The Florida State men’s basketball team began preseason practice on Monday morning with new and technology at the practice court that will help in player development.
The Noah Basketball shot-tracking system is used by 28 NBA teams and a handful of college basketball programs across the country. This year, the Seminoles will have the state of the art tracking system in place in hopes of gaining an advantage in development due to the accuracy of the shot-tracking data.
“It’s huge,” FSU coach Luke Loucks said. “I’m super excited. Thank you to Brian Cauthen and his foundation for donating that money to get that done. We were one of the first teams in the NBA in Golden State to use the Noah system and this is going back to 2016, 2017. Personally, it helped me as a coach.”
The name Noah is not an acronym, rather it is a play on words in reference to the biblical figure Noah and his famous ark.
“It tracks your arc, which a lot of these kids struggle with being flat,” Loucks said. “It tracks the depth, where the ball hits front to back, and then it tracks the left and right, down to like a millimeter.”
The system uses facial recognition cameras, as well as multiple cameras above the basket that track a number of different metrics to give the coaches and players valuable data in regards to shooting consistency, angles and arcs. In the modern era of basketball and sports analytics, the Noah shot-tracking system is a valuable tool that will help players and coaches on the FSU basketball team.
“Let's say a shooter is struggling with being short, they’re hitting the front of the rim consistently,” Loucks said. “We can go pull every single shot they shot in our gym that was short for the last month, two months, last week, last practice, every live action and then you can watch the video to break down all your short shots, look where your balance is, break down all your shots that went in and see if there’s discrepancies.”
Basketball players have many spots on the court that they must shoot everyday so it can translate to the game. Going around the 3-point arc, there are five spots that each shooter must attempt. Some players are better from the corner, while some are more comfortable at the top of the key. There are also the mid-range shots that are crucial and, just like the 3-point arc, there are five mid-range shots each player must master because having a mid-range game is part of learning the game of basketball.
“Because it tracks every shot that’s shot in our gym, we know who’s actually working and who’s not,” Loucks said. “So if a guy walks in and shoots late at night, we know it. We know how many he made, how many he missed, how many he shot, where they missed and we can watch every video. Was it game speed? Were you going half speed?”
With each shot logged in practice and during scrimmages, players will be able to adjust their shot accordingly and sometimes it’s an easy fix as you will see it translate faster to an improved shot and shot percentage. Once a player masters the shot, muscle memory will take over and the player will not have to think too much when it comes to shooting. When it comes to shooting the basketball in a game, the less you think, the better.
“We track everything in practice from top to bottom,” Loucks said. “Now I have eyes in the sky when I’m not in the gym and it makes my job as a coach easier because I actually know who’s getting in the gym and how they’re working.”
The Seminoles will get their first opportunity to see if the Noah shot-tracking system has helped them with their shooting when they play their first exhibition game on Saturday, Oct. 10 at Pensacola against SEC opponent Mississippi State.
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