This month we dive into the sport of basketball, in the fourth installment of our “College Coach’s Perspective” blog series.

Our first interview was conducted with Shawn Reed, head women’s basketball coach at Tabor College in Hillsboro, KS. In the fifth season as Tabor’s head coach, Reed boasts a 69-55 overall record, and has finished as one the top 3 teams with the best record in the KCAC conference over the past three seasons. Two years ago, the women’s team finished the year with a 13-5 record and won the KCAC Conference Tournament. Last year, Shawn led the Bluejays to a KCAC regular season conference title, finishing the year with a 21-13 record and helping his team advance to the elite eight in the NAIA National Tournament.

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Shawn Reed – Tabor College Head Women’s Coach

“Yes, recruiting videos are important. Any information we can get from a recruit is valuable in the assessment process”, coach Reed began. “Videos allow us to try and get an overall picture of a player’s athleticism, fundamentals, and footwork. We also look for some intangibles like hustle, offensive rebounding, defensive anticipation, etc.”

We asked coach how many recruiting videos he receives per year: “I receive around 200-500 recruiting videos per year, whether it is from the actual recruit, a coach, or a recruiting service company. Most of the time, I can see what I need to see in five minutes. Some people send me 20 minutes of highlights or more to watch; there is no way for me to be able to watch 20 minutes of game footage.”

On professionally shot video over video shot by an amateur: “I prefer to see what leads up to them making their shot. Having the film shot up high is important. If I get video that has been shot by parents or someone who does not have the best video equipment, normally it is more difficult to catch the whole play. The quality can be blurry, the video is often shaky and the angle usually isn’t good.”

After coach Reed, we were then able to interview head women’s basketball coach Bruce Tate of Ottawa University (Ottawa, KS). Tate has been a coach at Ottawa for 18 years, with 9 of those as the head coach. For thirteen straight seasons, the Braves have qualified for the KCAC Tournament. Last season, Tate helped the Braves finish with an overall record of 15-14, and had three players earn All-KCAC honors.

Coach Tate added some helpful insight into the topic of basketball recruiting videos:

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Bruce Tate – Ottawa University Head Women’s Coach

“A good portion of time we spend in the recruiting process is the time we spend on recruiting videos. They are a huge asset to our process. How the recruits look on film give us a baseline evaluation of each one of them.”

Tate mentioned what he normally looks for in a recruit…“We look for things like how hard they play, how well they play defensively, their ability to shoot, court vision, their ability to run the floor, and how they rebound.”

“We recommend the full game film of a recruit if possible. If the player has some potential, usually we will watch most of their full game of footage that they give us. By the end of the first quarter, we can usually tell what level of play that player would be able to compete at. The full game footage also makes it easier to watch the skills of out-of-state kids.

Like coach Reed, coach Tate agreed that the quality of a recruiting video is important. “The better the quality of the video, the easier it is for coaches to view. We always get a handful that are poor quality. If it is early on in the recruiting process and we get this kind of video, we will either ask for better quality film or put it off to the side.”