Basketball, Columnists, Sports

FLAGLER: Home-court advantage key for BU in tournament

The Boston University men’s basketball team has the strongest home-court advantage in the America East. BU has dropped just two games in Boston this year, and in conference play, the team was a perfect 7-0 (one “home” game was a victory over University at Albany at Madison Square Garden).

Meanwhile, the team struggled to win on the road. BU’s 4-10 overall away record is slightly misleading. The team won its last three games away from Boston including an overtime victory on Sunday over conference champs University of Vermont. But BU also dropped winnable games at University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Hartford University and University of New Hampshire this year.

If you have attended a BU basketball game recently, you may be confused as to where this home court advantage comes from. Generally we think of great home courts as places like Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena or The Spectrum at Utah State University.

Those teams play off the energy of their loud student sections that sit nearly on top of the court. Their home-court advantage comes from thousands of fans intimidating opposing teams with chants, costumes, ear-splitting noise and general insanity. Not surprisingly, none of those three squads have lost at home this season.

That’s definitely not Agganis Arena. While watching the BU basketball team play there, the squeaking of sneakers, shouting from coaches and sound of the ball hitting the rim are all far louder than any crowd noise. The Terriers draw the lowest attendance numbers in the conference at 759 fans per game. This is definitely not a place you would expect to provide the team with a strong advantage over a visiting opponent.

So why do we see such a clear split with BU’s home and road performance this year? The reality is that home court advantage isn’t all about the crowd. There are select few teams in college basketball with fans passionate and numerous enough to really change the outcome of a game. The home court’s real advantage is the sense of familiarity and comfort it provides a team.

Playing at home is easier because players can go through the same routines on game day rather than travelling on a plane or bus and getting ready at a hotel. They know how the ball will come off the rim and how it bounces off the floor. All these little factors make teams more comfortable and more confident at home.

That’s why home-court advantage hasn’t disappeared in professional sports even though fancy arenas with luxury suites and seven-dollar beers have replaced intimidating places such as the old Boston Garden.

Orlando’s Amway Center now features restaurants, bars and a kids’ play area called “STUFF’s magic castle.” Even though all the distractions sometimes cause some fans to stay out of their seats from halftime until the last few minutes of the game, the Magic are still 24-9 at home versus just 15-13 on the road.

The St. John’s University basketball team provides another great example of the importance of home court comfort. The Johnnies have taken down a host of top teams at Madison Square Garden. They dominated Duke, hit a dramatic layup at the buzzer to beat University of Pittsburgh, and handled both Georgetown University and University of Notre Dame at MSG.

But on the road, St. John’s has some embarrassing losses, the worst of which was an 84-81 decision to Fordham University – a team that has just six wins all season, is winless in their conference, the pedestrian Atlantic 10, and has lost its last 16 games. That “road” loss was at Fordham’s home gym in the Bronx, 12 miles from Madison Square Garden, where St. John’s is close to unbeatable.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from going to the next BU basketball game, and I certainly hope my point isn’t misinterpreted as saying that BU doesn’t need any fans. If BU does host the America East tournament championship, it will be the biggest BU basketball game any of us have ever seen in college. I hope fans show their support just to avoid the embarrassment of TV cameras panning over a sea of empty red seats at Agganis.

But even if that game does happen, the sports culture at BU will not change overnight. I still notice people saying “the basketball team sucks” just as a force of habit, completely oblivious to the team’s success this year. Hopefully, Coach Pat Chambers has the patience to see that culture change over the next few years. A meaningful game at Agganis would be a great start, but it wouldn’t immediately change BU from a hockey school to a multisport school.

Luckily, BU proved this year that home court advantage is about more than just the fans. It’s about lots of tiny advantages a team can use to gain the upper hand on an opponent. This year, the Terriers capitalized on those advantages and that’s a huge reason BU put together a successful regular season.

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