Home Court Advantage

[jeffpea]

i do not have any statistical evidence to support my theory, only anecdotal evidence from a career as a D3 player, D1 asst. coach, and now a D2 official...

the home court advantage revolves around the emotional energy that one receives (home team) or fights against (visiting team). the most difficult skill in competitive athletics to master revolves around playing at a high energy level on a consistent basis.

visiting players want to "remain calm" and demonstrate "composure" in a hostile environment...however, most dull their emotions to an extreme and thereby play with less energy, less quickness, and less strength (which obviously lead to a poor performance). those that get "swept up" in the emotion of the moment, experience the opposite extreme - they play too fast and make poor decisions - which...you guessed it...lead to poor performance.

i do not believe that officials give preferential treatment to one team or the other based on who is the home or visiting team. the officials calls the fouls that occur during the game...they have no impact on the play of individual players.

the hidden secret to winning a basketball game was identified several years ago when the NCAA studied all college games for a 1yr period and discovered that the team that attempts the most FT's will win the game approx. 75% of the time.

taking those findings one step further, it's my opinion that the team that gets the ball into the paint most often (whether by dribble penetration, passing the ball into the post, or obtaining offensive rebounds), will win the game a significant percentage of the time....probably about 80% or higher...