Our Western Illinois sim dynasty in College Hoops 2K8 tries to repeat as

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks in the first round of the NCAA tournament, here’s a recap of everything that has happened so far this season:

• Coming off our fifth national title in program history, the Leathernecks set out to try to become back-to-back champs for the first time ever. We enter the new year ranked No. 16 in the preseason polls and rated as a 99 overall.
• We had a strong non-conference season, losing only two games and earning a signature victory over No. 1 BYU. After going undefeated in Summit League play and winning the conference tournament, we were named a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.
• We recruited for four scholarships and still haven’t landed anyone.

Read: Western Illinois, Year 26, 2032-2033

Here’s a look at our roster entering the 2033 NCAA tournament:

The mission for this season has been clear from the start: win back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history. We’ll have to buck our dubious history as defending champions to get it done. In the previous four times we’ve entered the NCAA tournament looking to defend our national championship, we haven’t made it further than the round of 32.

This team absolutely has the talent to repeat. We only lost one player from last year, starting big man Dick Copeland, who left after his redshirt junior year as a projected top pick in the NBA draft. Everyone else is back with another year of experience under their belt. There’s a strong case to be made that this is our best team yet since I took over as head coach at Western Illinois ahead of the 2007-2008 season.

All five of our starters are projected first round NBA draft picks. True junior 7-foot center Cecil Sinville and 6’4 redshirt junior shooting guard Albert Jagla are each projected as top picks. They are joined by a trio of standout redshirt seniors who played a vital role off the bench in our Year 23 national championship team, and then helped power another national title winer last year. Those players: 6’5 point guard Alexis Willingham, 6’9, 260-pound wing Skip Clemmons, and 6’8 do-it-all forward J.J. Bracy. I also reintroduced the starters in the regular season post if you’re new here.

How good is this group? On our subreddit, reader Kyle made the case that all five starters are top five players at their position in Leathernecks history. Bracy’s game is so multi-faceted at power forward that he often draws comparisons to Draymond Green and had reader 808s and Milkshakes writing a case for why we should play him at point guard.