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The computer age has bestowed some unforeseen blessings on the sports world. Math whizzes are now using the personal computer to track game results to a level never before possible, and sports are the better for it. The book "Moneyball" chronicled the way Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics used obscure statistical analyses to scout and deal for talent. Now, a variation of this method has spilt over into basketball with a number of NBA teams using statistics in a similar manner. These methods were described in a recent Sports Illustratedarticle titled Measure of Success. Described as simply as possible, these statisticianstrack how well a team does when a player is on the floor, versus how well they do when theyarent.

These measures disregard a players contribution as represented by their scoring, rebounding and assists totals,and simply asks, "Does the team do better or worse when this player is on the floor?" They also in many casescontradict the conventional wisdom concerning the relative worth of certain players. Jason Collins, a fifth-year center for the Nets of little renown gets ranked as the fourth best defensive center in the league. Conversely, high-scoring Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks issuch a disaster on defense that his teams tend to lose with him on the floor, and win while he is on the bench.

While amateur coaches are sure to find these analyses interesting, is there any way in which theycan employ these metrics for their own use? Amateur coaches might be able to get team assistantsto gather the data needed to maintain these stats, but there is a much better way these conceptscan be applied.

Virtually all teams rely heavily on scrimmage play as part of their practice routine. By adoptingwhat I call a Roster Round Robin format during scrimmage play, coaches can get a much clearerpicture of how and when individual players perform better than others. The format simply requiresthat sides be set to 3v3, 4v4, or 5v5, depending on available players. Players are issuedreversible jerseys, and score is kept for each side. Stages are set to 3 or 4 minutes, and atthe end of each stage, a team score is recorded, with each player earning points for themselves on the basis of their team result. Two players are then directed to exchange sides by flipping their reversible jersey, and a new stage is played. This pattern is continued until all possibleroster combinations have been used.

For a 3v3 contest, this would equate to 10 possible combinations, thus requiring a 30 to 40 minutegame. Each player earns a plus/minus score across all stages. As everyone plays under all rostercombinations and points can only be earned on the basis of team results, an individuals resultreflects their team contribution across all stages. In order to maintain game continuity andensure rapid roster rotations, the roster rotations are predetermined and printed on a grid usedfor scoring.

Some may notice that the one thing seemingly not taken into account in this format is positionplay. A roster rotation schedule that disregards position play will likely result in some oddlybalanced sides think 5 guards versus 5 forwards and centers that wouldnt reflect anythingresembling a real-game matchup. This difficulty can, however, be overcome by taking positionsinto account when devising the roster rotations. For a 4v4 game, with players restricted toeither a center/forward or guard position, there would be 9 different roster combinations required.For a full-sided game, a center position could be added, but 18 stages would be required. With three minute stages, this would be a 54 minute scrimmage game. Coaches may wish to splitthis size of scrimmage across multiple practices.

Would the results from any particular scrimmage mean much? For one game, probably not, as we allknow the ball can bounce funny for a time. But if this format were used on a regular basis, theresults should reveal which players are contributing the most to their team. These results willeither confirm or deny a coachs sense of who his best players are, but there are two even biggerbenefits that can come from the use of this format. First, as players come to understand thisas the new measure of their play, they will be more receptive to a coachs instruction on teamplay. As well, players will intuitively respond to the demands of the game, and adjust their playaccordingly. Simply put, the ability to measure team play translates to a better ability to teachand learn it.

The second benefit may be even more important. A system that clearly and demonstrably measuresa player on the basis of their team contribution fosters team chemistry better than any other.The talented offensive player who lets down on defense can be brought to the table when the impactof his lackluster defense can be shown. Players who are frustrated because they think theyshould be playing more can either makes their case in the round robin practice, or be showntheyre not there yet. Regardless of the case, team chemistry is advanced.

The only real barriers to this practice format are logistical. Running this practice formatrequires pre-numbered reversible jerseys, and scoring/rotation grid sheets.