sunday college hoops

**FlyersFan** · 02-08-2009, 01:05 PM

GL!...i have to tell you, though, that i am a home court guy myself but it really isn't the factor that you are making it out to be. It is really incredible to see the amount of road teams that are winning big matchups this year and it doesn't matter the conference. Home court still matters but not the way it used to. The Pac10 has been a road team's dream this year. GL!

**COACH DITKA** · 02-08-2009, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by FlyersFan

GL!...i have to tell you, though, that i am a home court guy myself but it really isn't the factor that you are making it out to be. It is really incredible to see the amount of road teams that are winning big matchups this year and it doesn't matter the conference. Home court still matters but not the way it used to. The Pac10 has been a road team's dream this year. GL!

I have to agree w/you for the most part here FF. However, it definitely depends on the team and the conference. Although it hasn't panned out this year like in years past, the B10 has always been a traditional homecourt advantage league. MSU had won 30-something straight before that was snapped by NU this year. Wisky had lost only 4 home games in 8 years under Bo Ratface Ryan. Illinois has 1 home loss this year (2 points to Clemson, a game they should have won) and throwing out last year, only averaged about 1 loss/year and earlier in the decade I know we had won 57 of 59 or something like that. Outside of the yearly bottom-feeders, it is tough to win on the road in the B10 and I'd say the fans are a big reason why. Some of the top student sections in the nation are in the conference like the Izzone, Orange Krush, Paint Crew, etc.
In other conferences, I will agree that the homecourt advantage isn't as strong. Still, at places like Cameron Indoor, Joyce Center, the Dean Dome, etc, wins are hard to come by for visiting teams. Regardless of how good a team is and having the home court behind them, there is too much unpredictability and any given team can lose on any given day.
Mid-majors are another category too, I think though. A lot of times when a mid-major can sustain conference dominance for a 4-6 year period or so, it's easy to pile up home wins. The stadiums are usually small enough to fill up on a nightly basis with students (as it's the popular thing to do on campus) and the local townsfolk. (I spose this is really true for schools w/o football teams - Marquette comes to mind - or where football wasn't big until recently - UCONN rings a bell. Neither are mid-majors but needed the evidence for that off-topic point). For these schools, SIU (early-mid 2000s), Utah, Butler, Gonzaga, Davidson, Creighton, etc, it's easier to rack up longer winning streaks. Defend home court during conference play and that's 8-10 wins/year. Then you have maybe a half dozen more home games against teams that are most likely inferior to you. Traditional powerhouses do not want to travel into these landmines. If anything, it will be a home-and-home, with the "home" for the mid-major being at a neutral site near campus but not actually on their home court.
With all that being said, I actually have no idea what I've just blabbered about. Still, like I mentioned earlier, it depends on the team and conference but I do see what you're saying as it seems like home court has been less of a factor this year than in years past. Just my two cents, although that's about four to five cents worth I think.

Moose

**FlyersFan** · 02-08-2009, 08:12 PM

Originally posted by COACH DITKA

I have to agree w/you for the most part here FF. However, it definitely depends on the team and the conference. Although it hasn't panned out this year like in years past, the B10 has always been a traditional homecourt advantage league. MSU had won 30-something straight before that was snapped by NU this year. Wisky had lost only 4 home games in 8 years under Bo Ratface Ryan. Illinois has 1 home loss this year (2 points to Clemson, a game they should have won) and throwing out last year, only averaged about 1 loss/year and earlier in the decade I know we had won 57 of 59 or something like that. Outside of the yearly bottom-feeders, it is tough to win on the road in the B10 and I'd say the fans are a big reason why. Some of the top student sections in the nation are in the conference like the Izzone, Orange Krush, Paint Crew, etc.
In other conferences, I will agree that the homecourt advantage isn't as strong. Still, at places like Cameron Indoor, Joyce Center, the Dean Dome, etc, wins are hard to come by for visiting teams. Regardless of how good a team is and having the home court behind them, there is too much unpredictability and any given team can lose on any given day.
Mid-majors are another category too, I think though. A lot of times when a mid-major can sustain conference dominance for a 4-6 year period or so, it's easy to pile up home wins. The stadiums are usually small enough to fill up on a nightly basis with students (as it's the popular thing to do on campus) and the local townsfolk. (I spose this is really true for schools w/o football teams - Marquette comes to mind - or where football wasn't big until recently - UCONN rings a bell. Neither are mid-majors but needed the evidence for that off-topic point). For these schools, SIU (early-mid 2000s), Utah, Butler, Gonzaga, Davidson, Creighton, etc, it's easier to rack up longer winning streaks. Defend home court during conference play and that's 8-10 wins/year. Then you have maybe a half dozen more home games against teams that are most likely inferior to you. Traditional powerhouses do not want to travel into these landmines. If anything, it will be a home-and-home, with the "home" for the mid-major being at a neutral site near campus but not actually on their home court.
With all that being said, I actually have no idea what I've just blabbered about. Still, like I mentioned earlier, it depends on the team and conference but I do see what you're saying as it seems like home court has been less of a factor this year than in years past. Just my two cents, although that's about four to five cents worth I think.

Moose

exactly. MSU has 2 home losses in the last 2 weeks. WIS lost a huge game last year at home to Purdue at the end of the season and they have lost twice in the big 10 already this year. PSU has 2 home conference losses, Michigan has 2 home conference losses....all upper echelon big10 teams (excpet WIS but as you mentioned they have had the strongest home court of all for a while). I have long played home teams in the MVC but even that conference is on longer a shoe in. Look at Creighton going to UNI today.

And as i mentioned, i can't even begin to name all the road wins for Pac10 schools. ASU has 5 of them in conference themselves.....Washington has 5 conference road wins too, Cal 2, UCLA 4 conference road wins.........

Home court still matters, but not the way it used to and i was starting to see that even last year.

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