This Kansas-based company wants to change basketball — starting with four games in KC

While watching at home, it could look like the old video game NBA Jam. At the Sprint Center, it might feel like an arena’s worth of people playing Pokémon Go. For coaches, it has the possibility to provide more in-game data than any other contest in Division I history.

A glimpse into the future of college basketball will be coming to Kansas City in November: ShotTracker, a Merriam-based company, will be partnering with the National Association of Basketball Coaches to provide live stats and analytics for the Hall of Fame Classic tournament on Nov. 19 and 20.

Never before has a Division I game offered access to ShotTracker’s real-time stats and data.

“Most of us, we don’t get to see firsts,” said Reggie Minton, deputy executive director for the NABC. “This is a first.”

It has the potential to impact nearly everyone — fans, broadcasters, players and coaches — when Missouri State, Nebraska, Texas Tech and USC gather for the four-game tournament this fall.

First, the logistics: ShotTracker, formed in 2013, uses sensor-based technology to provide instant basketball information. Trackers are placed in the ball, on players’ shoes and in the rafters so each movement is detected, while algorithms determine when events like steals, offensive rebounds and missed shots take place.

ShotTracker, over time, has worked to make the data-gathering almost instantaneous. The ball and players are measured within 2-to-3-centimeter accuracy of their location, while all motions are recorded on video that registers 120 frames per second.

“It’s so cool to see everything happening in real time,” ShotTracker co-founder Davyeon Ross said. “This has never really been done. I think that’s the big differentiator for us.”

The final result will take many forms at the Hall of Fame Classic.

For fans watching at home ... ShotTracker will provide a different way of viewing a game previously unavailable. The path of the basketball can be lit up in a glowing arc on the screen, while made and missed shots have immediate flashing color labels: green for makes, red for misses.

Ross said the Hall of Fame Classic TV broadcast also will feature medallions hanging over players’ heads, showing stats like point total and shooting percentages. And if ESPN really wants to get creative, it could add special graphics when a shot goes in ... much like the basketball turning into a fireball in the NBA Jam video game.

For those in attendance ... augmented reality will provide a new way to watch in person.

Those in Sprint Center can download ShotTracker’s app on their smartphones, which will provide instant stats each game.

There will be more on there, though. Fans can hold their phones up to the action — much like the interactive game Pokémon Go — and touch on a player on their screen they’d like to track. Immediately, the app provides that player’s box-score information, a shot chart and also gives a reading of how far the player is from the basket. The app also will provide an opportunity for fans to compete with each other while trying to predict what will happen next.

“We think that we’re going to be able to enhance the fan experience in a very substantial way — in a way that it hasn’t been done before,” Ross said.

As for the players and coaches ... this potentially could be the start of a changing future as well.

The NABC has petitioned the NCAA to allow the ShotTracker data to be available in-game to coaches during the Hall of Fame Classic. If approved, that would mean each team’s staff would be able to use tablets to access information on individual stats, optimal lineup rotations and the total distance run by each player in the game.

It could be just the beginning. The NFL permits tablets during games for film study, and Ross said he could envision a scenario over the next decade where all college basketball coaches would be allowed to use technology like ShotTracker on the sidelines.

For now, Thursday’s agreement with the NABC marks a crucial first step for the start-up company. ShotTracker has already partnered with a few Division I programs to improve their practice data, and Ross said the ultimate goal for the company is “to be for gyms what WiFi is for coffee shops.”

Ross imagines a potential future could be like this: A 45-year-old plays weekly pickup basketball at Lifetime Fitness, getting individualized stats sent to their iPhone. Or high school tournaments across the country add the technology, which allows the delivery of postgame box scores seconds after the final buzzer.

That’s the pie-in-the-sky hope for Ross and co-founder Bruce Ianni, who now oversee 30 employees spread out over six states.

Only this much is certain now: Four Kansas City games in November will provide a starting point for their imminent journey into Division I analysis.

This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 5:24 PM.