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Pickup basketball team generator

Stop arguing about teams at the gym. Paste who showed up and we'll split fair sides — random or balanced by skill.

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Use case

When to use this

Open gym, lunchtime hoops, college dorm runs, and weekly social leagues. Works for 3-on-3, 4-on-4 and 5-on-5 — set the people-per-team mode if you want fixed-size squads instead of two big sides.

How to use it

Step by step

  1. 1

    Paste names

  2. 2

    Pick mode

    Two sides or 3-on-3.

  3. 3

    Generate

Switch modes for 3-on-3

If you have 6, 9 or 12 players, switch the mode to "people per team" with 3, and the generator makes balanced 3s. Run a quick king-of-the-court rotation with the resulting list.

Balance for level gaps

Rate each regular 1–5 once. Paste the same list every week and the balanced mode keeps games close even when a varsity player joins.

Why a generic generator works for this audience

There's a temptation to think a sport-specific or classroom-specific tool would be 'better' than a generic generator. In practice the opposite is true: the rules of fair team-splitting are the same whether you're dividing a Year 7 PE class or a Sunday-league football squad. What changes between audiences is the framing — the language used in the guide, the typical group size, the kinds of ratings people record. The underlying maths (Fisher–Yates shuffle, snake-draft balancing) is identical. That's why this site uses one generator across many audience-specific pages: the same engine, with copy and presets tuned to the context.

Save your roster between sessions

If you'll regenerate teams from the same roster repeatedly — every Tuesday training, every Friday game night — paste the names once, click 'Copy as text', and save the result in a note app or a pinned message. Next session, paste it back. There's no account system to maintain and nothing to forget; the names live wherever you keep your other notes. For coaches managing multiple squads, prefix each name with a one-letter squad tag (e.g. 'A Alex', 'B Sam') and use the filter step to keep only the relevant tag before generating.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can I bracket the games?

Yes — use the bracket maker to seed a quick king-of-the-court tournament from the generated teams.

Is it appropriate to use this with under-18s?

Yes. The generator doesn't ask for personal information, doesn't display ads inside the tool itself, and runs entirely client-side. Many teachers use it weekly. See the trust and safety page for the full position on under-16 use.

Can I export the roster to a spreadsheet?

Yes — the 'Export CSV' button gives you a two-column file (team, name) that opens cleanly in Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers. From there you can pivot, filter, or merge with attendance records.

What if someone arrives late?

Add their name to the textarea and regenerate. If you want to preserve the existing teams and just slot the latecomer in, use the 'Add to smallest team' shortcut instead of regenerating — it places them on whichever team currently has the fewest members.

Keep exploring

Related tools & guides

Ready to run your event?

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