Written By Sam Ekstrom
In sports, the big crowds don’t always create the most noise. More important is the arena structure, the height of ceilings, and to a certain extent, the passion of the fanbase. Expansive arenas like Staples Center are great for making profits at the gate – not so great for intimidating the opposition. Same goes for “Jerry World,” the gargantuan new Cowboys facility that could probably fit three TCF Bank Stadiums inside of it but can’t generate the same noise as old Texas Stadium.
Many times, it’s the small, intimate settings that pump up the volume. The noise gets trapped within the lower ceilings and ricochets off the side walls, hovering over the playing surface like a tangible, graspable force. They call MTS Centre, home of the Winnipeg Jets, the loudest arena in hockey, yet it seats about 5,000 fewer people than in Chicago or Montreal.
Remember the Sacramento Kings’ Arco Arena back in the 2000s when the Timberwolves were playing there in the postseason? It was deafening. In fact, the Sacramento fans just set a decibel record in 2013. Their capacity? Just over 17,300 – the smallest in the NBA.
Even the Metrodome serves as an example. The Vikings’ old home was one of the smallest NFL venues toward the end of their stay, but there were stories of players trying to hold conversations right next to each other that were drowned out by the din of the Dome’s 64,000.
With the Metrodome now replaced by a congregation of cranes and concrete, the loudest arena in town might be on University Ave. in Dinkytown. Williams Arena, one of the smaller venues in the Big Ten, has thoroughly impressed head coach Richard Pitino, who has also coached in raucous environments with Florida and Louisville.
“Everyone talks about what we don’t have; I’ll tell you what we do have,” said Pitino after Saturday’s win against Purdue. “We’ve got a great home court advantage here. When it’s rocking, I’d put it up against anywhere, and I’ve been lucky enough to work in some really good programs, and I’d put our home court, when it’s good, up against any of them.”
The operative phrase there is, “when it’s rocking.” Sometimes that can take a little coaxing when a team is well below .500 in conference and destined for another trip to the NIT. The Gophers have, however, been a very competitive home team all season. They went a perfect 9-0 at The Barn in non-conference play and are now 4-2 in the Big Ten – two last-second shots away from being undefeated.
Frankly, if you didn’t ever watch this team on the road, you might get the impression they were a really good basketball team. The same could be said for other middle-of-the-road Big Ten teams, as well. Purdue has a 5-1 record on their home court, and Nebraska is 5-2 at their new arena. Both of those teams defeated Minnesota when the Gophers came to play, but both also looked lackluster in losses when they visited Williams Arena.
It could be that crowd noise affects the psyche of a college student more than it would, say, a professional basketball player. (How else can you explain Minnesota’s pitiful road free throw shooting?) It helps the home court advantage as well that college crowds are simply louder than pro crowds. Imagine if you could pump in several thousand college kids (of varying levels of intoxication) to Target Center. Andrew Wiggins might feel like he was at Kansas again.
“I don’t think there’s any place to play on the road that’s not extremely tough to play at in this conference,” said Pitino. “The loudest places are Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Nebraska. They all do that. You’ve just got to block it out. You’ve just got to focus on the court more than anything and just make sure you just execute.”
The second-year coach has turned his own team’s home floor into a fearsome place to play. The Gophers have a 31-5 home record in the Pitino Era with four of those losses by one possession.
Teams seem to have a habit of getting flustered when The Barn gets rocking, which has led to several implosions by the opposition this season. Purdue turned the ball over seven times during the Gophers’ 21-2 run last Saturday, egging the crowd on every time they threw the ball away. Illinois let the Gophers engineer a similar 18-3 that put the game out of reach on Jan. 24. Against Iowa, Minnesota turned a 17-point deficit into a 4-point lead within 12 minutes.
Like an avalanche, once the Williams Arena momentum gets started, it can be tough to stop.
Sometimes Pitino takes it upon himself to get the ball rolling. He’s made a habit of shedding his suit jacket and necktie, which he claims is due to temperature. “It was like 90 degrees in there,” Pitino said. “It was so hot in there. … If we went into overtime I might’ve had to go with a t-shirt or something.”
Odds are, Pitino’s body temperature is rising, not because somebody leaned on the thermostat, but because he’s taken it upon himself to be the pump-up guy. While it’s white noise to hear the public address announcer call for “DE-FENSE,” it’s more novel to see the head coach jumping up and down, waving his hands in the air and telling the crowd to get loud.
“I think it really gets the fans going because when you see a coach kind of be that invested in a team and in a game, it’s just great to see it,” said junior Joey King after the Purdue win. “It really gets us going, keeps us focused and just makes us want to succeed more.”
“The crowd really fed off of it,” said senior Mo Walker, “and that’s where all the energy came from in the second half.”
No coach wants to become a sideshow, which Pitino is trying his hardest to avoid. But having a tool at his disposal that can fuel a team forward to victory – a tool that can turn the opponents into a flabbergasted fifth grade basketball team facing a full court press – that’s something Pitino is going to utilize as much as he can, and he did so with great results last Saturday.
“I thought our guys needed energy,” said Pitino. “I didn’t think they were playing with great enthusiasm in the first half, and I thought they needed to feed off me.
“I don’t really have it scripted, you know, when I’m going to pump up the crowd. I don’t really like doing all that stuff, to be honest with you. I don’t like coaches who are cheerleaders. That’s not really me. But I thought we needed it.”
The lack of a home court advantage can’t be overlooked when diagnosing the Gophers’ road deficiencies. To not have that boost, that extra fuel that keeps the legs fresh, can be a big factor late in games, where the Gophers have struggled most.
Sadly, the hallowed echoes of Williams Arena can’t be duplicated when the Gophers visit Iowa on Thursday night. While the four-game home winning streak has been fun, the five-game road losing streak has been equally unenjoyable.
“I think Pat Riley said it,” said Pitino, “there’s winning, and then there’s misery, and that’s the way it is.”
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.