Welcome to the Friday interview! Each month we bring you a short interview with a person we work with or find inspirational. Today we speak with Mandy Close, Assistant Coach of the Oregon State University Women’s Basketball team.
Mandy was a star in her own right on OSU’s basketball team from 2002-2006, and has been coaching at the college level ever since. Mandy uses her degrees in Human Development & Family Sciences and Education to help guide and develop young players. She also dives into data and analytics as the preparer of scouting reports. We ask her how she combines data and the human factor when coaching, as well as her vision for the NCAA tournament.
Mandy Close, Assistant Coach
Oregon State women’s basketball
1) Congrats on another great season of Beaver Basketball! Winning the Pac-12 is no small feat and hopes are high moving into the tournament. Looking back on the regular season, what key factors do you believe lead to such a successful season?
Thank you! The foundation to our team’s success is built on a strong culture that is in pursuit of excellence. Head coach, Scott Rueck, believes strongly that it is important to allow only high character, selfless, team oriented people be a part of our staff and team. The makeup of our team is that of high achieving individuals, in the classroom and on the court, that are willing to sacrifice for the betterment of the whole. The selection of these outstanding individuals begins and is rooted in recruiting this specific type of student-athlete.
Another key component to maintaining a high standard within the team is student-athlete leadership. We are fortunate enough to have five outstanding seniors on our team this season who exemplify hard work and commitment. They have earned the respect of their teammates which allows them to have accountability within the group. One of my favorite parts of coaching is seeing a quiet, yet hard working and committed freshman blossom into a confident leader.
The last key factor has been our program’s commitment to preparation. Our staff spends countless hours watching film to critique and grow our own team as well as scout our opponents. Our student-athletes desire to improve, making them receptive to coaching. Our staff also emphasizes the importance of knowing our opponent’s individual player tendencies as well as team tendencies. When we know what they want to do before they do it, we can eliminate strengths and force teams into their weaknesses.
2) As a creative digital agency, data and analytics play a critical role in the campaigns and creative work we provide for our clients. What role does data, analytics and the study of numbers play in coaching D1 basketball?
Statistics are a big part of how we track our players on court success. The numbers don’t lie! Our staff uses an efficiency rating to evaluate each individual player’s progress. It is a formula that divides a series of their positive stats by their negative stats that effectively show each player’s efficiency. We ultimately want less mistakes and more production! It is a great, tangible way to help players see their successes and deficiencies.
In the scouting of our opponents, we rely heavily on a scouting database called Synergy. It allows us to download detailed game film on individual players. For example, we are able to pull film clips of all of her left hand pull-up jump shots, which shows us her accuracy, where on the court she most regularly shoots that shot, and how she gets open to shoot that shot. We are able to find her strengths and figure out how to eliminate them by watching her detailed tendencies.
We can also use the same program to evaluate our opponent’s team tendencies. We could get as detailed as pulling all clips of what a particular team runs after time-outs or even what plays they run when the shot clock is less than 10 seconds. With this knowledge and preparation we can teach our team how to defend and what to expect at particular segments of the game.
There are a myriad of ways in which we use data and analytics but one of the most important statistics to date is our #2 seed in the NCAA tournament! ;)
3) With five graduating seniors on this year’s roster, talk to us about preparing your players for life after college basketball. What key skills and traits do you coach that extend beyond the basketball court?
We have recruited a team of high achievers, thus making our job fairly simple in preparing them for life beyond basketball! However, one of the most rewarding aspects of coaching is the opportunity to be in a mentorship role for four years of their life. They are young women that are faced with challenges in balancing the hectic schedule of a student and an athlete. They get the opportunity to be away from home for the first time and are ultimately faced with social decisions that sometimes can turn into distractions. Often they need help on how to balance the time demands and sometimes be reminded how to take care of their health, which includes their nutrition, sleep habits, relational, emotional, and spiritual health. I can only offer up advice if there is an established relationship between us in which trust and love resides.
Aside from the personal mentorship that inevitably takes place, there are many lessons that basketball teaches our young ladies. By the time they graduate from Oregon State they have a deep understanding of what it means to be a team player and sacrifice for the good of the whole. They also learn how to persevere through adversity which can include responding to losing or their own personal failures on the court. They watch and learn from their coaches and teammates on how to handle adverse situations.
4) According to your bio, you play a key role in scouting upcoming opponents. What goes into effectively scouting your competition?
As mentioned above in the data and analytics portion, it is vitally important that I know in detail what each opponents individual player tendencies are and communicate and teach it to our players. An enjoyable aspect of scouting opponents is not just knowing what they do offensively and defensively, but actually game planning on how we can take away strengths and exploit weaknesses.
5) As of this posting, tournament time is just a couple days away! What are you most looking forward to in competing in this year’s March Madness tournament?
For the second year in a row we get to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament right here in Corvallis within the confines of Legendary Gill Coliseum! It will prove to be a great advantage to play in front of our very own crowd which led the Pac-12 in attendance this year, averaging over 4,000 fans per game! We discuss as a team the great opportunity we have been given to Inspire our community. The teamwork, hard work, and success that our team has had brought our fans to Gill night in and night out. What will the fans see when we step foot on Ralph Miller Court this weekend? I hope they see a team that is a family, that fights together, that loves each other, and that is prepared and dedicated to excellence. The March to the Final Four begins.
Former Oregon State women’s basketball standout Mandy Close, a four-year letterwinner from 2003-06 who led her squad to three postseason appearances and spent five seasons on the coaching staff at Montana State, returned to her alma mater as an assistant in May 2013.
Her three seasons as part of Scott Rueck’s staff have been the best years in school history. The Beavers won 24 games in 2013-14, 27 in 2014-2015 and a school record 28 and counting in 2015-2016 along side a #6 national ranking – the highest ever. Close helped the Beavers win their first ever Pac-12 title in 2015, and another Pac-12 conference and tournament championship in 2016. Close has coached the team to three NCAA Tournament appearances – currently with a #2 NCAA tournament seed in 2016.
Among numerous responsibilities, Close works closely with Oregon State’s guards, prepares opponent scouts and also serves as the program’s recruiting coordinator.
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