Cal State East Bay Assistant Coach Daniel Eberhardt on basketball IQ

What is this quasi-mysterious element called basketball IQ? Is it something latent in most players yet developed by a few? Why is it that you can have two players spend 1,000 hours apiece in a gym and yet one will emerge with a better sense of when to do what and where. What it seems to be is an acquired skill and one that can be improved with the appropriate work and mindset.

Here's Cal State East Bay Assistant Coach Daniel Eberhardt on this subject.

"In my opinion, having a high basketball IQ is similar to having a great feel for the game. It's making the extra pass, being in the right spot on help defensive, and really valuing possessions. Teams and players with a high basketball IQ are able to get to the third, fourth or fifth option of a set. They don’t beat themselves. It's a little bit innate but can definitely be developed."   

Regarding developing a higher IQ, Eberhardt said, "Learn from what your coach is teaching you both in practice and during film breakdowns. Not only watching film put trying to take away one or two things from each session and apply it in games or practice. When players want to invest that extra time in becoming more aware of what is happening, you can start to see them make more sound plays."

He added, "Our program has a rule where that every player must watch all of their minutes with a coach of the previous weekend before we face our next opponent. We review the scout and see how successful we were in executing our plan of attack. We try to identify positive and negative tendencies in their game that we can work on to make them a more efficient player. 

Eberhardt also noted "a guy can not fast or athletic but still get to the rim with head fakes and footwork." 

In this day and age of highlight tape dunk-a-thons which literally zero coaches in the recruiting process care about, why don't prospects put together one showcasing the level of their basketball IQ? Granted, such would never become a viral hit but is the point generating oohs and aahs or getting the desired scholarship?