The purpose of this study was to determine the sources of information coaches use to develop expectations for athlete ability. Results revealed that Division I head basketball coaches (n=70) rely predominately on psychological factors when evaluating athletes (n=186). There were no significant differences between the sources of information used by successful and less successful coaches. A significant degree of congruence was discovered between coach and athlete perceptions of the evaluation criteria used on successful teams, but not on less successful teams. Athletes' perceptions of their coach's evaluation criteria served to predict team success. It was determined that differences in team success are more dependent on the coach's ability to communicate expectations than the actual criteria used to form expectations.
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