Is Massive Home-Court Advantage Just an Alabama Thing? All Things CW
The All Things CW notes column by Christopher Walsh appears in five parts each week, with the latest on the Alabama Crimson Tide. This is ...
Take 2
The scores tell the story.
The Alabama basketball team has faced three Southeastern Conference teams twice this season, and the contrast with two of them can only be described as eye-popping.
Against Vanderbilt the Crimson Tide won at home 101-44, but only 78-66 away from Coleman Coliseum.
Something similar happened against LSU, 106-66 at home, 79-69 on the road.
Granted, Alabama was simply "on" during both home blowouts, with the 101 against the Commodores during the first game after the Crimson Tide took its worst loss of the season at Oklahoma. The scores against Mississippi State weren't extreme either, 66-63 and 78-67.
But home-court advantage in college basketball may be on a different level this season, especially when compared to what we've recently enjoyed. Every time you look up one of the top teams in the rankings seems to be losing on the road, leading to continual fluctuations in the rankings.
Or is it primarily an Alabama (23-4 overall, 13-1 SEC) thing?
Actually, both may be true.
Statistically, on average, home-court advantage has been worth 3.1 points per game this season.
That's pretty normal.
Alabama, though, is on the extreme end, though, with the fifth biggest home-court advantage at 12.2 points. It's also the second-biggest among Power 5 schools, with Iowa at 12.4.
But the Hawkeyes aren't in the title picture. They're in a logjam at 9-7 in the Big Ten standings thanks to going 13-2 at home and just 3-6 on the road.
In the SEC, there are six teams with two-or-fewer losses at home, and, at 13-3 in Rupp Arena, Kentucky isn't among them. But Georgia is at 13-2.
That's right, the team that just got blasted at Alabama on Saturday, 108-59, is 13-2 at home and 1-8 on the road.
There are numerous teams like that around the country, and even among ranked teams. For example, Marquette, Xavier, Providence, Creighton and UConn in the Big East are all in the AP Top 25. Among them, the Huskies have the worst home record at 13-2, but none of them are better than 6-4 on the road.
That's why we've had weekends like the first one this month, when six teams in the top 15 lost, including four top-10 teams faltering on that Saturday alone (including Kansas getting blasted at Iowa State for its fourth loss in five Big 12 games).
In the SEC, Alabama and Texas A&M are the only teams above .500 on the road this season.
"I don't have a great answer because there's always been a home-court advantage it seems," Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. "I know two or three years ago when you couldn't have people in the stands, maybe there wasn't as big a home-court advantage because the crowds weren't as big. It just seemed everywhere there were empty gyms, the covid year. I don't know, we're getting back to where there are sellouts every game.
"Obviously having sellout crowds is better than 20 percent, 15 percent or whatever it was."
During the covid season two years ago, home-court advantage was statistically just 1.5 points.
Oats made a very good point, though, which coming off Alabama's football season should be noted. It was three years ago this coming March that the SEC Tournament shut down after the first games were played, and stadiums and arenas were empty for more than a year.
Fans are still working their way back to big venues and crowds.
However, when Alabama football visited Tennessee and LSU last season, the players were dealing with fanatical crowds the likes of which they had maybe never seen before or had little experience in dealing with. The Volunteers were desperate to rid themselves of the Saban losing streak, and LSU fans were equally as motivated.
Why would't the same be true in basketball?
Other factors that should be considered are the departures of some big-name coaches in the sport (Duke isn't the same without Coach K, and Villanova isn't either without Jay Wright, etc.), NIL has made for a more level playing field in the sport, and roster turnover.
Players are switching teams so often that long-term chemistry is becoming rare.
On Wednesday, No. 2 Alabama will visit South Carolina, a team that's only 6-7 at home but one of the wins was against Kentucky. Due to its ranking the Crimson Tide had learned the hard way that it's a target wherever it goes, but it only has two more games in the friendly setting of Coleman.
The other road game left on the regular-season schedule, of course, is at Texas A&M on March 5, which could decide the SEC title and top seeding in the upcoming conference tournament in Nashville.
Alabama is 8-2 on the road, and 2-2 in neutral settings. Two of those games stand out because the Crimson Tide beat two teams ranked No. 1 at the time, including the impressive 71-65 win at Houston on Dec. 10. But there's no denying that its been better at home this season.
However, none of its postseason games will be played in Tuscaloosa, where this team is a perfect 13-0.
"That was kind of my challenge to the team this morning," Oats said. "We'll see how well we can play on the road at South Carolina because we're going to need it. [The SEC] may come down to our last game at A&M. We're going to have to play well there.
"We need to have more consistency."
That's easier said than done.
See Also:
Take 1: Alabama Football Spring Roster by the Numbers
Brandon Miller 'Not in any Type of Trouble' in Darius Miles Case
