Final answer:
The scrimmage held by a basketball coach to evaluate and provide feedback for players before a game is considered a formative assessment because it is meant to guide improvement leading up to the final assessment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The use of a scrimmage before the important game is best seen as b) A formative assessment. A formative assessment is an approach to gauging student understanding by providing ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. In the context of the basketball scrimmage, the coach is using the exercise as an opportunity to observe and evaluate how players might perform under pressure and to inform decisions about the starting lineup for the game next week.
This is a formative process as it is aimed at enhancing developing skills and abilities ahead of the final evaluation, which would be the actual league game where performance results in a definitive outcome. In contrast, a summative assessment is a conclusive evaluation at the end of an instructional period, usually to measure what has been learned, and it is not intended for feedback and improvement during the learning process.