to how my players are actually performing, my teams have starting scoring a lot more since my early ones but my defense has been getting worse. Overall my Wins are up but this is the first year I'm using a team with all players I've recruited (except for one) so I'll report back after another season.

Also I haven't failed any of my AD's goals, they've been really simple like don't finish last in your conference or stuff like that.

It's a deep, complex game. I've been playing since April of 2007, and it never gets old. There are always new ways to play, new things to try.

A C playing at PF shouldn't hurt his progress. If you were playing him at guard it would. Remember that at a low ranked school your assistants are only so good, and the ratings are not all that reliable. Look at the player's stats to get an idea of how he is progressing. As you move up and can afford better assistants your perception of a player's ratings will be much more accurate.

I save $ for spring recruiting as well, but on 4/16, if I have money left and nowhere to put it, I spend it on recruits. You can go to an international recruit or two. They eat up the $ fast. Again, $3000 left on 4/23 and you won't have any chance of getting a budget increase. Less than $100 left and you should get that increase every 3-5 years that you go for it.

When I started learning the game I was quick to pull the trigger on associations. When I felt I'd learned enough to start over and do better, I killed my association and did just that. Everyone learns their own way though; there's no single right way.

Keep the questions and comments coming!

in terms of player progression, i dont think it works as well as it could. now i play with no players can leave early. its important they get their education! this player has above avg work ethic and has not progressed much in any area. ive learned not to expect much in terms of player progression and plan accordingly. and by the way i love this game but i think its important to understand how it works to reduce frustration level

@Double Dribble

How are you countering the slow progression? Do you take on a lot of transfers or JUCOs? Do you redshirt everyone?

DD, I think that further evaluation of player development, along with the new ratings progression screen, is important to do so that it possibly can be tweaked.

Demetric Buller came in as a very highly talented freshman (maybe too high and probably maxed out, or very close to being maxed out, re his potential in his various skills) so there was little room for improvement. So as mentioned elsewhere, maybe there are too many freshmen who are ready to jump to the pros (for those who have allowed underclassmen to declare for the pros).

Here's what I am seeing re player development in my association for my team (Youngstown State) between year 1 and year 2:

PG Hart--improvement in 3 of the 8 ratings on the ratings progression screen
PG Lostetter--no improvement in any of the 8 ratings
PG Murphy--improvement in 7 of the 8 ratings
SG Holt--improvement in 5 of the 8 ratings
SG Dennis--significant improvement in 8 of the 8 ratings
SG Swan--freshman so nothing to compare yet
SF Delzell--improvement in 1 of the 8 ratings
SF Martin--improvement in 2 of the 8 ratings
SF Worley--improvement i 1 of the 8 ratings
PF Tice--no improvement in any of the 8 ratings
PF Braswell--improvement in 3 of the 8 ratings
PF Paben--improvement in 3 of the 8 ratings
C Jones--no improvement in any of the 8 ratings
C Grady--no improvement in any of the 8 ratings
C Anderson--decline in 6 of the 8 ratings