Obviously, everyone, but who has the biggest edge at home?
Even though Kent has the longest home streak dating back to the end of 2000-2001 season, I don't think that tells the story. The Flashes have been dominent overall, so sure, they are going to be tough at home. When you are 8-1 on the road, it's not surprising to be 9-0 at home.
What I want to know is: which team is far tougher at home than on the road? Who has the biggest disparity between home and road records?
I know BSU has played better at home than they have on the road by a good margin in the last couple of seasons. Where is the place where it is tough to get a win, no matter how the good the overall record of the home team is?
I know everyone likes to feel their gym is a hostile environment for opposing teams, but how many games in the MAC season do you win at home compared to on the road in the MAC?



<!--EDIT|axeme|Jan 7 2003, 08:38 AM-->

Bowling Green. It's the smallest building in the league. For big games, it's very, very loud in there and fans are practically on the court in some sections.

Last year, Bowling Green lost nine games, but just one at home, to Kent State.

The previous year, BG went 11-5 at home and 5-11 on the road. That includes all games, so it's a LITTLE distorted (it isn't as if the likes of Michigan and Michigan State play at our place very often).

I'm no expert, but I think our home court advantage is biggest.

One fan's opinion.

1. Bowling Green
2. Ohio
3. Kent State
4. Central Michigan
5. Ball State
6. Marshall
7. Miami
8. Akron
9. Toledo
10. Western Michigan
11. Northern Illinois
12. Buffalo
13. Eastern Michigan

Toledo has won thirteen straight at home. Amazing to me when you consider we are lucky to get 4,000 at home, and less than 500 of those are students. There is more cheering at the opera. Still, a streak is still a a streak.

In terms of fans, it's OU in a landslide. Not only do we consistently have the best attendance each year, we are also the loudest. We also have the only organized student section in the MAC (as far as I know). The place is very loud and the Ozone is just as much on the court as the students are at BG.

Ive been to both Kent and Toledo and from a fans/atmosphere standpoint.....they are both near the bottom of the list. Ball St is usually 2nd in attendance and has a pretty good advantage there, and BG does get loud and that arena is like fitting thousands of people in a classroom. Central has a good fan base that is more loyal than most MAC fans and they can get a little rowdy (Hence Rose Rowdies)

In terms of tough places, I'd like to get feedback from the various fans--like RF did on BG--on where the numbers bear out fans opinions without having to do a bunch of research myself on each team. You are a stat man, ChiMACPick.
How has OU done at home the last 2-3 years compared to how they do on the road? How many MAC losses at the Convo?

Athlon? It's Bowling Green:

<a href='http://www.athlonsports.com/article.php3?story_id=927

EMU is undefeated at home so far this season, including tonight's OOC win against Wisc-GB, 94-87.

Miami has a 75.5% winning record at Millett Hall all-time. Three times in the past eight years, the Redskins/RedHawks have gone undefeated , and only once in the past dozen years have they failed to reach double-digit wins in Millett (1999-00).

Granted, those years also have a lot of MAC Championship teams in there, but even in the three full seasons since our last MAC banner, we have gone 21-9 (70%) in MAC play and 27-13 (67.5%) overall at home. Those aren't necessarily fabulous numbers, but considering that the Miami teams from the past three years have been essentially .500 clubs, they're still doing better than average at home.

In addition, a quick look at the historical totals in the Miami media guide for records against MAC opponents in Millett Hall reveals the following Miami records since 1968 when Miami opened Millett Hall:

Akron: 9-2
BSU: 25-9
UB: 4-0
CMU: 20-6
BG: 25-9
EMU: 20-5
Marshall: 8-2 (ow)
NIU: 14-1 (really ow)
Ohio: 24-10 (way to go, Bobkittens! Double digit wins!)
Toledo: 21-11 (ditto, Rockettes!)
WMU: 28-3

And yes, I left KSU off of there. Not because they did any better than OU, but because we have a game with the Flashes tomorrow...and if this post hasn't cursed Miami already, that surely would have pushed the post over the edge for bad luck. If you are interested, I am sure the Miami media notes are up on MURedHawks.com by now...

As for WHY Miami has a better than average homecourt advantage...I dunno. As anyone who has been there can attest, Millett is not conducive to noise: the comfy padded seats tend to absorb sound, and the main stands are relatively far from the court, separated by an indoor track. The two things that I think help in this arena are the temporary stands that are placed almost directly on the court that allow students to, um, "coach" opposing teams. The students who stand there may not be as organized as the O Zone, but they have crafted the individual catcalls and taunts on a personal level -- and the players can actually hear the individual comments. If Anderson Arena is intimidating because of the pure noise, Millett is frightening because of the psychological impact a few fans can have. I personally have witnessed the honorable prophet mollautt goad an opposing post player into throwing up multiple airballs from behind the stripe in the early minutes of the second half simply by challenging the player to "Be a man! Shoot it!!"

The other thing that Millett has going for it is the weird dead space behind the south basket. It is enclosed, but the enclosure is far away from the court, and for whatever reason, opposing jump shooters often have some difficulty making shots because of this deceptive depth. I don't think it's an accident that Miami defends that goal in the second half...

Finally, if you don't think it's tough, ask BSU. They've had three west division titles and two MAC championships since 1992-93...but they haven't won at Millett once in that same time period.

(That said, I don't know that Miami has done that much better in Muncie...and with all that metal in Worthen Arena, it tends to amplify all the noise what seems to be tenfold. I've been to the convo, and been to Worthen. BSU fans in Worthen generate MUCH more noise...in my limited sampling....)



<!--EDIT|RedSteve|Jan 7 2003, 10:21 PM-->

What I would like to see, and have neither the time nor energy to do, is see a comparative breakdown/differential of each team's home MAC record vs. its road MAC record over the last 3-5 years.
Like I said earlier, if a team is 9-0 at home, of course that's great, but was that same team 8-1 on the road like Kent was last year, or were they 2-7 on the road, which would indicate a real homecourt edge?
I would expect Miami to have an excellent home court record over along period because they, more than not, have very competitive teams.

Maybe an average comparison of homeMAC win % minus Road win % would do it. Stats junkies??
I'll get on Kent's in a while today.

RedSteve Wrote:And yes, I left KSU off of there. Not because they did any better than OU, but because we have a game with the Flashes tomorrow...and if this post hasn't cursed Miami already, that surely would have pushed the post over the edge for bad luck. If you are interested, I am sure the Miami media notes are up on MURedHawks.com by now...

Let me officially jinx Miami for you tonight. According to the KSU media release for the game, Miami has a 43-10 historical homecourt record with KSU. :eek: :eek:

Man, KSU really used to suck...

GO FLASHES!



<!--EDIT|The Flash|Jan 8 2003, 02:14 PM-->

The Flash Wrote:Man, KSU really used to suck...

"used to"?

The Flash Wrote:

RedSteve Wrote:And yes, I left KSU off of there. Not because they did any better than OU, but because we have a game with the Flashes tomorrow...and if this post hasn't cursed Miami already, that surely would have pushed the post over the edge for bad luck. If you are interested, I am sure the Miami media notes are up on MURedHawks.com by now...

Let me officially jinx Miami for you tonight. According to the KSU media release for the game, Miami has a 43-10 historical homecourt record with KSU. :eek: :eek:

Man, KSU really used to suck...

GO FLASHES!

Ah, but not all of those games were played at Millett Hall... ;-)

DrTorch Wrote:"used to"?

Gee, Dr. Torch, what part of 9 out of the last 10 and 6 in a row did you miss while perusing the BG record books?

Or 8-1?
Or 16 reg. season MAC wins in a row?
Or 22 overall MAC wins in a row?
Or 33-3 in the last 36 games?
Or 3 out the last 4 MAC Championships?

If you think WE suck.... what must you think of every other team in the league?

But, as I said earlier, who's counting? :D

I did my Kent homework on our homecourt record:

over the last 3 seasons in reg. season MAC games, not counting this year yet, the Flashes are 24-3 (.889) at home, which on the surface seems like a tough record, but our road record is 19-8 (.704). So while our record is excellent at home, we probably have the best road record in the conf. over this time as well, indicating that it wasn't neccessarily our home environment that was a great factor in the the home wins.
(I didn't want to factor in non-conference games because of the varying strength of different teams OOC matchups.)

.889
-.704
+.185 difference in home vs. away pct.
My guess is that this is not all that great a home advantage compared to other teams.

OU has won 32 of their last 40 games at the convo dating back to 98-99 season for an .800 win pct. Before the last few games of last year, when the team absolutely fell apart, we had won 30 of 34 but quickly dropped 4 at home towards the tail end of the season. As for how the .800 win Pct differs form our regular record......Without spending anytime to look it up, I would imagine our road win pct is around .500. So there is definetely a difference and if not for our collapse late last year, it would be even more different.

Can't wait to give Hipsher hell tonight. We Ozoners will be SOOO happy to see him again.

axeme Wrote:

DrTorch Wrote:"used to"?

Gee, Dr. Torch, what part of 9 out of the last 10 and 6 in a row did you miss while perusing the BG record books?

Or 8-1?
Or 16 reg. season MAC wins in a row?
Or 22 overall MAC wins in a row?
Or 33-3 in the last 36 games?
Or 3 out the last 4 MAC Championships?

If you think WE suck.... what must you think of every other team in the league?

But, as I said earlier, who's counting? :D

Very good point Axeme...but I also was reading thru the BG basketball media guide and noticed an all time advantage of 74-54 BG vs. Kent. Couple that with the 50-15 advantage we have in football......

Kent has been THE team the last 4 years...

Since we seem to have silenced the Ball State monkey with two straight wins, how about a BG win at Kent sat? I am tired of losing to Kent. :mad:

C ya sat! GO BG!!!!!!

axeme Wrote:

DrTorch Wrote:"used to"?

Gee, Dr. Torch, what part of 9 out of the last 10 and 6 in a row did you miss while perusing the BG record books?

Or 8-1?
Or 16 reg. season MAC wins in a row?
Or 22 overall MAC wins in a row?
Or 33-3 in the last 36 games?
Or 3 out the last 4 MAC Championships?

If you think WE suck.... what must you think of every other team in the league?

But, as I said earlier, who's counting? :D

Very good point Axeme...but I also was reading thru the BG basketball media guide and noticed an all time advantage of 74-54 BG vs. Kent. Couple that with the 50-15 advantage we have in football......

Kent has been THE team the last 4 years...

Since we seem to have silenced the Ball State monkey with two straight wins, how about a BG win at Kent sat? I am tired of losing to Kent. :mad:

C ya sat! GO BG!!!!!!