Toughest place to play in college basketball?

[HoyaSox04]

A question I've been pondering since last night while watching the Oklahoma - OK St. game: what is really the toughest place to play in in the nation?

I know that of course you can say Cameron, the Smith Dome in UNC, the old Cole Fieldhouse...

but I think that there have to be others that are as hard, if not harder than those two. If any of you watched that game last night, did you see Gallagher Arena on the OK St. campus? It was OUT OF CONTROL. That place was louder than I've ever heard Cameron - granted, there were more people there than Cameron can hold. But still, I was shocked. I didn't know people in Oklahoma knew what basketball was.

Other places that have to get votes:

- Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas
- Wisconsin (forget the name of the arena)

What are your thoughts?

PS: That team at OK St. is unbelievably talented. I know that people kind of thumb their noses at the Big 12 when it comes to college basketball conferences, but they have some real players on that team, even since Tony Allen left from last year. Now, Eddie Sutton I'm sure will find a way for them to choke in the tournament, but they could do some serious damage there - between Lucas Jr., Graham, and Curry, they have some serious pro talent in Stillwater, OK.

[FormerHoya]

I haven't been there personally, but the Orange Krush apparently make Alumni Hall at Illinois really tough to play in.

[GIGAFAN99]

The Pit has to be at or near the top. Players say it's truly unreal how tough it is even when New Mexico isn't good.

[HeartAttackHoya]

Rupp Arena gets my vote. My dad went there, been to a couple of games, absolute madness. Cameron is obiously up there. Hoosier dome is tough. The rural locations with a good programs all could make an argument.

[the_way]

Actually the Dean dome is not hard to win in at all. Its pretty big, and not really intimidating. The tuffest are Wisconsin, Duke, Rutgers, UCONN (storrs campus arena, not the harvard civic center). Thats all I can think of at the moment.

[TBird41]

the_way said:

The tuffest are Wisconsin, Duke, Rutgers, UCONN (storrs campus arena, not the harvard civic center). Thats all I can think of at the moment.

DUKE!?!?! YOU MUST BE DRINKING THE ESPN/ACC KOOL-AID!!!!!!

That being said, the Pit is nuts (otherwise I agree w/ the_way's list)

[Fan Of The Game]

It always seems like West Virgininia beats good teams when they're at home, even if that particular WV team isn't all that good.

I would think Minnesota with it's raised floor would be an adjustment for teams that might give the gophers an advantage.

I guess there's no way to break this down scientifically. You could look at home wins versus road wins but then you'd have to factor in the fact that teams with more money play more bad schools at home and teams with less money end up playing a lot of good teams on the road.

[NickHoya215]

Cameron, Kohl Center, Breslin Center, Allen Fieldhouse, Cole are my votes for toughest places.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

Toughest place to play in College is the MCI Center . . . for us though. ;D

Seriously though, I think games at Mich. State are pretty intimidating.

Go Hoyas!

[TBird41]

Fan said:

I would think Minnesota with it's raised floor would be an adjustment for teams that might give the gophers an advantage.

It might be true they have to adjust to the raised floor, but the crowd at the Barn isn't particularly noteworthy.

[lichoya68]

lets sell out mci this sat.. get the cheerleaders out and about and start to make mci the toughest place why not why not now yes we can we gotta believe go hoyas make it loud

[HoyaFanNY]

teams get confused because minnesota has the benches below the floor? that is weak. the floor is still 94 ft, right? the basket is still 10 ft, right?

minnesota plays in a barn and the fans are really into the game. that has much more of an impact than the floor level.

[TBird41]

HoyaFanNY said:

teams get confused because minnesota has the benches below the floor? that is weak. the floor is still 94 ft, right? the basket is still 10 ft, right?

minnesota plays in a barn and the fans are really into the game. that has much more of an impact than the floor level.

The fans there are good, but not great (they're in a turn around phase too-eeriely similar to what's going on w/ Gtown-NIT, suckage, surprise tournament contender) so the fans are just starting to come back. The raised floor, however, goes completely around the court, and there's probably a 3+ foot drop off on all sides. So, if you get a little too much momentum and go past the maroon "safety zone" around the out of bounds lines, you can fall off-something in the back of the minds of opponents when diving for loose balls, etc.

[hoyahoyasaxa]

I tried to find a picture of the gym after someone mentioned it yesterday. That is really weird. Why do they have a raised floor?

[Fan Of The Game]

HoyaFanNY said:

teams get confused because minnesota has the benches below the floor? that is weak. the floor is still 94 ft, right? the basket is still 10 ft, right?

That would be the Norman Dale school of thought.

I don't know how much of an impact it has. Whenever ESPN or CBS is showing a game there they always have quotes from the other team saying how they did some loose ball drills so they'd be used to going out of bounds there.

Like the blue field of Boise, there's probably no real impact, it's just something different than what visitors are used to, so there may be a small psychological impact.

[TBird41]

Here's a link to a picture. I haven't found why it's raised yet, just that the arena's 84 years old and that it's raised 2 ft off the ground.
blog.lib.umn.edu/archives/snackeru/superg/2004/07/03/williams_arena.html

[Fan Of The Game]

hoyahoyasaxa said:

I tried to find a picture of the gym after someone mentioned it yesterday. That is really weird. Why do they have a raised floor?

www.gophersports.com/Facilities/williams_arena.asp

Not sure why exactly it is raised...a different style of architecture for arenas that do hockey and basketball I guess.

[TBird41]

Here's the explanation that I got on the Gopher's basketball board:

"When Williams Arena was originally built in 1928 it was a fieldhouse. Basketball was played on a temporary floor that was elevated. When BB season was over, the floor could easily be removed. I guess that was the state of the art in those days.

In 1950, Williams Arena was remodeled and divided into two arenas. Hockey to the west end and basketball to the east end. The basketball floor was made permanent at that time and my understanding is that it was left elevated because it better suited the existing sight lines that way. At that time the seating capacity was nearly 20,000.

When the arena was last remodeled there was no way that anyone was going to mess with that floor. Golden Gopher history is written on that stage and it will remain there for as long as Williams Arena exists, which will be for a very long time."

[ahoya3]

The Pitt in New Mexico. Heachache city. WVU's arena is deafening and fans are the pits.

[JimmyHoya]

Carrier dome, just cos the place is so wacky.