NCDS: Russ Willemsen, Asst. Coach - Tennessee Tech ("Preparation - Scouting the Opponent")

By: Russ Willemsen, Asst. Coach - Tennessee Tech

John Wooden once said, ‘Failure to prepare is preparing to fail'.  One of my favorite facets of college basketball is scouting an opponent.  I love dissecting a team's offensive and defensive schemes in an attempt to uncover their playbook.  When two teams have comparable talent on paper, a thorough preparation and a strong game plan can be the catalyst to success.

Scouting another team has several steps.  The first step is breaking down their game film.  We cut up each game, and pull out specific plays.  We usually watch a minimum of five games per team.  Each game can take up to an hour and a half to watch.  When breaking down a game, we look for specific offensive sets, individual player tendencies, defensive characteristics, out of bounds plays, and press offenses. 

Once we have watched the game tapes, we then label all the plays and begin to build a video scouting report to show to our team.  We begin the scout with clips of the opponent's players followed by clips of their offensive sets.  Each player will get a power point slide of statistics and tendencies.  For example, John Doe is averaging 17 points per game and seven rebounds.  He prefers to drive right and spin back to his left hand.  Following the slide, our players will see three to four video clips of the opponent's players.  They can now visualize and see their opponent in game action.  

After completion of the video scout, we make a written scouting report to hand out to the team.  Everything in the video scout will also be in the written report.  This allows our players to study the opponent's team and plays more in depth.  Each scout takes roughly ten hours to complete.

The breakdown of the tape and write up of the report many times becomes monotonous and repetitive.  Ten hours during a week is a lot of time to spend on one team that's not your own.  Game day changes all of that.  Saturday, we played a very good Ball State team out of the MAC Conference.  We felt like our team had a great week of practice, and prepared well for what the Cardinals had to offer.  It was close the entire game, with no team building more than a seven-point lead.  We had a two-point lead late in the game and Ball State called time out.  We knew this was a critical possession.  Our preparation would soon pay off.  We had an idea of what offensive set Ball State would run.  We drew the play up in the huddle, tried to keep our guys focused, and sent them back into battle.  The referee handed the Cardinals the ball, and play begins.  Luckily, Ball State ran that play and our player (Sophomore, Zach Bailey) defended it perfectly and we came away with a critical defensive rebound, and eventually the game in overtime. 

Preparation will not ensure success, but can put us in a position to win the game.  We expect our players to be fully prepared for every academic exam; coaches should hold the same accountability.  There is a direct correlation between preparation and success.  How have you prepared today?

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