An injury 10 years ago may have been just what the Blue Devils needed to spark some long-term improvements.
In 1996, would-be junior Shaeeta Williams (who was then known as Shaeeta Brown) had exploratory surgery on a left knee that had been troubling her since her freshman year. When doctors found a damaged meniscus, the Duke coaching staff decided to redshirt her.
In order to keep Williams involved with the team during her year off, head coach Gail Goestenkors had Williams help the coaches with their scouting reports.
Seeing the benefits, both to the individual player and to the team, Goestenkors decided to expand the idea. In the 2006-07 season-and in every year since Williams' injury-each Duke player has helped scout at least one game during the season.
At the beginning of the year, the coaches handed out a sheet listing a coach and a player next to each opponent. For their respective games, the coach and the player collaborated to produce a scouting report that was later presented to the entire team. Seniors scouted the bigger games, and preference was given to players who were originally from an opponent's region.
The coach was responsible for identifying more general trends-the team's plays and overall offensive and defensive tendencies. The player focused on the opposing players-their strengths, their habits and their stats.
"We're responsible for picking up player tendencies, as far as down the line-the starters, who starts, what do they do-and then the subs, what are their tendencies too," said Emily Waner, who scouted the Virginia Tech games. "[The coaches are] more of a safety net for us."
After they finish watching film, the player and coach discuss what they saw. Then the player types the player profiles, and the coach compiles a highlight tape and a game plan. A day before the game, they presents their respective parts to the team. Every player is responsible for memorizing the scouting report-and the coaches make sure the student-athletes do their homework.
"We have to know everything about them," said Abby Waner, who scouted Texas. "At shootaround, Coach G will go around and she'll just say, 'Abby, tell me one of the sets that they run,' 'Emily, tell me number two.' And you have to go through and say, 'Okay, well she's right-handed, she's a three-point shooter, when she gets stopped she's going to spin in the lane.'"
This kind of knowledge may have seemed difficult to use in the fast environment of a game, but it was useful-especially in terms of how to shade a player.
As much as the players learned from memorizing their teammates' scouting reports, the time spent watching film and discussing the opponent with a coach allowed them to know their own reports even better.
"They feel very invested in the report, and then they tend to do a better job on the court as well with that team," Goestenkors said.
In addition to helping the players' on-court performance, scouting gave them a brief look into the life of a coach-and they had mixed reactions about it.
"I definitely do like it," Emily Waner said. "I like watching the teams we're going to play and knowing what we're going to be up against."
Her sister, however, was not eager to take it on as a full-time job.
"No," she said, laughing at the suggestion that she might want to be a coach now. "The amount of time that [the coaches] put into stuff is just incredible to me. I don't think-especially the assistant coaches-ever get enough credit."
Even if the players will never scout a game as a coach, their time doing it as players has helped them learn more about the game of basketball.
"It helps me to know what to look for," Abby Waner said. "When you're watching an opposing team, the way that the coaches analyze and what they look for-you see it through the coaches' eyes now and you start to pick up on things yourself. So when I'm watching a game, I'll pick up on more things now than I did before."
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