Home Court Advantage

[Davemeister]

If this team is to have any success in the post-season they have to be able to win in places other than Timmons. The Well games are good practice for playing in larger venues.

[Affirm]

If this team is to have any success in the post-season they have to be able to win in places other than Timmons. The Well games are good practice for playing in larger venues.

True.
Would be good if we had regular season game(s) at The Well against UofSC and/or CU and/or UGA (or if not at The Well, then at least at CLA and/or Littlejohn and/or Stegman).
Of course, each of those schools may be afraid to agree to anything that could benefit Furman in the least.

[apaladin]

If this team is to have any success in the post-season they have to be able to win in places other than Timmons. The Well games are good practice for playing in larger venues.

True.
Would be good if we had regular season game(s) at The Well against UofSC and/or CU and/or UGA (or if not at The Well, then at least at CLA and/or Littlejohn and/or Stegman).
Of course, each of those schools may be afraid to agree to anything that could benefit Furman in the least.

Again, JD and CBR have said that SC and CU will not play FU. They have tried but they refuse.

[apaladin]

Don't think The Well caused us to lose yesterday. Just like Timmons didn't help us vs. Navy.

I still believe we have a greater home court advantage at Timmons than at The Well. I believe we have very little, if any, home court advantage at The Well. Unless it is to allow us to attract a major nationally-recognized and/or highly-locally-publicized team to play us in Greenville, our playing at The Well seems to be maybe not worth the expense, other than once per year, for the “experience/practice” and to have “a little annual tradition” for our program.

It’s just not about homecourt advantage. It’s about connecting with downtown. We have played well there and not so well just like Timmons. The 2 worst games this year were Navy at Timmons and UNCG at the Well. Remember a couple of years agp beating Wofford there in front of 6,000? That was awesome.

So how do YOU define “connecting with downtown” and how/when do YOU know the ROI of attempting to do that is actually worthwhile, if ever? How do you know it is worth the expense (to the university, to fans)?
Also, to what extent is playing at The Well preferred by the Furman teams and coaches (men’s and women’s) and by student body generally? By supporters and alumni? By businesses, government, downtown development, etc., in Greenville (is it the benefit to those real, imaginary, nonexistent)?

Prolly need to ask JD about all that. He seems to be all for it and so does CBR. That is why they are playing there. If they saw no benefits or if it was cost prohibitive they wouldn’t be playing there. As for the student body, except for.a small group the student does not care. As for fans I can only speak for myself and I like playing there and enjoy it. Its something different and the crowd is much larger than the normal 1800 at Timmons.

[DungeonRealm]

If we would have won (which we would have had Foster not lost that rebound) we would all be talking about how loud the crowd got during that 18-0 run to take the lead and how much fun it was!
We can't let a poor 3pt. shooting game scare us from trying to do big things and play in big arenas.
Stay the course, keep building and pushing for greatness!

[furmandad]

Another perspective -- I can't speak for players currently on the roster, but going back to Niko's final season, a higher percentage of the team preferred playing HOME games at Timmons vs Downtown. At Timmons, they know the rims, familiar spots on the court, where their parents and girlfriends are sitting! They practice there. I'm sure some on this Board have played competitive basketball years ago. So you'll get it when our players, particularly outside shooters (which seems to be our entire roster at any given time ) tell you there's a "spacial" difference: crowd further from the court, basket background is not as close/familiar, rims loose or tight .... Now, there are some players that it probably makes no difference at all, but with this current group, my uninformed guess is the familiarity of Timmons outweighs playing a "Home Game" downtown. Home Games are not only about size of Home crowd.

[DungeonRealm]

If we beat Woffy in there in two weeks in front of a big crowd some of you against it won't have any ground to stand on, it will be more fun and will benefit Furman alot more in the long run than winning that game at Timmons in front of 2,500 would do. Now we just gotta go out and get the job done

[cavedweller2]

If this team is to have any success in the post-season they have to be able to win in places other than Timmons. The Well games are good practice for playing in larger venues.

True.
Would be good if we had regular season game(s) at The Well against UofSC and/or CU and/or UGA (or if not at The Well, then at least at CLA and/or Littlejohn and/or Stegman).
Of course, each of those schools may be afraid to agree to anything that could benefit Furman in the least.

Again, JD and CBR have said that SC and CU will not play FU. They have tried but they refuse.

They’s skeered.

[cavedweller2]

Another perspective -- I can't speak for players currently on the roster, but going back to Niko's final season, a higher percentage of the team preferred playing HOME games at Timmons vs Downtown. At Timmons, they know the rims, familiar spots on the court, where their parents and girlfriends are sitting! They practice there. I'm sure some on this Board have played competitive basketball years ago. So you'll get it when our players, particularly outside shooters (which seems to be our entire roster at any given time ) tell you there's a "spacial" difference: crowd further from the court, basket background is not as close/familiar, rims loose or tight .... Now, there are some players that it probably makes no difference at all, but with this current group, my uninformed guess is the familiarity of Timmons outweighs playing a "Home Game" downtown. Home Games are not only about size of Home crowd.

It’s like when you played Church basketball and had to go from gym to gym each week. Perception changes when going from glass backboards to wood ones.

[furmandad]

If we beat Woffy in there in two weeks in front of a big crowd some of you against it won't have any ground to stand on, it will be more fun and will benefit Furman alot more in the long run than winning that game at Timmons in front of 2,500 would do. Now we just gotta go out and get the job done

I was simply sharing what past players have expressed; I believe the Team's opinion carries more weight than this Board's ...

[DungeonRealm]

If we beat Woffy in there in two weeks in front of a big crowd some of you against it won't have any ground to stand on, it will be more fun and will benefit Furman alot more in the long run than winning that game at Timmons in front of 2,500 would do. Now we just gotta go out and get the job done

I was simply sharing what past players have expressed; I believe the Team's opinion carries more weight than this Board's ...

Bob Richey himself said 2 years ago the team enjoyed playing games at the 'Well' and were excited about playing more games there, straight from the horses mouth.
So seems you are sharing some outdated news from years ago when we did not even play there.

[Furmanoid]

If we beat Woffy in there in two weeks in front of a big crowd some of you against it won't have any ground to stand on, it will be more fun and will benefit Furman alot more in the long run than winning that game at Timmons in front of 2,500 would do. Now we just gotta go out and get the job done

I was simply sharing what past players have expressed; I believe the Team's opinion carries more weight than this Board's ...

It makes perfect sense. The rims matter and just the layout matters. In a smaller, tighter gym you usually shoot better than in a more wide open one. That is a thing. So if you are the team that is super dependent on 3’s, switching to the Well is risky. The coach knows this or should know this. But I guess other considerations outweighed this concern.

[FUpaladin08]

IMO the benefits outweigh the risks. I don’t think anyone would suggest we don’t give up home court advantage for games at The Well. Here’s what is gained:
- Greenville exposure
- Potential for higher ticket sales
- Experience playing in a large arena
- Ability to attract P5 opponents

This has been an experiment to show DT can be a college basketball environment. This should ultimately attract P5 teams to play Furman or lead to a preseason tournament in Greenville that Furman could host. The ideal scenario would have any games where ticket sales exceed what Timmons can handle be played at The Well. We should begin to get away from SoCon games there so we keep the home court advantage for conference games (perhaps with the exception of Wofford). As it was said above, Furman has to get better playing away from Timmons. The SoCon tourney is not played there so while there’s benefit to that home court advantage in the standings, Furman has to play better on the bigger stage.

[Affirm]

IMO the benefits outweigh the risks. I don’t think anyone would suggest we don’t give up home court advantage for games at The Well. Here’s what is gained:
- Greenville exposure
- Potential for higher ticket sales
- Experience playing in a large arena
- Ability to attract P5 opponents

This has been an experiment to show DT can be a college basketball environment. This should ultimately attract P5 teams to play Furman or lead to a preseason tournament in Greenville that Furman could host. The ideal scenario would have any games where ticket sales exceed what Timmons can handle be played at The Well. We should begin to get away from SoCon games there so we keep the home court advantage for conference games (perhaps with the exception of Wofford). As it was said above, Furman has to get better playing away from Timmons. The SoCon tourney is not played there so while there’s benefit to that home court advantage in the standings, Furman has to play better on the bigger stage.

Experiment to show what? Haven't NCAA tourney games and SEC tourney (women's) games already completed that experiment?

[Davemeister]

Hope not!