For some people, college basketball season is the most wonderful time of the year. It’s competitive, exciting and emotional.
When league play starts, a whole new level of emotion is unlocked. For as long as college rivalries go back, one of the most riveting situations is when an opponent comes to town and prepares to take on a team in its own territory.
In the SEC, territory is protected. The environments that thousands of passionate fans can create for opposing teams is remarkable, yet terrifying.
Kentucky basketball has arguably one of the best fan bases in the country and even has one of the biggest basketball arenas in the SEC to prove it.
In fact, with a capacity of 20,500, Rupp Arena is not only one of the largest arenas in its league, but it’s one of the largest college arenas in the country.
Wildly passionate fans, a massive arena and the program with the most ever wins in college basketball history – this is a school that should be in the dictionary under the definition of terrifying.
But it’s not.
Rupp Arena has all of the power to be terrifying, yet “home court advantage” is something that has meant less and less to Kentucky basketball teams over the years.
Since Rupp was first opened in 1976 No. 17 Kentucky’s 89-85 loss to Gonzaga on Feb. 10 marked the first time any UK team had lost three consecutive games on its home court, two of which were unranked.
It started with an overtime loss to the Florida Gators 94-91 (Jan. 31), followed by No. 5 Tennessee 103-92 (Feb. 3) and continued with the Bulldogs the following week.
Critics are pointing the finger to an array of issues right now: inexperienced freshman, head coach John Calipari, defense, playing time, etc.
No matter what the issue, these losses still should not be happening. It’s called “home court advantage” because it’s literally supposed to give the home team the advantage. The upper hand. The power-up when those seasonal issues are still prevalent.
Other SEC arenas are closer to the size of a high school than to Rupp arena, but a smaller size also puts the fans closer to the court, allowing colleges to have their students just a few feet away from the sidelines, yet students are nowhere to be found on Kentucky’s sidelines. Instead, they are tucked away behind the basket, with their only hope of having an impact coming when distracting opponents from making a free throw.
Instead, Kentucky’s sidelines consist of high-paying season ticket holders who could never produce a fraction of the noise the student section could. The only time this section can be counted on to get on their feet is for the National Anthem.
It could also be that the arena is just losing its intimidation factor when opponents are told that they are going to be taking on the Wildcats in Lexington.
Over a span of 10 seasons (2009-2019), Kentucky had four unranked losses on its home court. For the following five seasons up until today (2019-2024), the Wildcats have suffered 13 unranked losses in their own territory.
Yes, this year’s team has a long list of things it needs to fix before March, but it’s not helping that Kentucky’s home court is not giving these players any amount of an advantage during a game.
In the midst of this home court losing streak, the Wildcats will host Ole Miss on Tuesday, Feb. 13 inside Rupp Arena in hopes of putting an end to these home losses.
