Photo courtesy of Abdul Mirza
Talks scouting, teamwork and future goals
BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, SPORTS EDITOR
Basketball teams rely on committed staff members, those who scout opponents in order to help prepare for upcoming games. At Mason, Connor Whitworth serves as the Head Manager for the women’s basketball team, overseeing other managers while assisting with scouting reports and film analysis.
Whitworth spends 10-15 hours per scouting session using Synergy Sports, a platform that provides pre-cut footage of opponents’ past games. This allows him to analyze play styles and prepare the team for their games against those opponents.
“A lot of teams, a majority of them run like an America’s play action,” Whitworth said. “So there’s like actions that you can recognize through that right, that make it easier and be like, these are their play sets… we can figure out what they want to do on man-to-man defense, what they want to do on zone defense.”
Whitworth presents his scouting reports in film sessions before practices, highlighting key points like what hand the player shoots with, where they shoot best on the court, their weaknesses, or what side of the court they like being on. Afterwards, he would make it as easy as possible for the team to lock onto their matchups during games.
Despite the fact that all the filming preparation can assist the team prepare for game night, game plans can always change from night to night. Basketball, dependent on players within a team, includes players making sharp on-the-fly decisions. Due to this adjustments must be made in real time, throwing a perfectly crafted game plan out the window.
“We’ll go out and we’ll try something that doesn’t work, and then our coaching staff would adjust, and then at halftime we’ll do whatever we need to do, the fix, adjust, change anything that we need to,” Whitworth said. “Teams are scouting us like we’re scouting them.”
Mason Women’s Basketball closed out their season on March 1st with a 24-5 overall record and a 14-4 mark in the A-10 conference. The team will begin its A-10 tournament journey on March 7th against the winner of Game 6 at 5 p.m. on Peacock.
“The staff is amazing, like everything from Coach Blair all the way down to one of our new managers…I think our team as a whole is so great,” Whitworth said. “It’s so family oriented…it makes it mean a little bit more…it’s going to be a little bit stressful, but at the same time, we’ve had such a historic season.”
Whitworth initially considered a career in engineering, but during his senior year of high school, his mother encouraged him to explore a career path in basketball since he played the sport. With family’s support, Whitworth pursued his passion and found a home with Mason’s women’s basketball program
Whitworth thanks Mason women’s basketball coach Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis for allowing him to serve her program. “When I first came in, my first day, she came up to me and she was like, ‘Are you ready for a roller coaster ride?’” Whitworth said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect… but, man, it has been a roller coaster ride, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
Whitworth credits coaches Washington, Frank, and Bolton for shaping his basketball knowledge and coaching abilities. Whitworth also thanked Riley Walker for introducing him to the opportunity to work with Mason’s Women Basketball and expressed gratitude to his fellow managers for all the hard work and dedication.
Whitworth’s advice for people who want to be in his position is to work hard. “They’re going to be things that I was told that I need to do that I didn’t want to do, like, that’s just life….You got to take steps,” Whitworth said. “I started at the bottom, and it’s just I slowly… worked my way up, and continued to just grow.”
After Whitworth graduates, his one goal in life is to coach an Olympic team like the Korean international team. He aims to stay in Division I college basketball and coach a team like UCLA and make his mark in the game he loves.