Coaches Subjective Perception of Players’ Basketball Abilities

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare head coaches perceptions of players’ basketball abilities to that of assistant coaches. METHODS: NCAA Division 1 coaches (5 men’s coaches and 3 women’s coaches) were given visual analog scale (VAS) ratings to complete for their respective teams. Coaches were asked to rate their perceptions of each individual athlete for offense IQ, defense IQ, overall basketball IQ, passing ability and anticipation. The data was analyzed using a 3 (1 head coach and 2 assistant coaches) X 5 (offense IQ, defense IQ, overall basketball IQ, passing ability and anticipation) multivariate analysis of variance (p<.05). 5X5 MANOVA was performed for males (4 assistant coaches). RESULTS: Significant main effect exists for the 5 dependent variable responses (p< .042). Post-hoc tests (Tukey’s HSD) yielded differences among head coach and assistant coaches, but not among different assistant coaches. The head men’s coach rated the players higher for overall IQ, offensive IQ, passing ability and anticipation than the assistant coaches whereas head coaches rated the players lower for defensive IQ. The women’s coach rated their players lower in all categories in comparison to the assistant coaches. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in coaches’ perceptions of player’s abilities may impact basketball coaching-instruction and/or recruiting for future seasons. It may also have an effect on player’s performance and playing time/on-court time during games. Further investigations are needed to determine whether perceptions of athletes can be used to predict statistical performance on the court.