Please Help: 11 Qs on 2K5

[Xanderski]

I just bought ESPN College Hoops 2K5 this past weekend after hearing so many good things about it. I started a career dynasty, but might start over as I have some questions on recruiting/coaching...

1. What are the lengths of the recruiting seasons? It sounds like there is an early signing period, in-season recruiting period, and post-season recruiting period. How can you tell when the early signing period ends (I had no idea it was coming until it passed)?

2. Do you get an allotment of recruiting points per period, or do your recruiting points have to last all year?

3. Does looking at a recruit’s game tape increase his chances of signing with you, or does it only serve to tell you more information on the recruit?

4. For a coach’s scouting ability...is that the ability to scout recruits or your team’s opponents?

5. If I have five scholarships available, do you recommend going after only five players or more than five?

6. Do you sim day by day, or do you just sim to the next game? If you sim day by day, do you e-mail/call recruits during that time? Does it pay to contact a recruit daily?

7. How long is the post-season recruiting period? I heard it’s easy to sign guys during this period...is that true?

8. I’m a little confused about something (I barely played the game this weekend)...there was a screen where you set the focus of your coaching…something like “15% to offense, 15% to defense,” etc…anyway, there was a category called ‘Free Time.’ I thought you HAD to have some free time scheduled in order to recruit, but it looked like I could recruit with my ‘Free Time’ set to zero. So, do you NEED free time scheduled?

9. It looks like recruiting costs you recruiting points and time. Any tips on balancing these?

10. Can you fire assistant coaches? If so, can you look at available assistant coaches first? Do assistants leave your program? Can you see where they end up and follow their careers?

11. Can you redshirt a player by placing them on the reserve? Can you take players on and off of the reserve?

Thanks!

[nafsder2007]

1. There are three clearly defined recruiting seasons. I don't have specific dates, but the preseason recruiting lasts until roughly four weeks into the season. You then have a week of recruit signing. The inseason recruiting goes from the end of the signing week until the week preceding the conference tournaments. You cannot sign anyone during this time, you can only recruit them. You may not contact any of your recruits from the start of the conference tournaments through the High School All American game (after the NCAA Tourney). After the season is the post season recruiting period which lasts until a new season starts. This is where most of the signing goes on.

2. From what I can tell, you use the same number for the preseason and inseason recruiting, but you get some more points for the postseason recruiting.

3. It gives you more insight on the ability of the player. Without scouting a player, all of his attributes are followed by question marks. By reviewing game tapes, making scouting visits, and visiting the recruit at home, those question marks will slowly turn into the actual attribute grade.

4. The ability to scout recruits.

5. There are a couple recruiting tips threads floating around here. I recomend going after five big name guys, and if they fail, have a couple three star players or four and five star world recruits to fall back on.

6. Once again, check some tips threads. I personaly do major recruiting at the beginning of the week (scouting a game or visiting the recruit) and at the end of the week I make a phone call, and if time allows, five emails to all my recruits.

7. Five-ish weeks. Maybe a little longer. It is easy to sign guys you have been recruiting hard all season. It is also easy to sign guys that are desperate for a scholarship (normaly a lot of three star players within the last two weeks of the recruiting period will become relaly interested in your team). And it is also the only time that you can sign world recruits from what I have seen.

8. I don't do much with my coaching meetings, I set them on default, so I'm not sure. But you do need free time to recruit. i think what you are doing when you switch it from 20% to 15% is budgeting more free time.

9. The recruiting that eats the most time up is a campus visit. Schedule for more than one player to visit campus on a day, that way you get two or more guys visited with the same time it costs to have just one guy visit. Also, have seperate coaches for recruiting and scouting. This way you can waste your time and points with one coach early in the week scouting and with the other coach later in the week making phone calls.

10. Assistants do leave your programs. From as far as I can tell, it doesn't tell you where they go. At the end of the season you may fire and hire new coaches, and if they coach leaves, he just won't show up to be fired. You can view the first seven or eight potential coaches, but to view them all, you have to fire one (unfortunately...needs to be fixed next year). The coaches ambition rating tells how likely they are to quit on you. Ones with high ambition will want to move on to bigger and better things.

11. To redshirt a player you go to your lineups, scroll over to the redsirt column, and click y ( on xbox). I'm not sure how you move players form the reserve to the bench.

[Xanderski]

Thanks for you help, Nafsder2003!

If anybody else has something to add, let me hear it.

[DC Admin]

Xanderski said:

I just bought ESPN College Hoops 2K5 this past weekend after hearing so many good things about it. I started a career dynasty, but might start over as I have some questions on recruiting/coaching...
Thanks!

All good questions, I'll take a crack at it since I've been playing this game a lot lately. My responses are in bold.

1. What are the lengths of the recruiting seasons? It sounds like there is an early signing period, in-season recruiting period, and post-season recruiting period. How can you tell when the early signing period ends (I had no idea it was coming until it passed)?
You just about have it. Here are some dates I wrote down(these are from year 1, so they will alter a bit each successive year:
Oct. 31st-?? - Early Recruiting Period
Nov.?? - Nov. ?? - Early Signing Period
Dec.?? - Apr.5th - In-season recruiting
Apr.5th - May?? - Off-season recruiting/Late Signing Period

EDIT: I can't seem to find the notes I had on the dates, but as soon as I do, I'll update this to reflect the correct dates.Sorry!

2. Do you get an allotment of recruiting points per period, or do your recruiting points have to last all year?
From what I understand, EVERYONE gets 6000 recruiting pts at the beginning of the year that you can use for early signing period/mid season recruiting. Then in the 5-week offseason period you get an additional 1500 pts to wrap up your efforts. Pts are allocated weekly, and processed during a week, but you can't do anything twice in one week except for emails/phone calls. I usually set my visits/calls/scouting visits, etc. beginning of the week, then sim out the whole week to see what happened, assuming you don't have any games to play that week.

3. Does looking at a recruit’s game tape increase his chances of signing with you, or does it only serve to tell you more information on the recruit?
I think that only serves as a way to get the recruit's ratings. You'll notice most start out as ??'s, but the more you scout them (and also depending how good your staff scouts) the ??'s will be replaced by actual grades.
4. For a coach’s scouting ability...is that the ability to scout recruits or your team’s opponents?
See answer above-I believe it is primarily for scouting recruits, but I could be wrong on this one.

5. If I have five scholarships available, do you recommend going after only five players or more than five?
Yes, go after 8-9, depending on how good your team has played. You can only offer 5 schollies, though.

6. Do you sim day by day, or do you just sim to the next game? If you sim day by day, do you e-mail/call recruits during that time? Does it pay to contact a recruit daily?
Like I said above, I usually set up my recruiting beginning of the week, then sim the whole week if I can. I think if you start doing more recruiting twice in the week, you don't conserve the pts as much.

7. How long is the post-season recruiting period? I heard it’s easy to sign guys during this period...is that true?

Not sure how easy it is. I find it tougher. I like to sign guys early, that way I know what I have to do in the late period. Late period signings go quickly, and I have lost a ton of guys that way. Then you're caught scrambling, scouting guys you never contacted before. Not fun

8. I’m a little confused about something (I barely played the game this weekend)...there was a screen where you set the focus of your coaching…something like “15% to offense, 15% to defense,” etc…anyway, there was a category called ‘Free Time.’ I thought you HAD to have some free time scheduled in order to recruit, but it looked like I could recruit with my ‘Free Time’ set to zero. So, do you NEED free time scheduled?
This is a good question that I've found myself asking. I hope someone else can answer it. I can't-sorry.
9. It looks like recruiting costs you recruiting points and time. Any tips on balancing these?
I think the pts are more of a premium than time. Especially if you recruit the entire nation. If you're East Coast and you go for a CA kid, it's gonna cost you. I'd make sure I use up all 6000 pts though before the late signing period. Shouldn't take much more pts-wise to sign them when the off-season comes.

10. Can you fire assistant coaches? If so, can you look at available assistant coaches first? Do assistants leave your program? Can you see where they end up and follow their careers?
I'm playing in "open" mode right now, so I can't fire coaches. I believe you can on "Legacy" mode, where you start at a low school and work your way up. Every year, you can have ast. coaches leave, and you have to replace them. I think you can fire them, too. Not sure about following them, though.
11. Can you redshirt a player by placing them on the reserve? Can you take players on and off of the reserve?

Yes, you can take players on and off reserve, I've done it. However, I think you have to slot guys to redshirt before your season starts. I think that's the difference. I'm still trying to figure out the reserve thingy.


Hope these helped! Great topic for discussion.

[nafsder2007]

A couple fixes on Stephen's answers.

Legacy Mode is called Career Mode.

You have until the beginning of the second week of the season to redshirt a player.

And as for that 6000 points number, I have never gotten that many, at least that I can remember. I normaly get in the ballpark of 3000-4000. Maybe it has something to do with me using smaller schools...I've got a feeling Stephen uses UK.

[Xanderski]

Thanks for the great response, Stephen!

The info you guys provided will help a bunch. I had started a career legacy but didn’t know how I should be budgeting all of my recruiting points. Now that I’m armed with this knowledge, I think I’ll start anew (and hopefully make a little dynasty site).

Nafsder, I think you’re right about the recruiting points having to do with what school you pick. I had started with Navy and think my recruiting points were in the 2,000 range.

One quick question...I saw an earlier post that said if you don’t pick custom schedules, you’ll have the same exact schedule every season. If you choose custom schedules, will the default schedule change every year (or do you get the exact same schedule but have the ability to modify it)?

Edit: Another question...if you don't fill all of your scholarships, do you get walk-ons?

[nafsder2007]

Yes you get walkons, but I don't think it depends on how many scholarships you fill. On your roster page it will tell if the player is on scholarship or not. If you pick custom schedules, sometimes they change from year to year and sometimes they don't. But every year you can add and remove games and tourneys.

[smsbears]

wow ESPN seems a lot more in depth than March Madness, maybe i should drop the $20 and try it out.

[detroitbasketball]

ESPN is much better and deeper than MM, and for $20, can't beat it.

[smsbears]

it sounds like it. I like the ability to get foreign players and the expanded amount of tourneys available. I have also heard the independent teams are on the game...like Texas A&M Corpus Christi and others.

How many tourneys and which ones are available for your regular season schedule?

Is there an NIT for teams that don't go dancing?

Are all the DI teams on there or are there some missing on the game?

[detroitbasketball]

smsbears said:

it sounds like it. I like the ability to get foreign players and the expanded amount of tourneys available. I have also heard the independent teams are on the game...like Texas A&M Corpus Christi and others.

How many tourneys and which ones are available for your regular season schedule?

Is there an NIT for teams that don't go dancing?

Are all the DI teams on there or are there some missing on the game?

Yes, TAMCC is there....and there are 15-20 tournaments in season, all under fake names, one of them is the Preseason NIT. There is no postseason NIT. All D-I teams are there, though some are under fake names.

[DC Admin]

First off, I found the recruiting dates:
Season Starts– 10/25
Recruiting Period #1 (in-season)– 10/25-2/27
Early Signing Period – 11/28-12/5
Recruiting Blackout/NCAA Tourney – 2/27-4/11
Recruiting Period #2 (offseason) – 4/11 – 5/22


smsbears - I think all the Independents are there, but not sure. There's tons of preseason tourneys you can play in-I was Providence so I played in the Preseason NIT. Funny thing about it was they played the finals in Continental Airlines Arena in NJ-not MSG. A lot of the tourneys don't have their real names, too. You can play in Maui Invitational too. You can customize your sched each year, as long as u set up the legacy to do so at the beginning. Don't know about postseason NIT, though. I think they just have the NCAA tourney.

Another good recruiting tip is if it get's late, and you still have schollies, go after the World players. There's a ton of 4 and 5-star kids that don't sign until late, and have only 1 or 2 schools in their list. Only problem is you can only call them-no scouting, no campus visits, etc. But they're a good option if all else fails.

[DC Admin]

Nafsder2003 said:

And as for that 6000 points number, I have never gotten that many, at least that I can remember. I normaly get in the ballpark of 3000-4000. Maybe it has something to do with me using smaller schools...I've got a feeling Stephen uses UK.

Nice guess, but no! I'm using Providence. Actually I thought 6000 was default because my buddy who was using Ole Miss had the same amount. Considering neither is a powerhouse, I made that assumption. Didn't really think about the mid-majors getting less, but you're probably right, and that's the way it should be IMO.

I'll try out a few different level teams tonight and see what can I find out about the recruiting pts.

This is a great game btw, and I like Madness too, but I feel the legacy mode is much nicer.Plus, the historical teams rock!

[Xanderski]

smsbears said:

wow ESPN seems a lot more in depth than March Madness, maybe i should drop the $20 and try it out.

Like I said, I haven’t played much, but I’ve been very impressed. It’s very deep, and they even have little write-ups after each game...kind of like what most of us have been doing on Dynasty Central for quite some time.

For $20, you can’t beat it. The only other basketball games I’ve ever purchased are Double Dribble (NES), NBA Jam (SNES), and NBA Live ’97 (SNES), so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it’s great.

I’ve got the bug now...can’t wait to play some more and work on a DC basketball site. Gotta keep my football dynasty going, though.

[smsbears]

how does the gameplay compare? My only complaint about the gameplay of March Madness is that a lot of the point scoring seems to be dunks and layups or from in close. Three pointers are very difficult to make if you don't have a shooter marked with the "3" capability. I go through most games without a three pointer with my lower level teams, almost to the point that I have just stopped shooting them.

I have heard and could be wrong, but have heard that ESPN is a very deep game with all the recruiting and management, but is a little worse when it comes to gameplay...any opinions from those that have played both?

[BstnRdSx]

Madness' gameplay is absolutely horrid compared to 2K5's.

[smsbears]

that sounds like a pretty biased opinion. Have you played both games?

[detroitbasketball]

Trust me - the gameplay in ESPN is easily the best part. I have absolutely no complaints about it. Just go out and buy it, lol, it's only $20 bucks!

[smsbears]

on legacy or career mode do you get a list of teams to choose from or just one offer?

[nafsder2007]

smsbears said:

on legacy or career mode do you get a list of teams to choose from or just one offer?

With career mode there are about two dozen teams (always the same) that you can choose from. As you work to improve your coach, you can get hired by bigger and better schools.