Indiana Elite Basketball began using video to improve and promote its players’ performances a few years ago—now other teams are noticing this NBA pipeline’s success.
The Indiana Elite Basketball club has earned quite the reputation over the past 15 years. It has seen 17 alumni go on to the NBA, including Eric Gordon, Mason Plumlee and Cody and Tyler Zeller, and has sent dozens more to various colleges. When the Elite take the court, college recruiters take notice.
It’s common for one of the club’s coaches or co-director Mike Fox to be approached by recruiters who were impressed by a certain prospect and want to see more video of him. As recently as five years ago, this exchange was a laborious task — but no more.
Indiana Elite implemented Hudl a few years ago, giving the club easy access to video and a streamlined process to create highlight videos and share full games with recruiters. Now other clubs are taking notice.
“When other teams see us using Hudl, they’re trying to figure out what we’re doing,” Fox said.
“It was nonexistent two or three years ago. Now clubs are doing it. It’s already been ingrained at the high school level, and now it’s actually going to the club level.”
To get college coaches interested, Indiana Elite has to first develop talent. A nationally-recognized club, the Elite doesn’t have a hard time attracting gifted athletes. But the club aims to help them capitalize on their potential and fully maximize their ability.
Video is a major help in this area. The Elite coaches tag each game so players can go through and quickly view their shots, rebounds, turnovers, etc. in one playlist. They can easily review their form, effort and execution.
“They don’t have to go through an hour and a half with the film and watch some of the game that doesn’t matter to them,” Fox said. “When you can tag it, they’re able to see directly, ‘Here are my shots this weekend. Here are some of my dribble-drives.’ I think video is very important.”
Fox is so enamored with video, he records his fifth-grade son’s games and hosts one or two team video sessions each year. He wants to ingrain the importance of watching video at a young age.
It’s one thing for a coach or director to tell a player what they need to improve on, but the ability to actually show the athlete what’s actually happening on the court changes the conversation entirely. Disagreements transform into lessons as players specifically see what needs to change.
“Sometimes their reality is different from a coach’s reality. When you have it on film, the reality is what the film shows you. As a younger player, am I playing hard? You’re able to see if you’re playing hard. Am I making all my cuts hard? Am I moving in the right position? Did I read that play? As they always say, the tape doesn’t lie. You’re able to take what a person thinks they saw and show them what really happened.”
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