About Coach Coachan

We watch every game twice.

Once as fans, yelling at the screen. Then again with the remote in hand, pausing every possession to figure out what each team was trying to do, and whether the players pulled it off.

48minutes on the clock

~100possessions a team

1plan behind every one of them

Why we started

Coach Coachan started the way most basketball conversations do: on a couch, after a game, arguing about one possession.

Was it the screen? The help defender who stayed home a step too long? The play the coach drew up during the timeout? We kept pausing, rewinding and sketching plays on whatever paper was nearby, and realized the part we enjoyed most was figuring out the why behind the highlight.

So we built a place for it. We love the dunks and the game-winners as much as anyone. We just also want to know how they happened, and we think you will enjoy the game more once you can see it too.

How we watch a game

Watch it live

No notes, no pausing. Just the game, the runs, the noise and the big shots, the way every fan enjoys it.
Run it back

Then we rewind the possessions that decided it: the late-game sets, the coverage switch, the run that flipped the night.
Draw it up

Xs and Os on the whiteboard: who set the screen, where the help came from, which read the ball handler made, and why the shot was open.
Explain it

Finally we put it into plain words, in a story, a video or a Short, so the next time you watch, you see it coming too.

Anatomy of a play

Every possession is a plan.

Take the most common action in basketball, the pick-and-roll. It looks simple, but it is really three decisions in about four seconds:

The setup. The ball handler waits for the big to arrive and sets up their defender, so the screen actually hits.
The screen. Now the defense has to choose: go over, go under, switch or send two. Each answer leaves something open.
The read. If both defenders follow the ball, the big rolls to the rim and the pass beats the help. That is the part we love breaking down.

Open Coach's Whiteboard →