Pregame scouting/team tendencies

[justacoach]

Hello Coach, welcome to the board.

Now that you've managed to have some healthy interaction without raising anyone's hackles, why don't you take advantage of our greatest collective talent:ie, giving clear concise explanations of the rules. I suggest that your reference to the ephemeral "moving screen" indicates a lack of understanding of the concept and might be a good place to start. At the very least, you will be better prepared to school your players as to what is acceptable in terms of established screening principles.
Go ahead, ask away....

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

I had one game this year where the entire squad was practicing an up-and-under move during lay-up drills. The move looked funny but they were not traveling. So I mentioned to my partners that we didn't want to get caught off-guard by the move and call a violation just because it looked awkward.

Certainly a valuable use of an official's pregame time. Almost as valuable as looking for cute single moms in the bleachers.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by CoachFred

One thing I tell our guys is "make sure not to travel in when you are warming up"

Maybe, if you told them not to travel during the game, your team might get called for fewer travels. Just a thought.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Certainly a valuable use of an official's pregame time. Almost as valuable as looking for cute single moms in the bleachers.

Uhh, duh, I can multi-task. Anyway, I use times-out to scan the stands for cute moms. By that time my bald head is shiny from sweat.

[AKOFL]

starting a game with as much info as possible is a good thing. We go in "blind" enough allready.

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by CoachFred

You are correct about that. Yes, sometimes we set moving screens and get called for them...part of the game IMO.

But, I feel that since we already have a reputation for setting illegal screens specifically, we are watched closer and get away with less than other teams that we go against. My problem is we are being more closely scrutinized for these things.

Coach,
First of all, welcome to the Board. Secondly, I have several thoughts on your views. As a coach with a career that spans back to the 1970s, I spend many, many hours scouting opponents. Not only do I document a team's patterns, sets, defenses, press breaks, etc., but I also document which players were likely to jump to block shots (head and ball fakes required when near these players), likely to crash through on offensive rebounds (extra aggressive box outs necessary, here), likely to attempt to steal the ball from the dribbler (some 1-on-1 clear outs are in order), etc.

Further, if I know the officials doing my game, I absolutely modify the way my team plays. Some officials call a very close game. In those cases, it was very important to remind the players to stay vertical, not take chances on the offensive end on rebounds, etc. Other officials call a looser game. In those cases, we could trap more aggressively, take chances on rebounds, etc. Do these changes represent MAJOR changes to the way my teams play? Absolutely not! We never try to steal the ball from the dribbler, rarely jump to block shots (instead focusing on a solid box out), rarely attempt to get an offensive rebound unless we have good rebounding position, etc.

With all that said, how do I feel about the pre-game discussions? I am fine with these discussions. As has been pointed out in this thread, any opportunity that we get to gain knowledge about a team or individual players is a good thing. We do watch in pre-game for player tendencies. Some of these tendencies are violations -- travels, illegal dribbles, etc. Other tendencies look strange, but after seeing them several times in pre-game, we may notice that they are actually legal. I see nothing wrong with this.

Major League Soccer referees will actually look at tape of previous games involving teams that they are about to referee. They look for tendencies, they look for "divers", they look to see if there are any match-ups that have caused problems in earlier games, etc. The MLS has determined that such referee meetings improve the quality of games.

Is it possible that team tendencies lead to more fouls or violations being called during a game? Yep, sure is. As JR points out, it is NOT something conscious, but is it possible that there is some subconscious activity going on, here? Yep, sure is.

The real question is how can your team shake the label of being a team of "illegal screeners?" The answer is actually fairly simple. Your team has to set "statue" screens for at least a season. You can't allow your players to stick out a knee, a shoulder, an elbow, etc. You can't allow your players to "reposition" just as the defender is about to make contact.

You must do this while some of your opponents may be able to get away with a slight reposition, etc. Is this fair? Well, maybe not. BUT, typically, teams such as yours get a reputation for a valid reason -- they set illegal screens on a regular basis and gain a significant advantage doing so.

This is no different than the driver who has received THREE speeding tickets in the past year. If that person gets pulled over for speeding, the likelihood of getting a ticket for speeding is VERY HIGH. If a different person who has received NO speeding tickets is also pulled over, the likelihood of that person getting a ticket is lower as they have not had a tendency or history of speeding. Is this fair? Possibly not. But, it is the way things work.

[Juulie Downs]

Coach, you do realize, don't you, that the refs are also discussing your opponents in the pre-game? Wouldn't you rather have them watching both teams knowledgably, calling early what needs to be called, so everyone has a chance to clean it up and get down to business? If your opponent's #35 has a tendency to illegally jump stop before shooting, wouldn't you want the refs to be seeing and calling that right away?

I can't see that this is to your disadvantage. As others have pointed out, you are at the advantage in knowing what refs see in your team. Now you can address those specific issues and get your team working toward a higher level of play.

[doubleringer]

Absolutely we talk about what a team generally does defensively and offensively. I've also had assignors call before the game to give us a head's up if there were more serious issues from a previous game.

My last high school game was in the far southern part of the state. 2 teams I had never seen before. I actually contacted a head coach down in that area (not involved in the game) and asked about both teams' style of play. He also indicated that when the teams last met, there was ugliness that went on during the post-game handshake. He didn't know specifics, but I was very glad to know there was some bad blood, so to speak, between the teams going in. Our game went on without anything major, but we were also had a, to use a women's college term, hightened awareness of any non-basketball plays.