In league play you just have to give your best effort every time out or any team can beat you. That adrenaline starts flowing, the opposition shoots the lights out, puts the dee on you for 40 minutes, you start doubting yourselves and they get you.
You can get beat on the road no matter how good you are.
- Thread starter wildcatdonf
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anon_013cn8yrfncx2
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Yep, Don...absolutely right. Conference play is just a different animal, I don't care how good you are. See Duke today, for example.
I played ball and I've never understood why home v road makes much difference. If you're concentrating on what you're doing, the crowd noise is just that....noise. It should make no difference what the crowd is yelling. It's just noise. If you need to feed off the crowd for energy to play hard, you're not doing your job. Actually, if players do pay attention to the crowd chants, it should serve as motivation to shut them up. It's all about concentration and mental toughness.
Sums up my feelings. When playing against the best, teams are going to be playing out of their freaking minds. Every challenger has some Johnny wannabe, that has a career night vs. UK. Doesn't matter if they're playing at Rupp or in their crappy arena. The little Ole Miss guard pulled off some miraculous stunts against us at Rupp. Appeared to have made a deal with the Devil.
Yup and looking at the schedule and trying to predict which 18 & 19 year old kids will show up on the road is crazy talk. There is no telling who will catch us on the road but it will happen.
Familiarity with the court, the rims, the lighting, and just general comfort with the environment. And there's very little question that referees are influenced, often without their even realizing it, by their surroundings.
Realize that the difference between teams is never as great as it might appear on paper, especially as you go up the competition ladder. A great power conference college team might be 12-15 points better than a mediocre one on a neutral court. That's really not all that much if you're talking about a 70-80 possession (per team) game. So details matter. Little things matter. And when all those little things favor one team (like they often do for the home team), it can add up to a big difference.
Especially on the road in conference games. Just look at all the team's it's already brought down just a week basically into the conference season. UVa will lose. They have a lot of tough games coming up, and I think we will to. Perhaps as soon as this Saturday.
This^^^^^
Call it the Paranoid Cat Fan Theory Of The Day, but if we are unbeaten and playing in the Championship Game... I'll be more worried if Vegas stands to lose a bundle on the 40-0 bets, than whoever we're playing. At best, we'll get Ayers, Hess, Shows... and special guest official Bobby Knight.
Queue up the Hoosiers footage of Hickory entering Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Ah yes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cdc13CU9Fc
Ah yes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cdc13CU9Fc
I guess it's different with some When I played, away games with opponents in our region were way tougher then the other different away teams that we played to fill out the schedule. Usually you knew other players or the local players stats were in the paper and you read about them. But a good crowd can not only bother your team but it can affect the officials too. Yes if you are a competitor you love it but sometimes things go downhill very quickly and then it's hard to get your crap together for a win. But that was a long time ago, lol.
A win versus the undefeated, number one ranked team in the country looks really, really, really good on the resumes of SEC bubble teams. And they go after it with every ounce of energy they've got!
All you have to do is put yourself in the shoes of these other schools' players. Kentucky rolls into town with it's McDonald's All-Americans, it's #1 ranking, it's history and tradition, it's media hogging coach, and everything else. You have them in your building for one game. Your energy, your hate, your drive, your athleticism, your talent, your pride, your focus, your poise, your coaches (all the previous apply), your fans (all the previous apply), skyrocket to levels they CAN'T attain at any other time during the season. It's literally just like Cal says, it's their Superbowl. They want to be the one to take the Big Blue DOWN!!!!!
You add the fact that these other SEC schools have players that are very athletic, maybe not as talented, but have heart and hate flowing through their body, then you get efforts that are off the charts by these schools. It seems to be more so now than usual, but it's always sort of been that way.
Now, imagine you're a UK player. You're there for a game, a game that's not even that important in the eyes of the players or the fans, even though it should be, it just isn't. Now, you're vulnerable.
How do you deal with this? I know it's easier said than done, but you have to rip their hearts out in the first 5 minutes of the game. You have to jump start this atmosphere and energy level by the home team by building a quick lead of 8 or 10 points immediately. It literally sucks the wind out of the building. Really hard to match the energy level of these other guys at the beginning but my opinion is that's what we've got to do. You play these teams close for a while then the intensity of the other guy seems to not only sustain, but grow. That's where the trouble comes in, including close calls that kill you by the referees, who also want you to lose.
You add the fact that these other SEC schools have players that are very athletic, maybe not as talented, but have heart and hate flowing through their body, then you get efforts that are off the charts by these schools. It seems to be more so now than usual, but it's always sort of been that way.
Now, imagine you're a UK player. You're there for a game, a game that's not even that important in the eyes of the players or the fans, even though it should be, it just isn't. Now, you're vulnerable.
How do you deal with this? I know it's easier said than done, but you have to rip their hearts out in the first 5 minutes of the game. You have to jump start this atmosphere and energy level by the home team by building a quick lead of 8 or 10 points immediately. It literally sucks the wind out of the building. Really hard to match the energy level of these other guys at the beginning but my opinion is that's what we've got to do. You play these teams close for a while then the intensity of the other guy seems to not only sustain, but grow. That's where the trouble comes in, including close calls that kill you by the referees, who also want you to lose.
I agree with you Don. I tried to make a similar point before the last game. I hope they win all their games and I wouldn't post an "I told you so" post if they do lose. I also agree with what someone else said that their best chance to get beat is if they beat themselves. Which means taking another less talented team too lightly.
to be honest 80% of posters are smart , reasonable people but the other 20% is way louder and more annoying . Some the stuff is just asinine . DId we look good against Texas A&M ? No but we freaking won and a win is a win is a win. Duke lost. Wisky lost , Zona lost and so on.
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