The Road

Rock musicians love The Road. This KU team hates The Road. I cannot recall a Bill Self squad that played as poorly on the road as this one. Yes, most teams play less well on the road, but for this team, it's like we're playing against 6 guys. Any thoughts on why?

That is a great question but I think the answer is we have a very young back court and they seem like nice guys. I hope they can feel more dominant on the road but it is not something you can just say now I am going to be confidant.

Agree with hh. Very young team, plus no obvious leader. Also, believe AFH hides KU's deficiencies, which are magnified on the road. Let's face it, every other Big 12 team would like nothing more than to beat KU.

Let's start by looking at the corollary discussion: why is KU the only team undefeated at home (Tech has 1 home loss, everyone else has 2 or more)?

The answer to this one seems pretty straightforward:
1.) KU is comfortable playing in the same gym they practice in. Sight lines are familiar: if you play in the same gym all the time, you subconsciously triangulate your position on the court visually. The fact that this scoreboard is in your periphery on the right, while that part of the bench is visible in your periphery on the left, helps you automatically have a better sense of location than you would in an unfamiliar gym where the only "known" landmarks are the lines on the floor and the rims themselves.
2.) Gameday routine is a routine. You wake up in your dorm room, eat the same food at the same places, walk into a locker room and all your stuff is there. There are fewer variables to play with.
3.) The crowd. This is a real think and at AFH it's a REALLY real thing. There is real energy in the building and it's simultaneously working WITH you and AGAINST them. This is why we so often hear that an opponent wants to "take the crowd out of the game."

Ok, so now we know why this obviously flawed team is undefeated at home. We also know that most of the computer models factor in a home court advantage and quantify it. With Sagarin right now, it's 3.14 points, I believe. But let's just assume that the math shows that a team will play 3 points better than "normal" when they're at home.

But remember, that 3 points is an "average". That factors in teams that are REALLY good on the road who don't suffer a 3 point disadvantage, and teams like KU that I can only assume play WORSE than a 3 point disadvantage on the road.

That's really it: take all of the things I listed as advantages that KU has at home, and let's say that AFH is an "adjusted" 5 point advantage (just guessing). We get every team's best shot, so even in an "average" gym where they normally draw 3000 fans (and get a 3 point mathematical advantage) they might get a 4 or 5 point advantage when KU comes to town and 15,0000 people show up and are at the highest energy level they've demonstrated all year.

In the past, we've had experienced guys, and a better team which was enough to do a better job overcoming what's probably a 4-6 point away-court disadvantage. This year, with less margin of error, it's not always enough to overcome that.

Agreed...a better team can overcome it, but also a more experienced team knows what they're getting into and the experienced guys can help the newbies along.