High school coaches are wise to take some time in the middle of season to do some “self-scouting.” In a perfect world, maybe before the Christmas Tourneys or after the Christmas Tourneys, a team may have a break of 5 days where a coach may have some time to take a deep dive. If a team does not have a lot of time off, a coach MUST find some time to analyze the team.
Often as coaches, we wait until a couple weeks before the post-season tourney to analyze our team and try to make adjustments going into the tourney. This can be good but I would argue that it is often too late.
Here are some of the ways a coach should analyze their team in the mid-season:
Staff Feedback- Give your assistant coaches an opportunity to share their thoughts about the team. It is a good idea to ask them to put some thoughts in writing. It can be giving them a set of question on paper, text, or email to respond.
What is our the best things we do offensively?
What are the worst things we do offensively?
Is there anything we should add?
(Same with our defense)
What is our best lineup?
Is there a lineup we should use more?
Would you adjust the minutes played of any of our players?
What is the best things we have been doing in practice?
What would you like us to add or subtract in our practices?
Player Feedback- Give the players a set of questions also. I would use questions similar to what I gave the staff but I might give them fewer:
What are the best things we do offensively?
What would you like to see us do more offensively?
What is the best thing for us to do to get you a shot offensively?
What are best things we do defensively?
What would you like to see us do more/less defensively?
Is there a player the coach is over rating and playing more than you would play them?
Is there a player the coach is under rating and playing less than you would play them?
Best thing we do in practice?
Keys to Victory- Obviously there are many stats that we feel are important- we would like low turnovers, low fouls, high field goal percentage, rebounding, etc. In the last three years at Duke with Coach Scheyer, if they shoot 56% or better from 2’s, and commit 15 or less fouls, they have been 26-0. When they do just one of these things, they have won 91% of those games. When they have not reached either of these goals, they have won only 46% of those games.
I would suggest that you play with your stats and see if there are just two stats which have a very high correlation with winning. As you analyze your stats, start by throwing out any games where you won by more than 20 points. Start with stats that are more controllable- 2 FG% tends to be highly controllable, 3 FG% tends to be not as controllable.
If you find two key stats to zoom in on, you may find it is helpful way to make half-time adjustments. For example if your two stats turn out to be Turnovers and Opponents O-Rebs, and you go into a half-time, and look immediately at those two things.
Film Study- Pick out 4 competitive games you had in the first half of the season. Take a deep dive looking at your team.
How do you make runs?
What happened when other team made runs?
What defense was most/least effective?
How did you handle ATO situations?
If you see yourself as a running team, were you in these games?
What were your most efficient things offensively?
Second Time Thru- You will be playing teams a second time, or your opponent will have seen you play on lots of tape. What adjustments can you make the second time thru? Are there counters to your best ob’s or offensive actions? Do you want to add a couple new ob’s or actions? What did you run most often in ATO’s- what adjustments do you need to make?
Practice Adjustments- After Christmas, most coaches cut the practice time back, maybe from 2:15 to 1:50. What do you want to make sure you keep in practice? How do you make sure as you cut time that you still do the shooting and drill work that is important to you? What were the most effective, competitive drills you used? To keep things fresh, are there 2-3 competitive drills you can add?
Steal From the Best- What can you take from the teams you have played or from teams you have seen on tape as you have scouted? Is there a backdoor action that you would like to use? Did you see an ATO that was good? Effective zone offense?
There was a team who we did not play but I had seen 4-5 of their games as I scouted one of our opponents. After time outs and at the start of quarters, if the other team took the ball out of bounds on the side, the team matched up mm. They always denied passes toward the basket, and allow or encouraged passes to the backcourt. When the pass was made, the inbound defender left and trapped the receiver. In the four games that I watched, they probably got a turnover 80% of their games time. We put this in and had similar success.
Prepare for the Best- Think about 3 teams you need to beat to achieve the goals you want to achieve. If you want to win the conference, who are the two teams you will need to beat? if you want to finish in the top half of the conference, who are two teams you need to beat? In the post season, who do you think you will need to beat to reach your goals?
You need to look at these teams. I am not saying you need to make a detailed scouting report, but what do you need to be able to do vs these three teams. Is there a defense they play that you need to prepare for- revise your present offense or improve execution of your offense? Who are players you need to be able to guard- how will you do this? Are they weaker vs a certain defense?
This may seem like a lot. You may say that you have a game “next Tuesday” that you have to get ready for, you don’t have time. I would suggest that if you don’t make the time, you will regret it at some point!!
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