Observation is vital in many situations-especially in preparing for a basketball game.Film study, analyzing an opponent’s offense and defense and looking at their strengths and weaknesses in these areas are just a few of the aspects that head women’s basketball coach Mark Cook and his staff look for when preparing for an upcoming opponent.

“We look at video tapes of the opponent that we’re going to play (and) pick out their strengths and weaknesses on offense and defense,” Cook said. “Then we go back to what we do offensively and defensively. We want to run things offensively against their weaknesses defensively.”

On the defensive side, Cook said the staff looks for who they have to double team, who they can guard loosely and what ways they can disrupt the offensive production of individual players. Cook said his team then focuses on the things the Lady Colonels do well.

Cook said he and his coaching staff spend three to four hours determining what they need to work on against opponents.

On a typical Saturday game, the Lady Colonels meet at 9 a.m. for an hour-long shoot-around, which consists of foul shooting and a walk-through of the opponent’s offensive sets, the opposition’s inbound plays and how they will guard all of these sets. They also talk about the opponent’s personnel.

“When I say walk through their sets we’ll get five people out there, and we’ll number each person like ‘this is (#) 35, the post player, this is # 2, the point guard,'” Cook said. “We’ll walk through how they run the set: what it’s called, how it’s run and where they’re looking for the shot within the set.”

Cook then brings his defense onto the court and walks through how they will guard the opposing team’s offense.

After the shoot-around, the players eat breakfast and rest.

Between 12:30 and 1 p.m., the players who need their ankles taped or have other injuries that need to be taken care of do so. At 1 p.m., everyone is dressed and out on the floor.

Thirty-five minutes before the game, the players stretch and go into the locker room where they review the scouting report, consisting of the opposing team’s tendencies and the things the Lady Colonels have to do well.

The team then returns to the court until 10 minutes remain on the clock. At this point, they go back to the locker room where the team members are given the number of the player they will be guarding. They review the opponent’s personnel and then come out five minutes prior to tip off.

Freshman point guard Katherine Plummer said if the team plays with the intensity that Cook asks for, then going from practice to a game is easier.

“Coach always says to bring intensity because the way we practice is the way the game should be,” Plummer said. “If we come out with intensity, the game should be much easier, so we try to do that in practice to make the games come smoother.”

The crowd also plays a key role in the team’s motivation, according to senior guard Cristin Burdette.

“The more people we have here, the more energetic the atmosphere is for us,” Burdette said. “It (the audience) just gives us a lot of energy and more reason to be out there. (It) gets us pumped up and ready to go.”

In addition to making adjustments at halftime, Cook said what he tells his team depends on what they did and did not do well in the first half. The team focuses on what they are not doing well before speaking of what they have been able to accomplish.

“Basically you want to come out of the locker room going into the game with a positive spin,” Cook said. “You don’t want to yell at them and then demand they go out and play. You want to yell at them then tell them the things- ‘alright, we were doing this well; this is what we have to exploit in the second half’-and come out on a positive note out of halftime.”

In terms of wins and losses, Cook said the team cannot get too high after a win or let a loss affect them too much.

“One thing I talk to my players about is that the season is a marathon,” Cook said. “It’s not a sprint. You can’t get too high after a win or too low after a loss because like I tell them, ‘if you have a bad night tonight, two days later you have another game.’