During
the regular season most games are played on one team's home court. The most accurate handicapping results in
such games are achieved by using the applicable home and road statistics for
each team.
During
March Madness, however, most games are played on a neutral court. When handicapping teams on a neutral court,
there are three possible sets of past performance statistics that can be used:
- Road games only for each team
-
Neutral court games only for each team
- All past performances combined - home, road, and
neutral court
Each
set of past performances will produce different results. The problem for the handicapper is deciding
which set of past performances will produce the most accurate results.
Rule: When handicapping a basketball game being
played on a neutral court, overall past performances -- home, road and neutral
court combined -- will produce the most accurate predictions.
In
neutral court tournament games, we are seeking to measure each team's abilities
without regard to any home court advantage.
Another name for the home advantage is the road disadvantage. A small part of the home edge is that the
home team is more comfortable. The road
team may have had a long and tiring trip, may be eating unfamiliar food, is
sleeping in unfamiliar beds, and may be in a different time zone. Most teams, however, travel enough that they
become acclimated quickly. The largest
part of the home advantage comes from the fact that the home team has more
familiarity with the court, has better access to regularly schedule practices,
and is playing in front of a crowd of fans that are cheering only for the home
team, and doing everything in their
power to negatively affect the visitors.
The
problem with using road game past performances only for both teams in the
tournaments is that road statistics do not measure a team's ability without
regard to home advantage or road disadvantage.
Road-game statistics are skewed by the fact that the advantages and
disadvantages for the teams in the game were unequal, with the road team always
taking the worst of it. The full road
disadvantage is automatically built into every road game performance. We can expect a team to play better on a
neutral court than on an opponent's home court.
When
teams play on a truly neutral court, the travel disadvantages are equal for
both, there is no fan advantage for either team, and both are equally
unfamiliar with the court. Logically,
using neutral court past performances only should produce an accurate
result. The problem with using only
neutral court games, however, is that there are rarely enough of them during
the season to produce a statistically reliable picture.
College
basketball teams change greatly from season to season. The only past performances that are relevant
to the current team are the current season games. In any given season, most teams play fewer than a half dozen
games on neutral courts, and, as discussed in my article about the hidden home
court edge, the courts listed as neutral may not be truly neutral. The larger our statistical sample, the more
precise our handicapping is likely is to be.
Conversely, the smaller our sample, the more likely it is that the
results will be skewed and will not measure the team's abilities accurately.
Using
overall statistics solves both problems.
- Using all games gives us
the largest possible statistical base from which to handicap.
.
- The
home advantage built into the home game statistics and the road
disadvantage built into the road game statistics cancel each other out,
and what we are left with the most accurate picture we can achieve of the
abilities of both teams without regard to the location of the game.
No
one is better than Rob when it comes to handicapping the March college
basketball tournaments. Rob?s rare
tournament Crowne Jewel play was an easy winner two days ago, and Rob?s Play of
the Day was winner last night.. Rob?s
March tournament record for the past two years is over 61%, and Rob?s record
here at Pregame so far this season is 67%.
To get today?s March Madness winners or Rob?s complete March Madness
Package, CLICK HERE.