Horizon League Best Practices: Milwaukee's Scouting Reports

This blog is all about inspiration. We're in the midst of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

Thus far our Horizon League journey has shown how Butler ties your Facebook identity to the Bulldogs, here, and how Green Bay encourages their articles to share inside Facebook, here. Today, we turn to Milwaukee.



Scouting Reports.

When you get to college as a student athlete, they are a big part of your preparation for the game. They tell you things to focus on, who to key on. It's your crib sheet for the big game. And Milwaukee has a take on that that'll open your eyes... Hit the Milwaukee "Unofficial" Student site, Panther U (here), and click onto the Pick and Roll Press. That will take you here (shown below). That's where the fun begins.

You can click onto any matchup from this past season and learn more about the opposition. Let's dive into a preview from last year's Butler Matchup -- viewable here.

This is a very good, high level look at the opponent. You see an overview (above) and a list of suggested crowd cheers (below).

And, as you can see in the image below, they pick a player on the opposition and isolate him as a person to taunt, complete with the reasons to do so. It's enough to make the crowd not just tough to face but also well informed... After all, who wants to be this week's Bench Baby?

Finally, the reason I dig all this is that it is fun. That's what college is all about. As a student athlete (or recruit) you see that fans care and they are going to do what they can to make things hostile for the opposition. Nice.

How Could This Be Better? This is fantastic, but it is 100% opposition-centric. I'd love to see this taken to another level -- let us see the same scouting, but also the same level of emotion around the Panthers. Doing this will not only get fans more connected to the team, it will also make players (and prospective players) feel like playing at Milwaukee is big. Very big. Take that level of excitement and you have the ultimate guide to Milwaukee Hoops: Emotional, Passionate, Real-Time, and Fun.

One other suggestion. I love the crowd chants but feel like they could learn from Bill Simmons and how he coordinated crowd chants against the Cavs via Twitter (story here). Feels like Milwaukee could use Twitter to get things going even further in real time. Fun stuff!

That's a wrap.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy