Basketball Tryout Evaluation Form

Rate each player 1 to 5 across six skill categories. The level definitions under the table spell out what a player does at each number, so evaluators score against the same picture of each level. For a 50-player night, use Copy as Table. The grid pastes into Excel or Google Sheets with 10 blank rows, so extend it to 50 and give each evaluator a printed copy instead of a stack of single sheets. Its Notes column holds shooting makes and game moments. Only one copy needs the measurement columns, filled in by whoever measures.

PDF Download and a Google Forms Version

For a PDF copy, click Print Form and switch the printer to Save as PDF. Only the scorecard and the rubric beneath it end up in the file, which makes it easy to email to assistant coaches before tryout day.

Prefer to collect scores on phones? Google Forms can rebuild this sheet. Add a short answer question for the player's name, then a multiple choice grid with the six categories as rows and 1 to 5 as columns, and paste the rating definitions into the question description. Each evaluator submits one response per player, and linking the form to a Google Sheet puts every response in a table you can sort by player.

If the same staff also runs tryouts in another sport, our tryout evaluation form for any sport has templates for baseball, soccer, and more.

To evaluate a basketball player, score six categories (shooting, ball handling, defense, passing, basketball IQ, and athleticism/attitude) on the 1-to-5 rubric above, and watch each player twice. Drills show you technique in isolation. Live 1-on-1, transition, and 5-on-5 play show whether that technique holds up against a defender, a closeout, and tired legs.

The rubric tells you what each number looks like, and the age weighting table says which two categories count double at each age, from ball handling and attitude at 8U-10U to shooting and defense in high school. A station rotation still misses a couple of things.

Follow Two Players per Possession

Most of any possession happens away from the ball, and the Team Play area of the 20-skill framework gives spacing, screen reading, and off-ball movement a sub-skill each. In 5-on-5, pick two players per possession and follow only them. After a pass, do they cut or relocate to an open spot? Do they read a screen and curl or pop? On defense, are they in the gap when the ball swings to their side?

Take Away the Strong Hand, Then Watch the Last Minutes

Plenty of players look like a 4 in ball handling until the defense takes their strong hand away. Force it at the 1-on-1 station, where the defender shades the strong hand on every other rep, or add weak-hand-only layups to the warm-up. The rubric already separates these levels, since a 1 "can't dribble with weak hand" and a 3 "uses both hands." Keep your notes going into the last minutes of the scrimmage, too. Tired legs show up in closeouts and box-outs, and a player whose effort holds there has earned the higher athleticism/attitude score.

Can You Evaluate Basketball Players in a Free App?

Two free tools on this page cover different jobs. The printable forms handle tryout night, while the browser scorer for the 20-skill framework, one section down, builds a single player's profile. Neither asks for an account.

If you want the ratings to follow each player from tryouts into the season, Striveon, the app we make, keeps them on the player's record. It is a paid app with a 14-day trial that asks for no credit card. Compare the Striveon plans.

The six categories on the tryout sheet leave out most of what happens without the ball. Spacing, reading a screen, and crashing the offensive glass end up folded into Basketball IQ, or nowhere. This framework splits the game into 20 sub-skills across five areas, Team Play among them, and rates each from 1 to 10 so smaller gains still register. Striveon loads it as the basketball starter set when you set up an account, and you can reshape it from there.

From Ball Handling to Game Intelligence

Every area below holds four sub-skills. In the app you can change an area's name and write in skills your program uses. Shooting shows why the split matters. The tryout sheet has one Shooting box, while here form, catch-and-shoot, off-the-dribble, and free throws each get their own number.

Try the 20-Skill Scorer

Pick one of the five areas, put each of its sub-skills somewhere on the 1-10 scale, and watch the profile build. Nothing is stored after you leave or reload the page. The scorer's own usage counts (started, finished, exported) never include a rating or a player's name. When you finish, the numbers copy straight into a spreadsheet and the profile saves as a PNG.

In Striveon, a 7 on Closeout comes with a written definition of what a 7 looks like, and every coach on the staff rates against the same definitions. The scorer above has none, so agree on what the numbers mean before two coaches use it on the same player. See the level definitions in Striveon's evaluation tool.

Checkpoints Between Tryouts and the Playoffs

Come back to all 20 sub-skills at two or three checkpoints and you learn which skills respond to practice and which have stalled. A player whose Help Defense has not moved across two checkpoints needs a different drill, not more of the same one.

Striveon stores each evaluation with the player, so the checkpoints carry into next season. Rating again at midseason and after the last game is a good starting rhythm.

HoopTactics(opens in new tab) advises keeping a tryout form to 10 criteria or fewer, and notes that the higher the level, the more detailed the evaluation needs to be. Six categories suit a travel or high school tryout. A rec league draft night with 80 kids and two hours of gym time needs fewer.

The Three-Category Draft Sheet

Shooting, Ball Handling, and Attitude add up to a total out of 15, which is plenty for coaches taking turns picking balanced teams. The sheet is short enough to fill in between reps without losing track of the next player.

When a Roster Spot Is at Stake

A travel, AAU, or high school tryout is choosing a roster, and a cut player deserves specifics. Six categories let you tell a player that shooting held up at a 4 while defense sat at a 2, which gives them a concrete target for next year.

For a draft night, print a stack of the three-category sheet or paste its grid into the league spreadsheet.

The same six categories work from 8U to varsity, but they should not count the same at every age. Our recommendation, which comes from us and not from a governing body, is to count two categories double at each age, so every weighted total runs out of 40. The four age bands below each name their pair. Breakthrough Basketball also publishes a guide to teaching youth basketball(opens in new tab), and our youth basketball drills library is organized by age from 5 through high school.

8U-10U: Double Ball Handling and Athleticism/Attitude

At this age, rate the habits that grow into skill. Count Ball Handling and Athleticism/Attitude twice. You are looking for kids who get their eyes up for a dribble or two, sprint back on defense without a reminder, and keep trying after a miss. A kid who listens and competes on every rep is worth more to a 10U roster than one who scores but checks out between turns.

11U-12U: Double Passing and Basketball IQ

At 11U-12U we count Passing and Basketball IQ twice, the two categories that show whether a player can play inside a team offense. You are watching whether a player passes ahead in transition and cuts after giving the ball up. Guard, wing, and post roles are still loose at this age, and the two best positions box on the form is a guess worth writing down.

13U-14U: Double Defense and Basketball IQ

We count Defense and Basketball IQ twice at 13U-14U, the age when help defense becomes something you can actually rate. You will see it most clearly in the Shell Drill block, in whether a player is already in the gap when the ball swings and whether they talk while they get there. Weigh current form against where a player is heading, too. A shooter with clean mechanics who misses today may be the better pick over one who scores with a hitch.

High School Basketball Tryout Evaluation

JV and varsity spots are few, and the game gets faster. Count Shooting and Defense double, since spacing the floor and guarding without fouling decide who plays. Add conditioning benchmarks such as timed line sprints, and watch whether each player can run your sets in 5-on-5 as well as in breakdown drills. Scrimmage endurance over 20-plus minutes needs a separate callback or practice session, since tryout night gives each player two short games.

For juniors and seniors hoping to play in college, fill in the measurement row on the main form and help them keep game video from the season. A basketball player profile puts those numbers and clips in one place to send to college coaches.

Which Categories Count Double at Each Age

Multiply the two green categories by two before adding, and the total runs out of 40 instead of 30. Compare weighted totals only within one age group.

Sooner or later in a tryout, you will want to sort candidates into guards, wings, and bigs. Once a player has shown where they fit, rate them on that role's five criteria alongside the main sheet. A player who could fill two roles gets both sections.

Guard Evaluation (Point Guard, Shooting Guard)

Start with the handle under pressure. Can the guard bring the ball up against a full-court press without picking it up? Then watch the pass before the shot. Does the ball reach the open shooter before the defense rotates, or one pass late? Perimeter shooting comes last, off the catch and off the dribble.

For a point guard, watch the possession right after a turnover. Does the player push the ball again and call the next set, or look at the bench? Score the Leadership box from moments like that and from dead balls, when a point guard either organizes the other four or waits to be told.

Wing Evaluation (Small Forward)

Wings live on the catch. Can they shoot it without a dribble, and when a defender flies out at them, can they put the ball down and get to the rim? Off the ball, watch for backdoor and baseline cuts. On defense, you want to know how long they stay in front of a driver. The last box is transition, which rewards the wing who sprints the floor every time the ball changes hands.

Post / Bigs Evaluation (Power Forward, Center)

Post players work in the paint at both ends. At a callback, give them the ball on the block with their back to the basket and count what they score against a live defender. On a missed shot, check whether they find a body to box out or turn to watch the ball. For shot blocking, the number that matters is challenges without a foul.

Watch whether a big holds the screen until the defender makes contact, then rolls hard to the rim. A center whose screens free a shooter can earn a high Screen Setting score on a night they score few points themselves.

Fill these sections during the half-court 5-on-5, or at a callback for players still on the bubble, and add them to the same spreadsheet as the main scores.

A basketball tryout lives or dies on how many players are waiting for a ball. This plan keeps both baskets working all night. HoopTactics also recommends running several baskets at once, saying it takes pressure off the players and lets coaches watch more candidates at the same time.

Two Baskets, Four Groups

Split the 50 players into groups A to D (13, 13, 12, and 12) at check-in and hand out numbered pinnies. Warm up with two layup lines at each basket, about 12 players per line. Two volunteers measure height and wingspan at the check-in table, about 30 seconds a player. Vertical and shuttle wait for the rotation hour. While a group works the shooting station, the volunteers take its players out of the line two at a time, about 2 minutes each, on a strip of floor away from both baskets. All the numbers go on a single copy of the sheet.

For the rotation hour, the north basket runs shooting and the south basket runs 1-on-1. The two sidelines hold a ball-handling lane (a weak-hand dribble course) and a closeout lane (sprint to a cone, break down, slide), both taped before the doors open. Every group visits all four, moving every 15 minutes, and the last 3 minutes of each round are for water and walking to the next spot.

The Drills on the Schedule

HoopTactics recommends simple breakdown drills that "demonstrate specific or closely related skills." Each of the five below covers one or two boxes on the sheet, Shooting included.

Need a substitute for any slot? Our basketball drills library sorts more than 50 drills by skill and level.

Who Rates What

When the gym empties, one evaluator's sheet holds 300 numbers, 50 players times six boxes. That is more writing than splitting the categories between coaches, and it is what gives every box four numbers to compare in the meeting afterward. In the rotation hour each evaluator holds one spot (north basket, south basket, or one of the two lanes) and the groups come to them. From the Shell Drill on, all four rate every category.

Calibrate before the night. Pick three sample players from last season and have each coach rate them independently. Compare scores, discuss gaps, and agree on what a "4" means for ball handling before the first player checks in. Keep that independence on tryout day, too. Once the head coach says a name out loud, the room tends to follow, so every evaluator writes numbers down before anyone compares notes.

During Tryouts

In the half-court 5-on-5, write one game moment next to each player's numbers, such as the guard who calls the switch or the post who sprints back after a missed box-out. Those notes break ties in the meeting afterward.

After Tryouts

Go through the four sheets one category at a time. A 2 and a 4 for the same player's defense is worth five minutes of the meeting, so ask each evaluator which spot on the floor the number came from. Tell each player the decision in person, never through a posted list, and give cut players their composite evaluation with the skills to work on. Once the roster is final, organize it with a basketball roster template, and turn the weak categories you found into the first weeks of a basketball practice plan.

When players or parents ask for feedback, your scorecard gives you specifics. Telling a guard "your perimeter shooting scored a 4 but defensive rotations need work" builds trust and shows exactly where to improve.

In Striveon you can score a whole group in one evaluation round, and each rating saves as you enter it. When you publish the round, every scored player gets the evaluation on their record and a notification, and you can search the athlete list by position while you build the roster. Follow each player's evaluations from tryouts into the season in Striveon.

Tryouts decide who makes the team. The evaluations that shape a player's year come later, at a midseason check-in and again after the last game, when a coach sits down with the player (and often a parent) to talk about what changed. Some programs call that second sheet a player report card.

The form below keeps the six categories from the tryout sheet, so the season number sits next to the tryout number, and it adds a column for the player's own rating. Hand the sheet to the player first and let them fill in their column before they see yours. Wherever the two numbers sit 2 or more apart, you have found the most useful ten minutes of the meeting.

Two meetings a season is a floor. Rating the sub-skills of the 20-skill framework again at each checkpoint shows how a player moves between them.

Player Self-Evaluation in Striveon

Striveon builds the same two-sided conversation into the app. A player rates each skill on the scale their coach uses. Your organization can also keep coach ratings hidden until the player has saved their own, or until the coach chooses to show them. Players can react to an evaluation and comment on it, and coaches reply in the same thread. See how player self-assessment works in Striveon.