John Beilein was protective of his playbook during his college basketball coaching career. He once hesitated to tell a journalist, who just wanted an example to use in a report, that name of a play (any play). So during his time at Michigan, when he noticed an opposing team’s assistant coach watching him during a game, Beilein took extra safety precautions.
The act of stealing signs — decoding a team’s call signals — has been a hot topic since the NCAA’s investigation into the Michigan football program’s alleged operation became public last month. Sign stealing isn’t limited to football, however.
In college hoops, every coaching staff has a sign stealer.
Here’s how it works, according to a dozen coaches who spoke with MLive this week: During games, most teams designate a staff member — sometimes an assistant, or perhaps a director of operations — to watch over the bench opponent. When a play is called – “tiger” or “high five” or a physical signal like a raised fist – the staff member makes a handwritten note, then checks the play clock and notes that as well.
At the end of the game, he has a sheet full of time-stamped play calls. Later, using the game’s video feed, he can match the calls with the action that took place on the field.
Coaches vary on the value of this information.
In football, even a fast, no-huddle offense requires some time between plays. And these games are less flexible than basketball, which is more of a fluid sport. Still, there are benefits to knowing what a basketball team is trying to do.
“It’s not about how a play ends, but how it begins,” said a mid-level aide who preferred to remain anonymous. “If they try to start with a ball screen or a down screen, if we can deny Johnny a pass that ruins the whole play, that’s huge.”
Other coaches are less concerned. Let’s say a defense knows a play will end in a corner 3 by the small forward. Cheating to deny this shot would likely open the door to something else.
“We tell our players to run a set but not be a robot,” Wright State head coach Scott Nagy said. “If other things open up, just be a player. In practice, I like when the defense knows what we’re doing. Can we still run it?
Sign stealing serves a purpose, otherwise other coaches wouldn’t waste their time doing it. There was a time, veteran coaches recall, when coaches had to exchange film before an upcoming game. A coach from each team would have to meet somewhere in the middle or go to the airport to put the film on a plane.
Beilein, a college coach for five decades, recalled the problems that sometimes arose: the angle of the film was wide enough; the sound was muted; the tape arrived after the denunciation.
These days, with almost every game televised somewhere, coaches can subscribe to analytics services like Synergy or Hudl and access high-quality footage of most games they want.
If a team uses hand signals – a raised fist or a headbutt – these can be seen on video. Same, for the most part, with verbal cues.
However, nothing beats in-person scouting, and that can only be done when two teams play each other. Except in the context of a tournament, in-person off-campus screening has been prohibited since 1994.
The current in-game note-taking approach works for conference opponents who play each other multiple times per season. There is no rule against sharing this information, and often there is.
Take Gonzaga, which plays at Yale on Friday and faces Purdue 10 days later. Yale head coach James Jones wouldn’t be surprised if a Purdue staff member called one of his assistants this weekend and said, “Hey, have you gotten any calls for us?”
To be clear, Jones was using these teams as an example. There would likely have to be a pre-existing relationship between the Purdue and Yale coaching staffs for this to take place. But the coaching community is very close-knit; there is usually a connection.
“Sometimes it’s someone we don’t want to help,” Nagy said with a laugh.
It was reported this week that football coaches from Ohio State and Rutgers provided another Big Ten team, Purdue, with Michigan call-ups before the Purdue-Michigan Big Ten championship last season.
Basketball coaches who spoke to MLive for this story were unanimous that this type of information sharing doesn’t happen.
“In championship games, I just don’t know if it happens,” Nagy said. “We’re trying to help each other?” It seems strange to me to help one team in the league against another.
There is a similar line that most coaches won’t cross either. Consider this example: Wright State and Oakland are both in the Horizon League. Oakland opened the season against Ohio State.
“We’re not helping Ohio State by giving them our calls about Oakland,” Nagy said. “We are loyal to our league. I don’t know if everyone is like that. I just think it’s the right thing to do.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Michigan football’s alleged scheme is in-person scouting. Basketball coaches said they haven’t heard of such a phenomenon in their sport, at least not as much as the alleged Michigan operation.
Many fans wonder why teams just don’t change play calls regularly. Most don’t. “Every coach has his must-haves,” one assistant said. “But you’re always adding elements to your sets, tweaking things.”
Coaches will try to deceive their opponents in other ways. Beilein would sometimes narrate a play to his team, then shout out – for everyone to hear – the name of a different play. His players were invited to perform the original piece. Jones’ Yale team has a game called “double high.” Later in the game, Yale could run “double high” again, which is actually a different play as opposed to “double high” again.
Wright State is scheduled to open the season Friday against Colorado State, which has an assistant coach who was on Nagy’s staff. “He knows all our calls,” Nagy said. “If I make an offside call and he tries to tell his players what we’re going to do, I think it can hurt them. They try to think instead of react.
“It’s serious if you know our calls. You must always keep them.
Jones agrees. He wants his players to “read and react” to what the opponent is doing. “I don’t care what the calls are for other teams,” he said. “But I know some coaches are really getting into it.”
Count Beilein among that group, or at least in the faction of coaches who are wary of sign-stealing.
To combat him at Michigan, he began calling very few set plays in the first half, when Michigan’s offense was shooting at the basket in front of his bench. If Beilein’s players had to turn to him for a call, so could an opposing coach. And he found a few who were doing just that, watching his every move like a “Dancing With the Stars” judge.
He only called plays during timeouts until the second half, when he could protect his body from the opposing bench while giving the signal.
“It’s a big deal,” Beilein said. “They’re watching you.”
