Recruiting Questions

[Lcjjdnh]

(1) Is there a rule of thumb for how much I should be spending on recruiting each period?
(2) Should I always use all available calls, visits, etc.?
(3) Does it matter when in recruiting process I use a visit? I.e., will it be a waste if I use it on recruit before sufficiently interested.
(4) Does actually picking up phone to call recruit make a difference? Seems a bit tedious.
(5) How many people can on call and watch list and is there in easy way to figure out how many you’ve used?
(6) What’s a “realistic” level of recruit for Big East type program? I realize that’s generic question by trying to get a sense of who I should be shooting for.

Thanks in advance! Just picked up game yesterday and looking forward to checking it out during March Madness!

[PointGuard]

(1) Is there a rule of thumb for how much I should be spending on recruiting each period?
(2) Should I always use all available calls, visits, etc.?
(3) Does it matter when in recruiting process I use a visit? I.e., will it be a waste if I use it on recruit before sufficiently interested.
(4) Does actually picking up phone to call recruit make a difference? Seems a bit tedious.
(5) How many people can on call and watch list and is there in easy way to figure out how many you’ve used?
(6) What’s a “realistic” level of recruit for Big East type program? I realize that’s generic question by trying to get a sense of who I should be shooting for.

Thanks in advance! Just picked up game yesterday and looking forward to checking it out during March Madness!

Recruiting is done by different DDSCB players in different ways, so I would think you would get different answers to your questions from different people, but here's mine:
!. Totally up to you. The main thing is to have enough money to use on recruiting as long as you still have unfilled scholarships...and by the end of the season it's best to use up all of your budget to increase the likelihood of getting the school to cough up more budget or improve facilities or give you a raise.
2, Again an individual decision. I use all my available calls each week,.,they can develop or increase the level of interest the recruit has in your program plus yield information about pitch categories. How much I do of Watching Film, Scout Live and Host Recruit depends on what I need to find out about individual recruits, how much of a budget I have, and if I think any of these 3 will either give me more info about an individual recruit or possibly increase an individual recruit's level of interest. If I don't have skill ratings for a recruit, Watching Film will accomplish that..at times it can also give me a recruit note. Scout Live can increase the level of interest plus hopefully will give me more recruit notes (but not always). Host Recruit provides quick feedback as to whether the recruit is interested in your program or not..and if iinterested, an idea of the degree of interest. I use all available opportunties to Visit Recruits...it is absolutely the best way to increae interest (or tell you if the recruit is not interested) and for those you are going to offer a scholarship, greatly increases the chance for acceptance.
3. Again, my suggestion is to use all 4 Visit Recruit opportunities for the few weeks you can do so.
4. Yes, it definitely makes sense. See my comment in #2 above re Phone Calls. They're not costing you any money either.
5, The max I think its something like 55-60...I used to know but can't remember exactly. Only way to know how many you have is to count them on your list.
But once you've reached your Max #, the program will not allow you to add more.
6. Each Big East team has a different budget...just keep enough money in your budget to continue some level of recruiting efforts until all scholarships have been filled and also use up all your budget by the end of the season.

I think the more you play the game, the better you will know how to use the available actions and spend your money and how each affects the recruits so you can develop your own way of doing things.

[Lcjjdnh]

Thanks!

[Wayne23]

1. If at all possible I like to have $40,000 or more for recruiting.
2. I use all available calls and visits.
3. I use visits to try to stimulate interest when there is little to none, but more so to encourage a player I want who is already interested.
4. I think calling helps. I keep calling.
5. Not sure what you're asking. I probably recruit fewer than most, often about 8-12 with an established team, 20-30 with a low ranked team.
6. Big East teams can land a top 50 player or two, and a couple of top 100s. With luck you may get someone in the 25-50 range.

[Your_Imaginary_Friend]

I agree with the above and will add a little from own experience:

1) I tend to use up all my slots on the call list. I do so gradually, however, so that I have open slots for late blooming interests. The second week of recruiting tends to be much different from the first, plus you get camp evaluations to add talented players to your list. Why do I fill up the call list? Your staff gets answers to questions so that you might be able to properly target a visit without having to call yourself. Plus, it does increase interest a little each week. If you don't have money and still have schollies open after the early commit week, you will need to cull out the lower rated and single + interested players to keep money around.

2) Don't overlook International players. In a year with 4 or more schollies available, I will sort stats of 1000+ ranked overseas recruits to see who I like. Then I call and watch film until a few will talk. Then if I need to, I go after them hard. They don't commit until April, so keeping money around to remind the guy late is good.

[NCAAhoops]

A good way to learn (or at least the way I did it) is start a couple of associations and set to CPU does recruiting in the options screen. Then every week look at what the cpu did. You can even jump in and choose coach visits and make phone calls to a player the cpu has on your list to get a grip on what the cpu does so you can practice recruiting. Once I felt I was ready to try for myself I used to set it to CPU for the first week of recruiting only, just so the cpu could choose what level recruits I should be going after, then turned it off and recruited myself afterwards. After a few times doing it this way I learned to recruit on my own. Don't forget to look at what the kid is telling you is important and if your school is good at that use it when you visit as a pitch.

[PointGuard]

As I mentioned there are MANY different ways to recruit within DDSCB. That's because the recruiting function within this game is one of the deepest (and probably the most deep) aspect of the game. So much so that recruiting is more of an "art" than a "science"...and like any art there are many ways to create a beautiful piece.

I think that's why I find recruiting to be the most interesting aspect of playing the game...it's always a challenge, particularly if you are coaching a lower prestige program and if you kick the Recruiting Difficulty Level to Hard or Brutal. And once you land a recruit, you may find that he turns out to be just what you expected or much better or a disappointment...pretty much like real life. To me playing this game without doing the recruiting is probably like eating watermelon intravenously.