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Basketball Scoring For PalmOS® Handhelds

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Description

Hoops, the basketball scoring application for PalmOS® allows you to do real-time scoring of basketball games. Hoops is simple to use--the optimized one touch interface does the right thing, updating all stats necessary for each game event, allowing you to easily keep up with the fast pace of the game. Your selected individual stats are always displayed on-screen; a game summary, team and individual are one button away.

Hoops runs on all PalmOS® devices with PalmOS® 3.0 or greater.

Version 3.0 Features

In the freeware version of Hoops all features are available, but the playing time is recorded in minutes only, not minutes and seconds, and statistics will stop incrementing after reaching a count of four.

The registered version of Hoops costs $15.00. To purchase Hoops visit Handango.com.


Installing

DownloadDownload Hoops
  1. Download hoops.zip Some browsers (like Opera) may require that you right click and choose "Save Target".)
  2. Unzip Hoops.zip.
  3. Install hoops.prc by double clicking the hoops.prc file in Windows Explorer, or using the Palm Install tool from the Start Menu or from the Palm Desktop.
  4. HotSync the Palm device.
  5. Run the Hoops application.

Upgrading From Previous Versions of Hoops

If you are upgrading from a previous Hoops version, be sure to export any games you want to save to the Memo Pad, then delete the previous version of Hoops before following the install procedure. If you do not, Hoops will complain that the database version on your handheld is not compatible with the current version. Hoops will then ask for permission to delete the existing database before continuing. If you do not choose ok Hoops will quit, allowing you to HotSync your old data. Contact the author if you wish to recover this old data.

Registering Hoops

To register Hoops and enable all its features, purchase Hoops at Handango.com. When you purchase, you will be asked to enter your Palm User ID. The Palm User ID (sometimes called the HotSync ID or name) is used to generate a registration code that you enter into Hoops using the Register menu item. The registration code is given to you when you purchase from Handango.com.

You can find your Palm User ID by running the HotSync application on the Palm device (don't push the HotSync button on the cradle, run the application from the applications screen. Your Palm User ID appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The Palm User ID also appears in the upper right hand corner of the Palm Desktop application on your PC.

In addition, Hoops prints out your Palm User ID at the end of the About screen. Just select About from the Hoops menu.

Quick Start

  1. Set up your rosters in memo pad on the Palm. See Rosters for detailed information on setting up team rosters.
  2. Run Hoops.
  3. Select Menu New Game
  4. Select Clear Stats in the Clear Statistics dialog.
  5. Touch the Home Team button and select the home team roster.
  6. Touch the Visitor Team button and select the visiting team roster. If you are not scoring the visiting team, select "default" and Hoops will create a roster for you.
  7. If you wish to change the game configuration touch the Change Defaults button.
  8. Touch the OK button to leave the New Game screen.
  9. Select the starting lineup on the Substitutions screen that is displayed for the home team.
  10. Select the starting lineup on the Substitutions screen that is displayed for the visiting team.
  11. To start the clock, touch the page-up button or touch the clock on the screen.
  12. Have fun!

Using Hoops

The main screen of Hoops shows the application name Hoops and the current game score at the top of the screen. The arrow pointing to a team name is the possession arrow--possession will go to that team the next jump ball.

The main portion of the screen contains a legend line showing the statistics that may be recorded for the home team, followed by the names and statistics of the players currently in the game. This is followed by the same information for the visiting team.

When Hoops is first run a new game named "default" is created, the home team is named "Home" and the visiting team named "Visitor". The default players are numbered with numbers normally not allowed in games. This allows you to begin scoring a game with default numbers, and rename the players as you go, and you probably won't get duplicate players.

Tapping on the Hoops title or the menu silk button brings up the Hoops menu. See Menu Functions below for detailed description of menu options.

The Hoops Rosters

Rosters are simply memo pad memos with the team name on the first line of the memo and player names one to a line on subsequent lines. You may create roster memos on your PC or Mac in the Palm Desktop application and HotSync them to your device, or create them on the device using the Memo Pad application. They may also be created from within Hoops. (See New Game).

Many scorekeepers want to list the players in numerical order to make it easy to find a player in the scorebook. To do this, enter the player's number first on the roster line, then their name on the same line. Hoops will sort the display of players in the game in numerical order.

The Hoops Team List

The Hoops Team List is simply a memo pad memo with the title "Hoops Teams" that contains, one to a line, the names of memos which contain Hoops Rosters. When you create a new team from within Hoops, the Hoops Team List is automatically updated or created if it does not exist. You can create or add teams to the Hoops Team List by creating or editing the memo named "Hoops Teams". All the memo names in the "Hoops Teams" memo will be available as selections when you create a new game.

Creating a New Game


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To create a new game, select New Game from the menu. The Clear Statistics appears, showing you which data formats have been saved for each team. This is to remind you what data you have saved and help you avoid deleting unsaved data. If there is data you wish to save, touch the Export button, save the data, then select Clear Stats.

On the new game screen, touch the Home Team or Visitor Team buttons to select a team. There are three options, plus a list of team names which is read from the Hoops Team List.

The New Team option allows you to create a new team roster from within Hoops. When this option is selected, a dialog asks for the team name. Then a screen very similar to the Memo Pad application on your Palm device appears. On the first line of the memo is the name you have selected for your team. On subsequent lines, enter the names of the players for the team, one player on each line. If you wish to use numbers, enter the numbers first on the line, then a space, then the player name. Hoops will sort the roster numerically and alphabetically when displaying names on the scoring screen. When you have entered all the players, touch done. If you choose to save the memo, it is added to your memo pad, and a new memo is created for you with a list of teams for Hoops. The next time you select a team name from the new game screen, the team you just created will be in the list.

The Other Memo option allows you to specify a memo pad memo name that is a Hoops Roster. If the roster is found it is used to set up the team and is added to the Hoops Team List.

The Default option tells Hoops to create a default roster for you. The roster will contain 12 players, numbered in numerical order from 80 through 91 if the home team, 60-71 if the visiting team. You are prompted for a team name. This is a quick way of setting up a team you are not interested in scoring in detail. It is also useful in creating a team for which you have no roster available. During game scoring you can use the rename function to correctly identify the players.

The other entries in the list are team names taken from the Hoops Team List.

After selecting the teams, you may change the default configuration for the new game by touching the "Change Defaults" button.

When you are done touch the "OK" button. The next two screens allow you to set the starting lineups of the two teams if you desire. By default, the first five players in the roster are listed as starters. You may simply dismiss these screens and configure the starting lineups later if you wish.

If you touch the cancel button, Hoops will create default rosters for both teams before exiting.

Scoring a Game

To record statistics simply tap the appropriate statistic and Hoops will "do the right thing". For example, if you tap the field goals made statistic for a player Hoops will increment the field goals made field, the field goals attempted field, update the total points for the player and update the game score line at the top of the screen. Tapping the field goals attempted field simply increments field goals attempted. The same method is used for entering free throws.

For three point goals, tapping the three point goals column pops up a list from which you select made or missed as appropriate. The three point goals column is updated, along with the points and score if "made" is selected.

The other three statistics columns (by default rebounds, assists and fouls) simply increment when tapped.

The rebounds stat is total rebounds and increments every time that a rebound-defined button is touched, but also is linked to the offensive rebounds stat such that when an offensive rebound is recorded, the rebounds stat also increments. This is the "normal" practice when reporting stats separately for offensive rebounds and rebounds in most newspapers. Hoops breaks out total rebounds, defensive and offensive rebounds in various statistics reports, but the default behavior in this version of Hoops is that the rebound stat displayed on the main screen or in the extended stats screen is total rebounds.

Extended Statistics

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Tapping the points field for a player pops up a dialog allowing you to record additional stats--blocks, turnovers, offensive rebounds, technicals and steals by default. This dialog shows the stats that are not displayed on the main screen, the totals of those stats for this player and the player's name.

To record a stat, touch the number for the stat or the name of the stat and Hoops will do the right thing. These stats behave identically to simple stats on the main screen, including the use of fix mode. This dialog is dismissed automatically when you touch a stat number. You can also dismiss it by touching the Cancel button.

Team fouls are recorded automatically and displayed on the bottom line of the screen using the notation "H-#" for the home team, displayed on the left, and "V-#" for the visiting team, displayed on the right. If you have set up the game properly using the configuration screen, Hoops will prompt you at the proper time to clear the team fouls. You may also clear team fouls manually using the Team Fouls menu item.

Bench Fouls

If you wish to add team fouls when you don't know the player to charge the foul to, select the menu item Bench Fouls. The dialog displayed allows you to record technical fouls charged to the bench, and increment team fouls without charging the foul to an individual player.

Since fix mode works in this screen, you can also use this to manually correct your team foul count if you find it inaccurate. Simply add team fouls if your count is too small, and use fix mode to decrement the count if it is too large.

Substitutions

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Tapping a team name on the main stat screen will display the substitutions screen for that team. The substitutions screen allows you to select via checkbox the players currently in the game. All players on the roster are shown on this screen. You can quickly clear the roster by using the Clear button.

The home team substitutions screen is also accessible by using the Calendar key (which is aligned under the home team fouls button). The visitor team substitutions screen is also accessible by using the Memo Pad key (which is aligned under the visitor team fouls button).

On the substitutions screen, touching the time button shows a report of playing time for each player for the current team. Note that playing time is displayed only in minutes in the unregistered version. Playing time is recorded and exported as a number of seconds played when you export data to the Memo Pad.

Pressing the clear button clears all the checkboxes. Sometimes this is the easiest way to handle mass substitutions.

Pressing the clk rst button resets the clock for the next period.

Pressing the rst play button resets the accumulated playing time for all players on the current team.

If you press "OK" and have selected fewer than five players, Hoops will warn you, but allow you to continue. If you have selected more than 5 players, you must deselect players until 5 or fewer are selected before Hoops will allow you to leave the screen. If you select fewer than 5 players, the main display for that team will have a blank player name and will not allow you to use QuickSub on that player. To add a player to the game you must use the Substitutions screen.

Quick Substitutions

Quick substitutions that replace one player with another may be made by touching the name of the player leaving the game. A list of all players on the team roster who are not playing is shown. Select the player that is going into the game and the team list will be redrawn in correct sorted order.

New Player is also a choice in this list. If you select New Player you can enter a player who is not currently on the roster. This player will be substituted for the player that was selected and the new player will be added to the roster. Since this requires rewriting the Hoops database, it will take a second or two.

The "Rename Player" choice allows you to change the name of the player selected. The change is recorded in the roster memo. No substitution is made in this case. Since this requires rewriting the Hoops database, it will take a second or two.

QuickButtons

The bottom line of the Hoops screen has a series of buttons that allow quick access to information and actions during a game. From left to right they are:

Home Team Foul Button

The Home Team Foul button shows the current number of home team fouls. Touching it allows you to reset the team fouls manually if desired.

Fix Mode

When you make the inevitable mistake in scorekeeping, Hoops allows you to correct it easily and at your convenience. As soon as possible following the error, select the fix mode button or press the Phone Book key. Fix mode is indicated by horizontal dotted lines drawn on the screen. When in fix mode, any stat button touched decrements that stat field and other appropriate fields instead of incrementing them. For example, touching the field goals made button decrements the field goals made field, the field goals attempted field, removes two points from the player's point total and two points from the teams point total. Very quick changes to mistakes may be made using fix mode to back out incorrect entries, then re-entering the correct data in normal mode. Fix mode also works in dialog boxes which have statistics such as the three-point goal list, the extended stats list selected from the points column and on the timeout screen and the bench fouls screen. To leave fix mode simply tap the fix mode button a second time.

Period Button

The period button is the third button from the left on the bottom line of the screen. It shows the current period number. Touching the period button allows you to reset the clock.

Clock

The game clock is displayed in the middle of the bottom line of the screen. The clock may be operated by touching the clock display with the stylus, or using either the page up or page down buttons on the handheld. When the display is touched or one of these buttons pressed, the clock behaves like a stopwatch--if stopped it is started, if started it is stopped. When the clock is running, it is highlighted in inverse video.

Game Summary

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Touching the Game button or the ToDo key brings up the game summary screen which allows you to access specific statistics on a team or player basis, view the period-by-period score and compare statistics using the statistics comparison window. The period-by-period score changes format to properly display two-period or four-period games and adds up to two overtime periods if necessary. The current period and time remaining in the current period are shown on the title line.

The team name buttons on the top line allow selection of a particular statistic to be displayed for that team in a separate scrollable window. The Players button brings up a list allowing you to select the team you wish, and then a list of players on that team. Selecting a player will bring up a scrollable window with that player's statistics.

The team names also appear on the compare button below the line score. In the center of this button is the stat currently displayed in the scrollable statistics comparison window below. By default the comparison shown is team statistics. To change the statistic displayed, touch the comparison button and a list of available statistics is presented. Each statistic, when selected will display as a comparison between the two teams or players on the teams in the window below.

The Bench Fouls, Team Fouls, and Time Outs windows are accessible as menu items on the Game Summary screen.

Visitor Team Foul Button

The visitor team foul button shows the current number of visitor team fouls. Touching it allows you to reset the team fouls manually if desired.

Team Fouls

The Team Fouls screen is displayed by using the Team Fouls menu item. Total team fouls for each team are displayed. To clear team fouls at the appropriate time, touch the "clear" button in the team fouls box. If you have set up the configuration properly, Hoops will prompt you at the appropriate time to clear team fouls.

If your team foul count is inaccurate during a game, you can fix it using the Bench Fouls menu item in combination with fix mode.

Time Outs

Access the time out screen through the Time Out menu item. To record a timeout, touch the appropriate type of timeout for the team.

Timeouts may be configured on the configuration screen. When an overtime period is entered, Hoops will prompt you for the proper number of timeouts for the overtime. Fix mode also works on the time out screen, allowing you to correct any errors.

Possession Arrow

The possession arrow is the small arrow between the home team's score and the visiting team's name. Touching either the home team name or the visiting team name on the score line will toggle the arrow to point the opposite direction.

Technical Fouls

Individual technical fouls are entered as extended stats by touching the "Pt" column and selecting "technical". Bench technical fouls are entered by using the Bench Fouls menu item. A dialog is shown that allows recording bench technical fouls. This dialog also allows the recording of additional team fouls if you don't know the individual player who committed the foul.

Overtime

Hoops will automatically go into overtime if the clock is reset and the period is greater than the configured number of periods per game. The overtime dialog allows setting the clock to the time for the overtime period, and buttons are available to set the number of full and 30-second timeouts for the overtime period. Hoops will handle up to 4 overtime periods. After that point, all subsequent scores are simply added to the fourth overtime period. The first two overtime periods are displayed on the Game Summary screen. Overtimes three and four are stored, but not displayed.

Customizing the View

On the main screen, the default listing includes FG, FGA, FT, FTA, TH (dialog for made or missed), R, A, F and PT. The extended stats listed when the points (Pt) column is touched are are offensive rebounds, steals, turnovers, blocks and technicals. The non-shooting stats may be customized by touching the column header and selecting the stat to be displayed in that column. For example, touching the 'R' column header pops up a list of statistics. The statistic you select becomes the statistic displayed and recorded in that column. When you change the displayed statistics, the list presented when you touch the points column is also changed so that it displays only those statistics not listed in other columns. The technical fouls statistic cannot be listed in a column.

When you select a statistic to be displayed, you can select a statistic already displayed in another column. When you do this, Hoops will swap the two columns. This is a quick way to move stats from column to column.

Configuration

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The configuration screen allows you to modify various aspects of the game to coincide with differing rules. The options are:

  1. Period Time: Set the number of minutes in each period.
  2. Periods per Game: Set the number of periods per game. This affects when overtime is entered, and the display on the game summary screen.
  3. Full Timeouts: Set the number of full timeouts for the game.
  4. 30-Second Timeouts: Set the number of 30-second timeouts for the game.
  5. Team Fouls Reset at Period: Set this value to the period which, when entered, requires resetting the team foul count. For example, in most four-period games, set this to 3 to get a reminder to reset team fouls at the beginning of period 3.
  6. Team Fouls for Penalty: Set this to the number of team fouls required for a one-and-one penalty. When the teams fouls for a team reach this number, Hoops will advise you that the other team is now in the penalty situation.
  7. Team Fouls for Double Penalty: Set this to the number of team fouls required for a two shot penalty. When the teams fouls for a team reach this number, Hoops will advise you that the other team is now in the double penalty situation. If your league does not have a double penalty, you can effectively disable this warning by entering a very large number (99 for example).
  8. Foul Out: Set this to the number of personal fouls allowed a player before the player is disqualified. Hoops will advise you when a player has fouled out on personal fouls.
  9. Technical Foul Out: Set this to the number of technical fouls allowed a player before the player is disqualified. Hoops will advise you when a player has fouled out on technical fouls.

Export Statistics

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The Export menu item brings up the Export Statistics screen which allows you to export statistics for the current game to a CSV or tab format Memo.

Select a team and a format, then press Export Data to export the data.

The CSV Memo selection will export the data to a Memo Pad memo in CSV format suitable for importing into Excel or another spreadsheet.

The TAB Memo selection will export the data to a Memo Pad memo in TAB delimited format suitable for importing into Excel or another spreadsheet. This is particularly useful for Apple users.

Other Features

  1. If you begin scoring a game late, you can manually modify the score by touching the appropriate score on the top line of the Hoops screen.

Menu Functions

Tapping on the Hoops title or touching the menu silk button drops down the hoops menu:

Hoops Menu

  1. Bench Fouls--Manage technical fouls charged to the bench and team fouls.
  2. Time Outs--Manage timeouts.
  3. Team Fouls--Display and clear team fouls.
  4. About--A dialog box giving basic information about Hoops.
  5. Quit--quit the application.

Game Menu

  1. Clear Game--All stats in the existing game are cleared. Player names and team names are not changed.
  2. New Game--The existing game is cleared and the new game screen is presented to allow you to select teams.
  3. Export Game--Show the Export screen to save the statistics for this game.

Options Menu

  1. Configure--Bring up the configuration screen which allows setting of various default values for Hoops.
  2. Register--Pops up the registration dialog. Enter your registration code to enable the full functionality of Hoops.

Tips

Don't try to do too much--besides being fun, scoring basketball is difficult, requires concentration and a good memory. Or else a really good spotter and the willingness to miss all the action while you enter stats! Watch the flow of the game and get good at remembering sequences of actions. Made shots are easy, but sequences of missed shots and rebounds are difficult. Watch and try to remember, then enter the data when the shot is finally made, or possession changes.

To start with, score only one team. For the second team, if you score, just score shooting and use only one player--this gives you team stats, which can be informative. Remember you can ignore foul out warnings.

  1. Configure fouls as an extended stat. There is a lot of time when a foul is called to update the foul using extended stats, and a quick summary of fouls can be obtained by touching the Game Summary button and selecting fouls.
  2. Build your rosters well before game time. Set up the starters at introduction time using the Substitutions screen. If you have to enter the roster at the game, you will be pressed for time. Barring that, take advantage of the default rosters for setup and rename the players when you know their numbers.
  3. On substitutions, use QuickSub when substituting one or two players, use the substitution screen when mass substitutions are made. Take advantage of the clear button on the substitution screen to sub everyone out, then add the players who are in.

Remember, when you use Hoops, all the other fans at the game will be envious, and will continually ask you for stats during the game.

Known Bugs and Undocumented Features

  1. If you exit Hoops using the application silk button while in the substitutions screen, when you re-enter Hoops, all the players for the team you were substituting will be out of the game (the names will be blank in the main screen). To fix this, simply touch the team name and enter your players.
  2. If you make changes to the stats which affect scoring using fix mode, Hoops will decrement the current quarter score appropriately. If the stat you are fixing actually occurred in a previous quarter, then the quarter scores displayed by Hoops in the game summary will be incorrect. The total score and stats are all correct. You can actually cause a negative quarter score to be displayed by doing this.

    To avoid this problem, try to verify your stats during the quarter break before you reset the clock to change periods.

    In a future version of Hoops, a post-game editing feature will be added to allow this type of correction.

Acknowledgments

Hoops was developed using PocketC from Orbworks and PToolBoxLib from Joe Stadolnik III.

Enhancements/Suggestions?

If you have suggestions for improvements to Hoops, please email tbrown.tthkbw.verizon.net.