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| Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson |
'Secret scrimmages' have been a topic of hush hush talk in the college basketball world. Behind closed doors, these not so secret scrimmages are between CBB teams wanting to size up with another team before the season officially begins. These scrimmages are closed to the public and media; also the NCAA prohibits coaches from talking publicly about them. They're a tradition and a poorly kept college basketball secret.
According to Jeff Goodman, Florida Gulf Coast will host Florida Southern on Oct. 27 in one of these secret scrimmages. The D-II Moccasins went 27-6 last year, including 12-4 in Sunshine State play.
Five days later, the Eagles host Lynn, another Sunshine State Conference member. The Fighting Knights went 11-16 on the season last year, 3-13 in conference play.
Last season FGCU was close to scrimmaging the Florida Gators.
"We tried to scrimmage them [Florida] early in the season in the preseason,'' Enfield said. ''Now we get our shot.''
The Gators, instead, scrimmaged against Rollins who had a playing style similar to Georgetown, their opening game opponent.
More in a Palm Beach Post article by Jason Lieser
“Andy had called me probably back in September or October, wanting to try to get together to scrimmage. And at that time, we were looking at a couple of different options. They were one. One of the things I was looking at as a coach going into our season this year was our first game of the year was against Georgetown. And just going against that Princeton style of play and also having Air Force on our schedule as well, that’s a unique system and style of play that you don’t normally see. And at that time, I decided that we needed to play against Rollins to get us prepared for the Georgetown game.” -Billy Donovan
More On Secret Scrimmages
Last season FGCU was close to scrimmaging the Florida Gators.
"We tried to scrimmage them [Florida] early in the season in the preseason,'' Enfield said. ''Now we get our shot.''
The Gators, instead, scrimmaged against Rollins who had a playing style similar to Georgetown, their opening game opponent.
More in a Palm Beach Post article by Jason Lieser
“Andy had called me probably back in September or October, wanting to try to get together to scrimmage. And at that time, we were looking at a couple of different options. They were one. One of the things I was looking at as a coach going into our season this year was our first game of the year was against Georgetown. And just going against that Princeton style of play and also having Air Force on our schedule as well, that’s a unique system and style of play that you don’t normally see. And at that time, I decided that we needed to play against Rollins to get us prepared for the Georgetown game.” -Billy Donovan
More On Secret Scrimmages
According to Mark Zeigler's article in the San Diego Union Tribune:
NCAA guidelines state. “Further, the institution must ensure the scrimmage is free from public view and media are not in attendance.”
The rule book continues: “An official score and/or statistics for the practice scrimmage may not be kept. However, an institution may keep score and/or statistics for private use … An institution may not provide the score and/or any statistics to any type of media outlet.”
With these scrimmages, coaches can receive honest feedback from opposing coaches and players can experience some 'real' game action before the regular season starts.
The NCAA gives college basketball teams the option to play two games before the regular season. These two games can be a combination of either 'secret scrimmages' or exhibitions. An example of an exhibition game is Florida hosting Florida Southern on Nov. 1 in Gainesville. Unlike secret scrimmages, these exhibitions are open to fans and media.
The NCAA tries to keep these free forms scrimmages secret but many have already been released for the 2013-14 season.
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