Home Court Advantage
 

A non-official, (me) dares to ask a question of the experts :)

I keep hearing about home court advantage and a "fan" on our board keeps spouting about that it is all because officials are influenced by the home fans. Drives me crazy. I took a look at box scores for all B12 conference games last year (women's teams - 92 games) and there was an average of about 6 more fouls called on the away team and in no case did the home team have more fouls than the away team. I also looked at TOs on the theory that TEAMS play differently at home and away and in the vast majority of cases teams had about 3 more TOs when they were the away team (I don't have the specific #'s handy right now)

I'm convinced that the home crowd (this conference has an average of more than a million fans watching WCBB games in a season - the highest attendance for WCBB in any conference) does have some influence on how teams play.

You guys and gals see it all from the "other side". Any comments on home court advantage?

I think Home teams have placed more pressure on themselves to perform and therefor commit more infractions of the rules.

Given the fact that the officials at that level are evaluated with video, and every call and non-call is graded, I'd say your homecourt advantage has more to do with how teams play rather than influence on the officials.

Teams play more agressively, drive to the hoop more, take more risks on defense, and can do these things for longer periods of time when the crowd is supporting them. These things lead to things like foul counts, turnovers, etc. Also, home teams tend to win, which tends to create more fouls for the losing team trying to catch up (chicken-egg).

Home Sweet Home ...
 

Home advantage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, good article in Sports Illustrated, January 17, 2011.

Really? There wasn't a single instance in 92 games where the home team had more fouls than the visitors? :confused:

That is not a good article, Billy. Why in the world would you reference it?

I misspoke - there wasn't a TEAM which averaged more home fouls than away fouls. For example: when Baylor is the home team, they got 41.0% of the fouls. When they were the away team, it was 45.0%

OU at home: 47.3% away 53.5%

On average, the home team got 46.9% of the fouls and the away 53.1%

There is also the effect of travel on visiting teams. It isn't like a 75 minute trip on a school bus. And assuming even 50 fouls per game, it is a difference of 3. But more likely, it is 25-30 fouls called, though I have not looked it up, which would mean a difference of 2 or less, statistically speaking. And that is a difference that is hardly worth mentioning IMO.

Point Taken ...
 

I read it two weeks ago. I do remember not agreeing with everything in the artcile, but it seemed to be well researched, and backed up by statistics. I remember being surprised at how the home field advantage was very important for some sports, I believe that soccer was one, and not others.

Business Travelers, Am I Right ???
 

Nothing like sleeping in your own bed.

You could back virtually any thesis in the world with statistics.

Within the margin of error?

Half of all people are below average in intelligence.

That makes more sense...
 

1) Team average: That makes more sense... as does the travel factor.

2) Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics.

Not necessarily. That would be true of the median if there were an odd number of people in the world at any given moment. But, it could be true that smarter people pull the mean [average] up, which would result in more than half being below average. The reverse also could be true.

If I am doing something in my backyard whether it is cooking, watching TV or working on my computer, I am going to be more comfortable where I am familiar as opposed to doing the same thing with different surroundings or tools. Not sure why we think something outside of all of that has that much influence.

Peace

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...

If people think we are smart enough to make calls or non-calls on certain teams depending on where the game is being played, they are giving us way too much credit. I for one cannot process things that fast before I put air in the whistle.

And it is almost ALWAYS a road game for US.

+1

Lived Right Down The Street From Me ...
 

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." (Mark Twain)

51.1% of statistics support this statement.

87% of statistics are made up.

And the other 16.5% are inaccurate.

From my college instructor in a Statistics class: "Numbers will admit to anything, if you torture them enough!":)