How Texas State uses scouting to its advantage

Texas State won its pair of games last weekend, but Lauryn Thompson felt like she played below her own standards.

The redshirt junior forward, who was averaging 8.7 points per game, scored just nine points in the two games combined. She committed six turnovers in Thursday’s game against Little Rock and only grabbed two rebounds in Saturday's game against Arkansas State — Red Wolves junior forward Trinitee Jackson had 21.

Thompson knew she could play better. She knew she’d have to play better in the Bobcats’ next game against Coastal Carolina.

“Some weeks, I know I need to put in more work. So this week, coming off a pretty good weekend with our team, I just wanted to have a better week for myself. So I started even earlier,” Thompson said. “Right after the game, I asked for my film and my turnovers instantly. So I know this week, I feel extra prepared.”

It’s part of a carefully orchestrated system Texas State head coach Zenarae Antoine has put in place to help get her players be ready to play each week.

A few summers ago, Antoine got the chance to clinic with the Atlanta Dream and its staff during the WNBA season, led by Nikki Collen. Antoine spent a lot of time with the team’s video coordinators, fascinated by the software they used called Just Play.

She saw how easily they were able to cut and organize clips of film and stats, even on an iPad in the middle of a game. She knew it could help her own team.

“And so in researching (Just Play), obviously there's some cost analysis that you have to run. Being a mid-major, there was a lot of — I don't want to say obstacles — but things that I had to think through,” Antoine said. “Was it going to be worth the purchase price to help our student-athletes? And then talking to other college coaches that have already utilized it, the answer for me was ‘yes’ at the end of the day … Being able to make that shift to where our scouting could be all digital for our players has been awesome. And so that's the decision I made.”

Antoine said she came from a system that heavily utilized scouting reports, or “scouts” for short. Not all teams are built for that, though. Too much information can cause some athletes to overthink and doubt their own instincts. Antoine noted that some teams across the country give their players a single page to look over. Some might wait until the day before a game to scout their next game.

The Bobcats have proven they can digest more, though, so Antoine gives it to them. Texas State’s assistant coaches handle most of the scouts, though Antoine typically takes the first one of the season to show them how she wants it done.

Assistant coach Nathan Teymer handled the scout for this Saturday’s game against Coastal Carolina. He began looking into the Chanticleers four or five days before the Little Rock game, mainly keeping tabs on CCU’s personnel. Over the next couple of days, he started collecting stats and clips, using a video indexing program called Synergy Sports Technology. Synergy categorizes the clips based on the stats — for instance, if Teymer wanted to show that Coastal likes to push the ball in transition, Synergy can show him the videos from every possession the Chanticleers scored on a fast break.

After the Little Rock game, Teymer dug into Coastal non-stop. He’ll load everything he collected into Just Play and make a paper version of the scout for the players to follow along with and study. By the time the team held its film session on the Chanticleers on Monday, Teymer had 216 clips. For the team’s last game against Arkansas State, assistant coach Jericka Jenkins had totaled 259 clips.

Most of them won’t be shown. The Bobcats likely watched no more than 50 during the film session. But Just Play gives the coaches a variety of ways to teach.

This week, for example, Thompson will be mostly matching up against the Camp sisters, Janae and Janeen, a pair of forwards with a lot of size. Through Just Play’s app, Teymer can assign Thompson specific clips of the Camps he wants her to see, give her a quiz on the things he wants her to know and show her diagrams of plays that she might have to defend against the Camps — if a drawn-out version of the play won’t do, Just Play can show an animated version of it using the X’s and O’s or a clip of the Chanticleers actually running it.

“I think it's good for them because we try to hit them with a lot of different angles so that they see video, they get to see it on paper and then we'll still do the stuff on the floor, too, so they'll have to guard it,” Teymer said. “So it's something where, whatever learning style they have, it's basically covered.”

Antoine likes to break the scout into bite-sized pieces. Even during Monday’s film session, the players were given an eight-minute break midway through to let them hang out in the locker room, check their phones, use the restroom and grab a snack.

The most important thing Texas State’s coaches want to establish is what the opponent does well. This week, the players were told CCU is a team that pushes the ball in transition, scores inside and out, rebounds well and pressures the ball on defense.

The second thing is knowing a team’s identity — is it a team that relies on the talent of its personnel or a team that relies on its system? CCU falls into the former category, led by junior forward Aja Blount, who ranks third in the Sun Belt averaging 18.9 points per game. Teymer detailed what to expect from every player in the Chanticleers’ rotation during the film session and in the paper scout — where they like to score, how much of a 3-point threat they are and the best way to defend them. For Blount, Teymer noted she’s “physical, physical, physical,” can score over both shoulders in the post and is a bit of a streaky shooter.

The rest of the scout mainly focuses on how the Bobcats will approach the game, such as how to stop specific actions Coastal runs and what sets will help the maroon and gold score.

“And then you constantly make sure you have gentle reminders when we're on the practice floor — ‘Remember, this is what we went over,’” Antoine said. “And there's times, too, that we'll bring video actually on the floor to show them ‘We're going to do that again coming up,’ to make sure that we have some reminders, so then they can see another visual as well.”

Texas State (10-11, 5-4 Sun Belt) and Coastal Carolina (12-6, 2-5) face off inside Strahan Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m. Teymer said he planned to keep scouting the Chanticleers in the days leading up to the game. Clips are fine but he likes to watch full games, too, to try to catch any hand signals or see if there are any players in a walking boot on the bench.

Thompson hopes the extra preparation pays off.

“Film helps me a lot. I learned that at a young age in my college career, and especially since I've been here at Texas State, we do a lot of film here. And so, that has really helped grow my game. Especially being able to have individual film with a coach, that really helps my game as well,” Thompson said. “Seeing all of their clips and what moves they do, what moves they like to go to — that really helps you when you're playing defense because you watched so much film, you probably already know which move she's probably going to go to. And you probably know her counter, too.”