Plan a football to basketball conversion practice.  Review all of your cheers, replacing football lingo with basketball terminology.  Change "touchdown" to "basket," "first down" to "rebound," "field" to "court," and "six points" to "two points."   Here are some ideas from this summer's material to get you started:

• Get that ball Get Tough Cats X Get that Ball X
• Take that Ball  X Down that Court X Basket X Go Dragons
• Bounce X Bounce to the Hoop Tigers X Shoot Two
• Defense X Get Tough X Steal that Ball
• We Want a Basket Knights Score Central Score X

Do a gym walk-through.  Plan where you're going to stand to make a tunnel and make some run-through signs for the team.  Mark where you are going to stand for the player's introductions, and explain to new team members how your squad shows spirit for each player (i.e. jumps, stunts, tumbling).   The opening line-up/player intros can be a great place to get the crowd conditioned to join in on a "catchy" clap with you.  Once the announcer has finished with the opposing team's starting five, start your clap (X, X, XX-X).  You can clap in spirit lines or you can synchronize stunts for your starting five players.  Either way, you can continue the clap in your stunts since they should be EASY stunts that you can successfully perform while leading the crowd (chairs, shoulder stands, shoulder straddles, extensions).

Quarter/half-time cheers.  Use signs and make them very crowd-oriented.  Practice spacing yourselves to maximize crowd coverage.  This is a great time to use your competition cheer.  It's okay if your crowd has already seen it.  The more the crowd sees it, the better they'll know the cheer, and the more likely they'll yell with you!

Timeouts.  First of all, the squad needs to address the whole timeout.  The timeout begins with the whistle and ends with the whistle.  It's smart to go with the whistles and your team.  For example, the whistle blows and the official motions that it is a full timeout.  The teams head to the bench and the cheer team takes the floor with the band playing.  Remain on the floor until the whistle blows calling the teams back onto the floor.  Except if the home team leaves the timeout early and returns to the floor, then the cheerleaders should head back to the sideline at that time.

Develop a "general" philosophy on point spread and what type of timeout it warrants.  If the game is within ten points, only do "green and gold" timeouts (something very traditional).  Leave a core group on the floor to begin the sidelines and have others move into the crowd and follow along.  If it's a blow-out, do a lot of fun timeouts (YMCA, Dr.Who, etc.).  For all other situations, the timeout depends on the game and what is going on (defense or offense). 

"Green and Gold" Timeouts -- Your Traditional Timeouts

Make sure you are spread out and facing every direction in your arena.  Use the entire floor.  If you have a dance team, incorporate them into what you are doing.  This is the ideal time to perform your school's fight song.  Establish a set routine for the fight song with motions and easy stunts to lead the crowd with.  Learn the words to the fight song and sing them along with the music.  

Some timeouts are longer than some songs, so you may need to do at least two things for every timeout.  Immediately after the fight song ends, always do a specific "crowd-oriented" sideline.  Establish set places to go during that sideline along with certain stunts.  If you're using signs, remember you'll always need to bring them onto the floor before the fight song.

Don't alter this routine.  The fight song and this particular sideline always go together!  Condition the crowd by this repitition.  There should be no thinking involved for the crowd.  They will begin to learn that the two are attached.  Think up a couple more "green and gold" timeouts with this same format.  Use the same combination of fight song/sideline or band chant/sideline each time.

Another great timeout idea is running flags.  Flags can go at just about any time during a timeout, but it's usually best to send the flags as soon as the timeout starts so you don't have to worry about running into players that are re-entering the court at the end of the timeout.  Run the flags down the court and then back to the center, wave them at the center, and then exit the floor.

Have your coach ask the basketball coach what your state's sports association's policy is on how close you can be to the court and when you can cheer.  This shows your genuine interest in the players and the team by making sure nothing you do will cause a penalty against your team.  Then tailor how you cheer to your state's rules.

Don't forget to assign new cheerleader/player buddies for locker decorations, candy bags, etc. The basketball players often get overlooked at the beginning of the season because football season isn't quite over yet!