Early Exhibition S.W.O.T. Analysis

It’s opening week for the NBA, which means college basketball programs are wrapping up their exhibitions getting ready to turn the corner toward the regular season. Here at the Division III level, we’ve got two scrimmages scheduled prior to opening up on the first week of November. Despite everybody’s playbook being thin and rotations yet to be determined these pre-season games offer significant early evaluation opportunities for coaching staffs. More or less, coaches are gauging the (S)trengths – (W)eaknesses – (O)pportunities – (T)hreats of their team based on initial performances against outside competition.

Strengths

• What is our best rotation(s) offensively and defensively?
• How (schematically) are we scoring the majority of our points?
• Where do we show the most system comprehension?
• Is there a style of play or team trait that is most conducive to us winning?
• Does this offer anything about our current recruiting strategy?

Weaknesses

• What gets us beat?
• Who is consistently making mistakes? Why?
• How is our play after the play? Execution or team mentality?
• Is there something we anticipated working that doesn’t seem to fit our personnel?
• Does this say anything about our current recruiting strategy?

Opportunities

• Which player stood out the most? Why?
• What worked that needs implemented or more consideration?
• How are we shaping skill development for continued improvement?
• Is there anything analytically that could help us track our progress?
• How can we continue layering concepts or skill development into the next scrimmage or regular season?

Threats

• Is our style of play sustainable?
• Where are we most vulnerable? Forecasting ways to team will try to scout us.
• How is our mentality (e.g. leadership) during poor stretches of play?
• Were we put in any situations or possessions of pressure – how’d we handle it?
• Are there any potential bad habits taking shape that could be problematic further into the season?

You could come up with more questions than what was listed. But this is something that coaches do game to game, and the early exhibitions might still keep it in a macro-phase. Maybe personnel doesn’t match the amount of pressure initially intended to be dialed up. Or, playing with two bigs in the lineup is a better option. There is still time to experiment with some different decisions before the results officially stick to the record books. Hopefully pre-season has been revealing and productive priming for a strong start to the season.