May 1, 2014
Look who brought in the best
recruiting class in the Patriot League...
HTML Code:
2013 Recruiting Rankings
# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
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123. Lafayette Patriot League SG Joe Lien *** 0 0 1 0 1
164. American Patriot League PG Bryant Passmore *** 0 0 1 1 0
176. Bucknell Patriot League C Gregory Latham *** 0 0 1 2 0
239. Colgate Patriot League PG Terrance Wright ** 0 0 0 2 1
262. Navy Patriot League PF Darrel Puma ** 0 0 0 2 0
301. Holy Cross Patriot League PF Reuben Harwell ** 0 0 0 2 0
315. Army Patriot League C Sterling Davies * 0 0 0 0 4
326. Lehigh Patriot League C Papillion Lecroix * 0 0 0 0 3
Joe Lien is the #117 player in the nation, and he's clearly the best incoming freshman in the Patriot League. Three teams in our conference landed a three-star player, and Joe is good enough to lift us over American and Bucknell into the top spot...even though they both recruited at least one two-star player and we did not.
Joe arrives on campus as a Yellow/Blue player, so the hype may be real.
Papillon Lecroix is an early candidate for the Patriot League All-Name Team. My French isn't very good, but isn't that
The Butterfly Cross?
My mouth fell open when I saw our
budget for 2014/15. We have
$361,474 to spend this year! If I decide to keep our current coaching staff, our recruiting budget will be $25,803/month...about $11,000 more than we had last season. Perhaps it's time to hire more accomplished assistant coaches.
Our
prestige has gone up two more points, to
35. American (42) and Holy Cross (37) still rank higher than we do, although we've closed the gap on the Crusaders a bit more. After us comes Bucknell (28), and the other Patriot League programs are all in the teens.
The conference prestige of the Patriot League goes up even more significantly, however. We're now a Prestige 3 conference, rather than a Prestige 1. We're now considered on the level of the Big West, the Colonial Athletic Association, the Horizon League, and the MAC.
This spring, Coach Sims gets his first chance to change jobs, within the "rules" I created for this dynasty.
Drexel is looking for a new coach. They play in the CAA, and their Prestige is 57. On the surface, this looks like a real step forward. However, their budget is just a bit higher than ours. I like the team we've put together at Lafayette, so I decide to turn Drexel's offer down. If Graham keeps winning, he'll get other chances.
South Carolina, Charlotte, and Virginia Commonwealth also make job offers, but since none of these schools are in Pennsylvania, they're easy "nos."
The caliber of schools that offered Graham jobs this spring makes me wonder if his coaching stats have improved. They haven't; he's still right where he was when I created him. However, all three of his assistants have improved.
Coaches Manion,
McClinton, and
Liang offer more bang for their buck now. I might have checked to see if our enhanced budget would allow us to lure even more talented assistants to our program, but I clicked past the Assistant Coach Round by mistake. It looks like we're keeping things the way they are for at least one more year.
We don't have any transfer activity this spring.