North Carolina State University Athletics
Behind The Scenes With Tony Haynes: Scientific And Thorough
12/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Dec. 6, 2001
By Tony Haynes
One month into the basketball season, perhaps the most frequent question asked of yours truly, either in person or through e-mail, concerns the distribution of playing time and how it is earned.
It's a legitimate question, especially this season. All 11 of the Wolfpack's scholarship players have the ability to play at a fairly high level, and all have different strengths and weaknesses. Asked early on about his team's depth, NC State head coach Herb Sendek preferred to use the word 'parity' to describe the make up of this year's roster.
So, with all this depth, or parity if you will, how do the coaches determine which players deserve the most playing time in games? Because practices are closed to the public, fans aren't permitted to see what goes on behind closed doors when the Pack is preparing itself for the next game. Why, some ask, doesn't such and such player get more playing time?
The formula for determining who gets the most minutes is as thorough as it is scientific. And the system used at NC State isn't much different from what is employed by coaches at other schools.
To begin with, each practice session is broken down into various segments. Time is set aside for individual development as well as team improvement. And then there is a scouting session, which familiarizes the players with an upcoming opponent.
The depth on this year's squad allows Sendek and his staff to put the Wolfpack though some rather competitive and spirited scrimmages. With the breakdown of this year's roster, it's quite easy for the coaches to put together two evenly matched teams when the Pack goes five on five. The games you see at the ESA or on television aren't the only games in which NC State participates during a given week. Let's put it this way: there have been a number of entertaining intra-squad scrimmages at Reynolds Coliseum this year. The only thing missing were fans, television cameras and media.
While all that is going on, the team's student managers keep track of every shot that is made or missed, every turnover, every rebound, every charge that is taken, etc....You name it, they chart it. When a player makes a deflection on defense, a checkmark goes beside his name in that particular category.
And the evaluation process doesn't end when practice is over. A videotape is made of each workout so that the coaches can go back and breakdown all the positives, negatives and everything else in between.
When repeated over time, this process usually produces fairly concrete results. Once the data is analyzed on a daily basis, it doesn't take John Wooden to figure out which players have earned the most minutes on the court. Of course, what transpires during each game is also evaluated just as thoroughly as the practice sessions.
Every head coach's top priority is to win so it only makes sense that they would put the players on the floor that give them the best chance of reaching that goal. The system that helps them identify who those players are allows them to do just that.
