Basketball tryout evaluation form
A free one-page form for scoring players at high school basketball tryouts. Print one per coach, per night. Guards and posts are scored on different things, and the 1–5 scale is written out so every coach means the same thing by a 3.
Go to the form · Running it with 2–4 coaches
The scale
Agree on this before the first whistle. If one coach's 3 is another coach's 4, averaging their scores tells you nothing.
- 1
- Can't do it yet, even without a defender.
- 2
- Does it in drills; breaks down once someone guards them.
- 3
- Does it at game speed against average defense.
- 4
- Does it under pressure on most reps.
- 5
- Does it every rep and makes teammates better with it.
What to score
A post shouldn't lose points for ball handling, and a guard shouldn't be judged on rim protection. Each player gets four scores from their own set.
Guards & wings (green columns)
- Ball handling & passing
- Both hands, eyes up, takes care of it against pressure, makes the simple pass on time.
- Shooting
- Catch-and-shoot and off the dribble. Same form tired as fresh. Free throws at the end of the night.
- Defense & IQ
- Stays in front, talks, helps and recovers, knows where the ball and their player are.
- Coachability
- Fixes it on the next rep after a correction. Effort when they're not the one being watched.
Posts (orange columns)
- Rebounding
- Boxes out on every shot, goes up with two hands, outlets quickly.
- Finishing & post moves
- Seals, catches, finishes through contact with either hand. Has a counter.
- Defense & rim protection
- Contests without fouling, walls up, recovers after helping.
- Coachability
- Same as guards: the next rep after a correction tells you most of it.
The form
Print this page (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P). Only the form prints, on one landscape letter page. On a phone, scroll the form sideways.
| # | Player | G / P | Ball hand. & passing | Shooting | Defense & IQ | Coachability | Rebounding | Finishing & post moves | Defense & rim prot. | Coachability | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 can't yet · 2 drills only · 3 game speed vs average D · 4 under pressure, most reps · 5 every rep, lifts others — tryout-ready-bkh.pages.dev
Running it with 2–4 coaches
- Hand out the scale with the forms. Read it aloud once before the first session.
- Mark G or P before scoring starts. Decide how many posts each roster keeps (say 3 on a 12-player varsity) so they're ranked in their own pool.
- Every coach scores alone. No comparing notes until all the scores are in. Then average each player's four scores across coaches.
- Flag the splits. If two coaches are a full point apart on a player, that player gets a second look the next night. Usually one of you caught a bad rep or a great one.
- Set the tie rule in advance. For example: both players tied at the cut line move up, and the head coach makes the final call with a one-line written reason.
- Keep the sheets. When a parent asks why, you can say "three coaches scored them on these four things, and here's where they landed" without showing anyone else's scores.
Don't want to add up clipboards at 10 p.m.?
Tryout Ready builds this method into a Google Sheets / Excel file: up to 4 coaches, players averaged and ranked, splits and ties flagged, and a Varsity / JV / Cut list built from your roster sizes. The soccer edition is $9 at payhip.com/tryoutready. The basketball edition, with these guard and post columns, is built and tested but not listed yet. It will be at the same address.