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Krabbenhoft, 25, praised UW program assistant A.J. Van Handel for his video mentoring. "A.J. is a whiz at all of this,'' he said. "He's helped me a lot.'' Wisconsin's assistant coaches have each been assigned Big Ten opponents. Greg Gard will handle the scout for Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern and Nebraska. Gary Close has Illinois, Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana. Lamont Paris, the youngest staff member, has Penn State. Similarities in offensive style or systems ― such as Princeton actions versus motion ― can often account for the breakdown of teams between Gard and Close. Or it may just be the familiarity one of them has with the head coach or the program or some other element of what they do on the court. "Our coaches,'' Krabbenhoft stressed, "do a great job of breaking it down.'' ● ● ● ● The players receive printed scouting reports when they enter the room. Although there's no seating chart for road games, Sam Dekker and Zak Showalter usually sit together. Both are coaches' kids. "He (Showalter) will nudge me,'' Dekker said, "and tell me some of the things that he sees.'' At Sheboygan Lutheran High School, Dekker played for his dad, Todd, who discontinued scouting reports at one point last season. Lutheran went on to win the WIAA state championship. "It's funny because for the first 15 games of the year,'' Sam Dekker recalled, "we scouted teams and watched film and broke down things. "But we found ourselves worrying about the other team too much. All of a sudden my dad said, 'This is high school basketball. Just go play. If we do our stuff, we'll be fine. We just have to defend.' "So this year is a whole different animal,'' Dekker went on. "When I got here, it was a new learning experience ― learning about scout teams and learning more about how to read film.'' Growing up with a coach in the house has some benefits. "I watched my dad watch a lot of film,'' Dekker said. "I see things that maybe not everyone else sees. My teammates see it, but if a regular fan was watching, they wouldn't see the same things. "First of all, I will watch what my matchups will be. Then, I will watch the whole flow of the offense and what they run. Depending on what they do, I want to see what we can exploit.'' As a player, Krabbenhoft watched film with many of the same objectives ― "I tried to learn every position,'' he said ― but he was focused on what each of his teammates were doing on defense. Dekker, like most freshmen, is still in the process of making a commitment to that end of the floor. But he totally gets why these scouting reports on game days are so important to playing well. 33