Can we use our home locker room and take down the stupid barriers?
MWC games counted as home games for UNLV
- Thread starter bcvegaspt
- Start date
Can we use our home locker room and take down the stupid barriers?
Is that situation really "something worth monitoring?"... both schools mentioned would need to win conference championship games anyways to get in and it would only really matter for seeding I guess... maybe the really lower tier conferences that don't hold neutral site tournaments it might but how many of those are getting 2 bids that it actually matters?
It may not matter this season, but it could for the future.
It really puts UNLV at a disadvantage if they count as home games moving forward. It changes the NET value of each game significantly.
They may really think about moving the tournament to another site. With the PAC tournament dissolving it may open up other site availability.
Not having it at the T&M would hurt UNLV's bottom line though.
Exactly. I'm sure large venues around town that could support an event like this would need to be booked well before the middle of the season to see if UNLV is "good enough" for this to matter. Especially during conferene championship season.
They are home games. Always have been.
If UNM brings 10K and UNLV brings 2K, it’s still a home game. Sight lines, city familiarity, practice facility familiarity, non-travel, it’s a home game.
But it’s far less of a home court advantage for UNLV than would be had by UNM, SDSU, USU, CSU, Wyoming, etc … there’d be the same advantages of home court that UNLV enjoys … but very few opposing fans would travel to those venues and there’d be a very lopsided attendance allegiance. And if that home team is actually good, it’s even bigger.
To say they aren’t home games is just silly. To say it’s a huge home court advantage is also silly. It’s home court with a diminished home court advantage for various reasons.
At least the past few years I would say it is much more close to a neutral site game than it is a home game. Different floor, much different set up with the stands changing the site lines, different bench etc. Obviously the fan make up, especially recently. Besides the locker rooms, not much different from having the tourney in a different Las Vegas Venue.
The NCAA officially changing that designation does matter since the move to NET vs RPI where home games and neutral games are weighted quite a bit differently. It would steal away quad 1 wins which are key if you are in the bubble conversation.
They could play at the MGM or Orleans or DLC - still a home game, imo. That said, it would be more confusing to call a non-UCLA, non-USC venue in LA for the conference tournament a home game for either team though. In that case, I’d have to call it a neutral site.
Same building though - home game. Period.
Well if they are going to count it as a home game anyway, let's make it a part of season tickets with first dibs to rebel fans, keep our home court, bench, locker room, same standard stand set up, etc.
Home games get added weight for several factors. If they want to call it a home game, let's make them effing home games
If the product was exciting and we had 12k in the stands for those games while the opposition brought 2K, yet we were in different lockers and a different bench, is it still not a home game?
It’s absolutely a home game with minimized HCA only because we don’t draw our own fans.
Let’s call it what it is.
I absolutely, positively remember having a very strong home court advantage in 1998 (and many times since then) while we were underdogs in all 4 games and on opposite benches and locker rooms and it was very evident that the large home game advantage was solely due to our fervent fans showing up en masse.
It sounds more like people are pissed off because we are losing at home when we shouldn’t and it’s at least in part to our own fans not showing up for whatever reason, so instead they want flop home court to neutral court to somehow make a loss more palatable.
And are you saying SDSU wouldn’t have a home court advantage if the games were in Viejas? The Pit is selling out too, if the MWCT is in ALBQ, it’s not a home game for the Lobos if they are in a different locker room?
Come on. We’d be complaining that it’s a road game for us and a home game for them if we met in the finals in ALBQ.
Several coaches have complained about it being in the Mack … in the past … IN THE PAST … they don’t say anything about it now. Why? Because we aren’t competitive and we don’t bring fans so the home court advantage is diminished … because of non success.
Come on. We’d be complaining that it’s a road game for us and a home game for them if we met in the finals in ALBQ.
Several coaches have complained about it being in the Mack … in the past … IN THE PAST … they don’t say anything about it now. Why? Because we aren’t competitive and we don’t bring fans so the home court advantage is diminished … because of non success.
If we are good and we are competitive and we have a strong home court advantage … it should STILL be in Vegas. I’ve always felt that. Not as a fan who wants the advantage.
If you are going to go neutral, that’s best, but the Denver experiment shows it doesn’t work.
So if it has to go to a host city, it should be Vegas … because opposing fans show up. It’s easy travel, accommodations and entertainment for opposing fans, it’s attractive. That the opposition shows up weakens our HCA a bit. That wouldn’t happen in other MWC cities.
But if it’s in Vegas, it should be a different venue than the Mack, tbh. To balance things even more.
I’d get more creative if I were commish though. The tourney winner hosts the MWCT the following year. You win an auto bid, but you earn even more. A future hosting of the conference tournament. Like the MLB All-Star game. I think that game finally grabbed some value above providing a fun exhibition for the fans.
If you are going to go neutral, that’s best, but the Denver experiment shows it doesn’t work.
So if it has to go to a host city, it should be Vegas … because opposing fans show up. It’s easy travel, accommodations and entertainment for opposing fans, it’s attractive. That the opposition shows up weakens our HCA a bit. That wouldn’t happen in other MWC cities.
But if it’s in Vegas, it should be a different venue than the Mack, tbh. To balance things even more.
I’d get more creative if I were commish though. The tourney winner hosts the MWCT the following year. You win an auto bid, but you earn even more. A future hosting of the conference tournament. Like the MLB All-Star game. I think that game finally grabbed some value above providing a fun exhibition for the fans.
I'm not trying to make excuses for why we lose games in the tournament. I'm not saying there isn't any advantage, there is. But not enough to count it as a true home game.
The fact that we have hosted so many years in a row and decreased the advantage too due to familiarity. The home court advantage is potentially there, but it has not for several years. In big part to our lack of fan support, but also because teams are just more comfortable here.
Also things are different that 1998.
RPI didn't weight home games nearly as much, if at all. The NET does.
Say we had the same record/NET and UNR right now. Bubble team perhaps on the outside looking in.
For home games quad one have to be top 25, neutral is top 50. Considering there are several top 50 teams in the MW as there usually is, the tournament is a great way to build the resume to get back into the conversation. Now 2 or 3 possible teams are now eliminated from being quad 1 games for us. That blows.
I'm not saying we should move away from Vegas, but we should move from the T&M. The PAC dissolving opens up more opportunities.
I didnt mean midseason I meant if the UNLV BB program gets to the point where this is an issue then the MWC should probably move to a neutral arena. I dont think it will be an issue playing at the Mack.
I don't think even if in the future it becomes Relevant that it significantly matters. Home or neutral, I'd rather play at the Mack than one of the other venues around town or in a different city.
So if the tourney is moved to ALBQ or SDSU, should they count as home games for those two squads?
You and I both know the answer is yes.
Depends on the situation.
Also, it is not exactly apples to apples. No other city is enough of a destination city for travelers. So the crowd make up would be different. Las Vegas creates a more balanced crowd than anywhere else. Even in those games where we had good crowds at home and we were playing in semifinal games against UNM or SDSU, crowds weren't even, but well represented on both sides.
But that nothing to do with my argument.
My point that a new ruling creates a disadvantage for UNLV, and if they can move it to a new venue in Las Vegas to eliminate that disadvantage,
Well that is hard to judge.
Take away 2 WTF losses this year, and UNLV would be in that discussion.
WTF games are a concern and I am not trying to downplay them. But on the other hand, considering the teams we have also beaten highlights the fact that those losses were especially head-scratching. PLay those games 10 times, UNLV would win the majority of them.
