Effect of time outs on the score and type of defence used by teams in basketball

Abstract

During the competition, coach have a reduce number of occasions to affect directly to the game. Basketball rules let coaches to ask for time-outs to contact directly with his/her players, give them information, stop the match, etc. The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of the time-outs on the score and the type of defense use. A total of 80 time-outs of 14 matches from Spanish Championship under-20 were analyzed. The information of five phases before and after the time-out was analyzed. The variables studied were: a) total score point by attack phase; b) final action of each attack phase; and c) type of defense used by teams in each phase. A descriptive and inferential analysis (multivariate analysis of repeat measurement) was done. The results found show that: a) the principal situation that provokes to ask for a time-out was: no score in more of the three out of five previous actions; b) teams that ask the time-out improve their performance after it, teams that ask the time-out reduce their performance; and c) teams that ask the time-out change their type of defense after it.
Key Words:match analyses, coaching, team sports, offence, defence