Analytics
By its own coach’s account, the Xavier High School (Wisc.) girls’ basketball team had no business going to the state
tournament last season.
The Hawks were facing Wrightstown, a team that averaged more than 60 points per game, with a bid to the
tournament on the line. However, coach A.C. Clouthier came prepared - through studying six different Wrightstown
games and examining the statistics, he devised a matchup zone that took away the Tigers’ top scorer and dared the
others to beat him.
The strategy paid off as Xavier won 64-56, becoming the only squad to hold Wrightstown under 60 points during
the season.
“If you would’ve told me our best player wasn’t going to make a 3-pointer in this game, I would’ve said we’d lose by
20 points probably,” Clouthier said. “They didn’t have an answer for our defense.”
Clouthier isn’t insulting his players with this statement. But he readily acknowledges the advantages he was granted
by Hudl Assist, which he used for the first time last season.
“I think our kids were always ready and prepared for the next game. We beat two teams in the sectional semis and
the sectional championship that should have beat us nine out of 10 times.
“But I knew everything they were going to do and everything they were going to counter. I firmly believe throughout
the season the amount of time I saved and being able to practice plan and scouting other teams certainly gave me
the advantage.”
That changed when Xavier added Assist last season. While Hudl tagged his game, Clouthier was able to start
scouting the next opponent or plan practice.
“I can only imagine what it’s like to have a wife and a child or two and try to fit in filming and stuff,” he said. “The
biggest thing you can get out of it is time management and efficiency. I can tell each player individually what
to watch.”
Clouthier goes deep on his breakdowns, searching for any miniscule edge he can find. This includes examining where
his own players most often miss free throws, which can be easily filtered into one playlist for quick viewing. For
example, if most of a certain player’s misses are off to the right, he’ll instruct the girl on the right block to set a
screen across the lane for the girl on the left, free ing up the latter for an easy put-back.
But breakdowns don’t need to be that intense. Clouthier also designs new shooting routines in practice based off of
the shot charts and breaks down his team’s miscues with just a few clicks.
“After each game I’ll just go watch our turnovers,” he said. “How can we get better? What decisions are we making
and aren’t they making? What kind of situations can I put them in in practice? If we’re playing a zone team, I have
four different zone packages that we’re going to practice.”
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