Scouting 101
WHY SCOUT?
Scouting is a very important part of game preparation for any sports team. Some2,500 years ago Sun Tzu, a highly successful Chinese general wrote, “If you knowthe enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat” Scouting can take on many different dimensions and open up many opportunities in a coach’s preparation for each game. It can shed light on a weakness of an individual player that you might want to attack, or perhaps bring out a particular strength that you will want to steer your players away from. It can also reveal both individual and team tendencies that can heavily contribute to your game plan. Scouting has greatly advanced in recent years and its importance has grown. You should even have your own team scouted to give you a different perspective on team and individual strengths and weaknesses.
SCOUTING PHILOSOPHY
As a coach, you must decide on how far you want to go in studying your opponent. You may decide to do little or no scouting at all, or you may already have scouting down as an exact science. However, no matter what phase of the coaching profession you are in, scouting is an important tool in basketball that you should be using.
SCOUTING GOALS
Before you begin to scout, you should keep in mind the following recommended goals:
Scouting should provide the head coach with the following information:
- Opponent’s system of play: Diagrams of transition, half-court offense, press offense, inbounds plays, free-throw situations, full-court defensive pressure, half-court defense, and special situations.
- Opponent’s individual analysis: Includes complete physical make-up of each player along with weaknesses and strengths; also provides statistical information as well as possible match-ups.
- Opponent’s tendencies: Provides a breakdown of team and individual tendencies including offensive, defensive, and rebounding.
- Game plan suggestions: Includes possible match-ups, areas of play you need to exploit, and areas you need to avoid.
The means for reaching scouting goals and obtaining information includes:
- Preliminary information: Obtaining media guides, prospectuses, stats, and scouting reports from previous years and newspaper articles.
- Video: Obtaining game videos from opponents’ schools and then breaking them down for information. You should preferably have three game videos.
You can also tape televised games.
Results and advantages from scouting:
- Totally prepares your coaching staff and team for your opponents and their strengths and weaknesses, as well as tendencies both from the individual and team standpoints.
- Gives your team the great psychological advantage of preparation.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN SCOUTING
Scouting is no different than any other phase of coaching; it will vary from season to season. One of the absolute biggest decisions that you must make when it comes to scouting is exactly what you give to your team. Some teams are capable of taking in a great deal of information, carrying it to the floor, and executing a game plan. Other teams might be more confused with additional information. It is extremely critical that you are able to gauge your team’s capacity for handling this information. It is important for your coaching staff to know as much as possible about the opponent, but it is not necessary for your players to know everything. If you can give your team a method to take away one key play offensively from your opponent, and give them one directive to attack them while they are on defense, you are going to be successful. The secret is knowing what to dissect and how to apply it to your team. For example, what if you were playing a team that had a tremendous reputation for shooting the three-point shot? And what if they also had the ability to penetrate with the dribble and this made them extremely difficult to defend? After reviewing a scouting tape of this tough opponent, you might discover that they shot nearly 44 percent from the three-point line in transition, but shot only 21 percent from behind the arc in half-court offense. You could then develop a game plan that had your transition defense recover to the arc (as opposed to the paint), and once you took away a three-point look in transition you could back off of them in half-court defense. The result might be that you took away a great number of three-point shots in transition. You might have given up a few more lay-ups, but that’s all part of scouting. You can’t take away everything—you have to weigh the positive and the negative. By backing off of them in half-court offense, you took away the drive, kept them off the foul line, and defeated a team ranked in the top 10 by 20 points. Their three-point percentage for the game was well below their average. Their coach might just say he thought his teamhad a cold shooting game, but more than likely your game plan had a lot to do with that — thanks to thorough scouting. Some coaches like to deliver scouting reports while their players take notes, while other coaches pass out reports already written up. You should give out reports already written because it gets the information to your team quicker. You should also develop scouting videos: 10-minute videotapes of opponents (along with written graphics) that are made available to each player on your team. It’s good to give each player a copy of the video but you should also view it as a team at least twice before each game. Being able to give a team something on video has far greater effect than a written report; seeing the opponents play as opposed to following an X/O diagram makes a big difference. You should also go over things you learn from the scouting reports on the practice floor. Having a scout team run the opponent’s offense or defense while youattack those situations will help you further prepare for the game. Again, just how much you do in practice will depend upon the make-up of your team. Always remember that what you do is significantly more important than what the opposition does.
SCOUTING GUIDELINES
The following are recommending guidelines you should follow when scouting:
All scouting will be handled through video breakdown per NCAA rules.
One assistant will be designated to handle video scouting with the restricted- earnings coach assisting him.
You should purchase a scouting report on your own team at least twice a year. You should also have another coach or a friend scout your team.
You should secure each opponent’s team roster as soon as possible, preferably in the late summer.
You should devise a video-request program requesting each opponent’s non conference game. You may or may not use each game video that you request, but you want to make sure you have them available.
Each video that arrives should be labeled with the team name you are interested
in scouting and properly stored for easy retrieval.
Each video should go through a battery of breakdown charts as well as scouting forms for to develop patterns and tendencies of individuals as well as the opponent’s team itself.
A brief written scouting report should be made available for each player on your team and should include a cover sheet and a closing game goal sheet. You should also include brief facts about individuals as well as the opponent’s team.
A more detailed report with statistical information as well as breakdown charts
lop should be made available to the staff.
Always secure updated stats on the opponent from your sports information director.
Be aware of televised games and videotape all future opponents.
All scouting reports should be kept on file for future reference.
THE BASKETBALL SCOUTING REPORT
The remainder of this chapter includes examples of the kinds of information you should be collecting in your scouting reports (Figures 8-1 through 8-). Some of you may already have detailed scouting forms that you use, but if you don’t, these templates will help you.