What's so bad about a road game?

[rocketeli]

I’ve been thinking about this road game thing. Sometimes we seem to focus on the crowd aspect, which is natural as human beings tend to relate to what they have known and experienced, but I’m going the put forth a proposition:

Resolved: The “crowd” is the LEAST important part of the road trip disadvantage/home team advantage.

Coach K knows this—that is why (along with the financial aspect) he prefers to play at neutral/playoff sites to prepare for the NCAAs.

Do we really believe that some one who is basically a professional, who has been playing basketball since they were a toddler, is really intimidated by some drunken, shirtless guy yelling and shaking his paint splattered moobs in the tenth row? As someone who has played on a school team, I think all players appreciate fan support for whichever team, but it’s not really scary or distracting. In fact, players who feed of off crowd noise tend to do it regardless of whether it is directed at them or another team.

Of course you won’t hear any coach or administrator admitting this in public, as they have very good reasons for wanting to encourage the fans to come to the games beyond any actual influence on the outcome. So if you look in the sports media, you’ll find tons of quotes about how important crowds are. Coach K is a coaching genius, and like all geniuses exhibits incredible attention to detail, so he is always encourages fans to come to the games, because it pays for the program, generates buzz for recruits and the national media, makes it more fun for both the team and fans, and looks good on TV. So I’m not saying that the team doesn’t really appreciate fans.

So why is it a disadvantage to play an away game?

First, travel. Even with charter flights etc., travel is still disruptive and tiring. You can’t sleep in your own bed, eat where you usually eat, you have to pack, you have to sit around and wait, flying is physically tiring, there may be time zone changes, your roommate at the hotel snores and so on. I think we’ve all travelled enough to know how it is.

Second, and most important, the unfamiliar gym. Unfamiliarity weighs on human beings in general, of course, but it’s more than that. It’s the shape and composition of the backboard, how the lines are marked on the court, the kind of court surface used, the background behind the basket, the temperature, and the lighting.

The more of a virtuoso you are at something the more the little things mean. If you told someone who had been taking violin lessons for six months they had to use a different violin, they wouldn’t care. If you told Durham native Nicholas Kitchen he had to use a different violin before a performance, there probably wouldn’t even be a performance. He would be unable to function adequately. The kind of backboard, etc., might not impact us, but for a high level division one basketball player, it’s a very meaningful factor.

I’m thinking that if you think these differences in lighting and so on are random, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in. All coaching staffs give a great deal of thought to how they can push the differences at home to give them the best advantage there, without making their team completely useless on an away court.

The need to counteract the unfamiliarity (the most important road factor) is why Coach K likes games at potential playoff sites. He’s hoping to mitigate this effect come March.

Another road factor may be refereeing, but as I haven’t seen any NCAA statistical/numerical breakdown on calls at home and away between evenly matched teams (at the upper echelon of Div I many home games are against cupcakes, so the away team gets called for more fouls because they aren’t very good) to verify this. Does anyone out there have this information? I know it has been suggested that referees may be influenced by home crowds.

So there could be some crowd influence, but it is the least important factor in creating any road/home differential.

Let the rebuttals begin!

[CDu]

I think you are missing the part of the "crowd" that matters. No, players aren't going to be scared playing in opposing gyms. But where the crowd DOES have an influence is in energizing the home team. When momentum starts to swing in favor of the home team, the home crowd cheering their team's success adds extra emphasis to the positive moments for the home team, and gives them extra energy. It can affect the road team by emphasizing their struggles, and may add nerves to the mix.

I think your other factors are certainly factors as well. But don't completely discount the crowd impact.

[richardjackson199]

Have you ever been to a game in Cameron? Have you ever seen our team feed off our crowd and go on a mind-numbing run? The momentum is palpable. Opposing coaches know it which is why they wisely try to call time-out (except Roy) to stop that crowd-escalating momentum phenomenon before it spirals out of control. Not all away venues are created equal.
But playing an away game at a place like Cameron, the enthusiastic students courtside are the most important factor, not the least. It helps explain our nonconference win-streak and overwhelming record in Cameron under K. A few opposing rivals have been able to figure out Cameron's crowd (like Gary Williams because he was a great coach or Hansbrough and Lawson because they were so good), but not many.

I respectfully disagree with your premise.

[Bluedog]

You make some good points, but I do think the crowd seems to have influence on the outcome of the game in basketball considerably more than other sports. Whether that is getting into the psyche of players, influencing refs, or a combination of factors, I'm not sure. I agree with the posters above that the players feed off the energy the home crowd provides and serves as a great motivator. It doesn't only happen in college as home court in the playoffs in the NBA is huge, especially when you compare it to the NFL (minimal effect) and MLB (almost no difference despite the fact the field has different dimensons!).

Obviously, NBA guys aren't intimidated by crowds or tired from travel, they're professionals and have done it a lot. So, what is it? I agree the familiarity with sight lines and the background may have some effect, but I personally think in addition to the motivating factor mentioned above that basketball refs truly are a bit influenced by the crowd (they're only human and it's hard to not subconsciously want to please 20,000 people yelling). Refs in basketball can truly influence a game, more so than in football or baseball. It's an interesting question; you can't deny that winning on the road in conference play is much more difficult than winning at home. I'd be curious to see NBA winning percentages at home during the regular season vs. playoffs to see if more intense crowds has any affect.

Here are the foul differential numbers for home vs. away teams for various college refs this season (obviously, not evenly matched teams).http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees/stats?id=largest_home_margin&min=10&season=2013&submit=Go

[dukelifer]

I think you are missing the part of the "crowd" that matters. No, players aren't going to be scared playing in opposing gyms. But where the crowd DOES have an influence is in energizing the home team. When momentum starts to swing in favor of the home team, the home crowd cheering their team's success adds extra emphasis to the positive moments for the home team, and gives them extra energy. It can affect the road team by emphasizing their struggles, and may add nerves to the mix.

I think your other factors are certainly factors as well. But don't completely discount the crowd impact.

I agree. A crowd can energize a team particularly on D and can certainly help when a team needs to come back from a deficit. Intimidation is less of a an issue- too much can actually serve to fuel an opposing team. But experienced teams understand how to self motivate and stay focused. We will see how the team performs today.

[weezie]

...the unfamiliar gym...

Arguably the most important factor. During the MSG games, all teams seemed to slip on the same spot, just to the side of the away basket, most probably from the ice underneath the court, despite the insulating layers. So, every court has it's quirks.

And remember the cheer, circa The JJ Years, "Fix the Rim!!!" lots of give in the tightness of different rims.

As to not being able to sleep well, I've never known a teen-aged-young 20's-man who couldn't fall asleep at the drop of a hat. They're like cats. Sleeping like it's their job, for crying out loud.

[OldPhiKap]

The crowd is definitely a factor in college sports.

As for the gym, manyh ave said that your perception is thrown off at Cameron -- the court looks and feels smaller becase the students are right on top of you.

[DBFAN]

I’ve been thinking about this road game thing. Sometimes we seem to focus on the crowd aspect, which is natural as human beings tend to relate to what they have known and experienced, but I’m going the put forth a proposition:

Resolved: The “crowd” is the LEAST important part of the road trip disadvantage/home team advantage.

Coach K knows this—that is why (along with the financial aspect) he prefers to play at neutral/playoff sites to prepare for the NCAAs.

Do we really believe that some one who is basically a professional, who has been playing basketball since they were a toddler, is really intimidated by some drunken, shirtless guy yelling and shaking his paint splattered moobs in the tenth row? As someone who has played on a school team, I think all players appreciate fan support for whichever team, but it’s not really scary or distracting. In fact, players who feed of off crowd noise tend to do it regardless of whether it is directed at them or another team.



Of course you won’t hear any coach or administrator admitting this in public, as they have very good reasons for wanting to encourage the fans to come to the games beyond any actual influence on the outcome. So if you look in the sports media, you’ll find tons of quotes about how important crowds are. Coach K is a coaching genius, and like all geniuses exhibits incredible attention to detail, so he is always encourages fans to come to the games, because it pays for the program, generates buzz for recruits and the national media, makes it more fun for both the team and fans, and looks good on TV. So I’m not saying that the team doesn’t really appreciate fans.

So why is it a disadvantage to play an away game?

First, travel. Even with charter flights etc., travel is still disruptive and tiring. You can’t sleep in your own bed, eat where you usually eat, you have to pack, you have to sit around and wait, flying is physically tiring, there may be time zone changes, your roommate at the hotel snores and so on. I think we’ve all travelled enough to know how it is.

Second, and most important, the unfamiliar gym. Unfamiliarity weighs on human beings in general, of course, but it’s more than that. It’s the shape and composition of the backboard, how the lines are marked on the court, the kind of court surface used, the background behind the basket, the temperature, and the lighting.

The more of a virtuoso you are at something the more the little things mean. If you told someone who had been taking violin lessons for six months they had to use a different violin, they wouldn’t care. If you told Durham native Nicholas Kitchen he had to use a different violin before a performance, there probably wouldn’t even be a performance. He would be unable to function adequately. The kind of backboard, etc., might not impact us, but for a high level division one basketball player, it’s a very meaningful factor.

I’m thinking that if you think these differences in lighting and so on are random, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in. All coaching staffs give a great deal of thought to how they can push the differences at home to give them the best advantage there, without making their team completely useless on an away court.

The need to counteract the unfamiliarity (the most important road factor) is why Coach K likes games at potential playoff sites. He’s hoping to mitigate this effect come March.

Another road factor may be refereeing, but as I haven’t seen any NCAA statistical/numerical breakdown on calls at home and away between evenly matched teams (at the upper echelon of Div I many home games are against cupcakes, so the away team gets called for more fouls because they aren’t very good) to verify this. Does anyone out there have this information? I know it has been suggested that referees may be influenced by home crowds.

So there could be some crowd influence, but it is the least important factor in creating any road/home differential.

Let the rebuttals begin!

I just found the part about the violinist to be interesting. As someone who makes their living playing an Instrument in the Legit and Commercial world, I have always found this to be true, but only for certain types of instruments. Mainly you see that with Pianist, Strings, and certain wood winds, mainly Clarinets, and double reeds. Usually this is because the environment itself can change the reliability of the instrument itself. Brass players, Percussion, and other wood winds aren't usually affected (effected?) by it that much. Of course it is also fascinating to take a look at the general behaviors (psychology) of instrumentalist themselves. Brass players seem to be more of an Alpha personalities while other will be Divas, or reclusive. What I'm getting at here, is that the personalities of the people on the team, some will thrive in environments that are not comfortable, while others will thrive only in places that are comfortable to them.

[Duvall]

A: The money you don't get.

[Olympic Fan]

Another road factor may be refereeing, but as I haven’t seen any NCAA statistical/numerical breakdown on calls at home and away between evenly matched teams (at the upper echelon of Div I many home games are against cupcakes, so the away team gets called for more fouls because they aren’t very good) to verify this. Does anyone out there have this information? I know it has been suggested that referees may be influenced by home crowds.


Can't find it now, but the ACC Sports Journal ran an officiating story about 5-6 years ago that tracked fouls called in ACC games over a 10-year period from the mid-1990s to just before expansion -- an era when every team played a balanced home and home schedule. Matching home games against road games the studied showed that home teams have a significant foul differential against the same opponents on the road ... again, I'm doing this from memory, but I think it was an average of plus-four fouls a game.

Just as a check, I looked at the five ACC teams we played home and home last year: in the five home games, we were plus 15 (meaning our opponents were called for 15 more fouls than Duke) ... in our five road games, we were minus-eight ... a 23-foul differential. Obviously, some of that is based on the way the games went, but that's a pretty large differential ... and seems to confirm what I remember of the 10-year study of all ACC teams.

I wish I could find the original study, but I think the evidence is there that home crowds do impact officiating.

[Troublemaker]

I’ve been thinking about this road game thing. Sometimes we seem to focus on the crowd aspect, which is natural as human beings tend to relate to what they have known and experienced, but I’m going the put forth a proposition:

Resolved: The “crowd” is the LEAST important part of the road trip disadvantage/home team advantage.

Coach K knows this—that is why (along with the financial aspect) he prefers to play at neutral/playoff sites to prepare for the NCAAs.


Hey rocketeli, I agree with your post. One nit would be that Coach K schedules those MSG and New Jersey games in large part for money.

But yes, your main contention, that the crowd impact is the least important aspect of homecourt advantage...I agree with totally.

If homecourt advantage is worth 4 points, the crowd will represent about 0.5 points of that, I'd estimate. And the other factors you mentioned -- sleeping in your own bed, familiar sightlines, familiar routine on gameday -- make up the other 3.5 points.

The crowd factor can vary wildly though. Sometimes in important games, a crowd and a team can really connect and they can help will the team to victory. UNC at Cameron in '98 might be an example of that. In that game, crowd factor was probably much greater than 0.5 points.

But, on average, I would agree. Now if there was only a way to prove this theory. I mean, teams aren't going to forgo selling tickets just to test an experiment of playing in an empty gym. Teams aren't going to tell a paying crowd to stay silent for an experiment, and the paying crowd would not listen anyway. We'll probably never really know.

[OldPhiKap]

Hey rocketeli, I agree with your post. One nit would be that Coach K schedules those MSG and New Jersey games in large part for money.

.

I think the bigger reason is that they are frequent tournament venues and he wants the kids to get experience playing in them.

[Reilly]

... I wish I could find the original study, but I think the evidence is there that home crowds do impact officiating.

Isnt' that conclusion the takeaway from that "Scorecasting" book?

[uh_no]

one thing I do not see being mentioned is the ball....there are some 7 legal balls in the NCAA, and they all have different feels, bounces, grips, seam widths and depths (etc)....schools keep versions of all the balls around to practice before heading out (especially the one used in the tournament which I think is wilson)

there was a great article i read a couple years ago discussing the impact and how the players are very cognizant of the differences, but I can't seem to find it now...

nike
adidas
wilson
the rock
underarmour

[Bluedog]

Yep, here's the article. Wisconsin is the only team in the country that uses Sterling.
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/is-home-court-advantage-really-about-the-ball/?_r=0

one thing I do not see being mentioned is the ball....there are some 7 legal balls in the NCAA, and they all have different feels, bounces, grips, seam widths and depths (etc)....schools keep versions of all the balls around to practice before heading out (especially the one used in the tournament which I think is wilson)

there was a great article i read a couple years ago discussing the impact and how the players are very cognizant of the differences, but I can't seem to find it now...

nike
adidas
wilson
the rock
underarmour

[Indoor66]

Yep, here's the article. Wisconsin is the only team in the country that uses Sterling.
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/is-home-court-advantage-really-about-the-ball/?_r=0

Yeah. That is because it is the only ball that goes "thud" when it hits the court. :cool:

[sagegrouse]

Yeah. That is because it is the only ball that goes "thud" when it hits the court. :cool:

Oh.... That explains the problem that Duke had playing at Wisconsin in the 2009-2010 season. It was the ball that was "alarmingly unathletic."

sage

[Newton_14]

one thing I do not see being mentioned is the ball....there are some 7 legal balls in the NCAA, and they all have different feels, bounces, grips, seam widths and depths (etc)....schools keep versions of all the balls around to practice before heading out (especially the one used in the tournament which I think is wilson)

there was a great article i read a couple years ago discussing the impact and how the players are very cognizant of the differences, but I can't seem to find it now...

nike
adidas
wilson
the rock
underarmour
Thanks for sharing this. I actually thought one of the ACC or NCAA standardized on one common ball several years back but I guess my memory failed me again. Duke for example used to use a very dark ball back in the 90's. Not sure of the brand but remember the leather being much darker than the ball other teams used. I thought that went out with a common ball, but maybe it was just our switch to Nike instead?

[Edouble]

Thanks for sharing this. I actually thought one of the ACC or NCAA standardized on one common ball several years back but I guess my memory failed me again. Duke for example used to use a very dark ball back in the 90's. Not sure of the brand but remember the leather being much darker than the ball other teams used. I thought that went out with a common ball, but maybe it was just our switch to Nike instead?

I loved that ball. Looked like such a soft, shooter's ball.

[FerryFor50]

I loved that ball. Looked like such a soft, shooter's ball.

It was the Wilson Solution, I believe.

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3995838

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I think the bigger reason is that they are frequent tournament venues and he wants the kids to get experience playing in them.

I think also, that along these lines, K's reasoning is more that NCAA Tourney games aren't "home" games or "road" games (2010 Butler notwithstanding).

Therefore, unless you are concerned with building your team's resume to MAKE the tournament, experience on neutral courts (whether or not the are specifically NCAA tourney sites) mimics the tournament experience. Well, moreso than road trips.

I would also encourage anyone who thinks there is no significant advantage to playing at home to look at the faces of the 18 year old kids playing on the road at Cameron Indoor for the first time moments before tip off. They almost always look like they would prefer to be ANYWHERE else, especially home.

/my 2 cents
Go Duke!

[devildm]

There was an interesting article about home field advantage in Sports Illustrated a few years ago called "What's really behind home field advantage." They apparently looked a a lot of studies and the basic gist was that the main reason in this advantage was a "referee bias." I don't recall was studies or facts backed their conclusion, but I'm sure you can find the article online. I think the article was actually taken from a book that the author had written, but I cannot recall the name of the book. In any case, I thought it was an interesting article that tried to take a scientific approach to the subject.

Addendum:
Found this online about the article mentioned above. http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/999747/Why-do-home-teams-win.html
It sounds like the referee bias they talk about is because of social pressure (aka, fan pressure) placed on the ref by the fans which may turn some more "borderline" calls in the favor of the home team.

[uh_no]

I think also, that along these lines, K's reasoning is more that NCAA Tourney games aren't "home" games or "road" games (2010 Butler notwithstanding).


and 2010 baylor
and 2011 arizona
and 2013 louisville

but yeah, i see the point in general