kaisersayzo Wrote:Lucy Wrote:There was no way any team was going to shoot 56% 2 days in a row. That is one reason UNC lost to Duke the next day...the other is that Duke was a better team, not that UNC rolled over.
Which begs the question...Does home-court advantage really help? Obviously it helped NC State that day. The next day they didn't have such a large fan base thus they played normally (which wasn't even close to good enough). I mean look at MD. They can shoot over 50% at home on a regular basis and under 40% on the road on a regular basis. Same with Duke. Same with NC State. Same with NC. Get it?
And Wake Forest is the exception to the norm, as usual...
I researched our 2003 home shooting percentage vs. away shooting percentage (not including post-season)...next to no difference:
Home shooting percentage: 46.55%
Away shooting percentage: 45.34%
I knew we were a fairly consistent team, but these numbers help confirm that impression for me.
I think in many games it all comes down to who you are playing, and how much of a rivalry is perceived by the team.
Examples: We played Wisconsin in Madison and were the deciding factor in the ACC winning the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. Despite a HUGE home crowd of Badgers, Wake shot 54.1% from the field and won that game, ending Wisconsin's 26 game home winning streak.
The other examples would be our 2 games against NC State this year. We won both games, shooting 56.2% at home and 54.9% in Raleigh. Why were we so up for these games? Because of the intensity of the games played between the 2 teams over the past 5 years. Wake & State have really picked up the sense of rivalry in basketball, and so the desire to win really emerged in the games.
I firmly believe that the fan presence is a factor in a win or loss, but it is not the end all/be all, nor the deciding factor. It comes down to how well the team is playing together (as opposed to a bunch of stars who don't gel as a team). If a team is having chemistry problems, they'll lose more often than not, and will lose even at home in front of an arena full of their fans.