Turnovers . . .

TTech was one of the quickest (shortest) games in a long time -- or did it just seem that way after last Monday night?? Yet, we had more turnovers (15) than against OK (14). I'll attribute it to the Phog, but this does not bode well for future road games.

A win nonetheless (and the Cyclones lost!!!!),

RC

I attribute it to not being fully recovered. I attribute Wayne's shooting woes and Perry's low efficiency to that as well. It is so hard to play with the need intensity all the time and I thought as a team we really did not have it. IMHO the only player that has the mentality to play intense all the time is Frank. I am not trying to knock any of the other guys and I am not suggesting they are not great but Frank is intense. I am just glad we got the win. I think our depth was a big part of the win. We needed the guys like Svi and C-Note who did not do a whole lot in the OU contest to come in vs. T Tech and get us going.

RC

Perhaps the single greatest 'mystery' of competitive sports is why athletes and teams of athletes show a significant diminution in performance when 'on the road.' Like depression, which can be the result of a chemical imbalance or can be situational, or some combination of both, athletic performance is subject to so many different and often contradictory influences, that it has proven to be a difficult to understand today as it was 60 years ago when I was just starting to think about it as a fan and as a budding athlete. In fact, as everyone who pays any attention at all to sports, performance drops off when a team or an individual athlete leaves 'home,' unless the athlete has a chance to acclimate to the new venue or location. In basketball, you have different sight lines, different floor conditions, different fans, travel effects, stress from travel, etc. Simply playing at a new and somewhat strange venue is enough by itself to affect performance, so we get to see KU (and pretty much everyone else) play less well when they are on the road. And it's not just that the home team plays better, which it often does, but if really a subtle but measurable drop off in several different areas of the game. Given the complex nature of Bill Self's offense and defense, a modest drop off in even one area for even one player will become magnified as it resonates through the entire team. Selden misses 6 3s, and it changes everything. If 3 or 4 of those are successful, the entire game changes, and changes is a much more profound way. If Perry Ellis has a headache, and can't sleep in his own bed in order to alleviate the pain, he makes a couple of mistakes on the floor that are magnified by Selden's misses. And on and on. So generally I don't see road wins, however ugly, as meaning much about the team, except that winning is the only goal, and if achieved, gets us one win closer to another league title. Much like a box score, a rebound is a rebound, even if the rebounder was the only guy within 10 feet of the ball. A 3 pointer that banks in at the buzzer is the same as a pure shot created by a great pass and a strong screen.
In other words, we won. It wasn't pretty, but it was solid and when TT comes to Lawrence we should win with a lot more style and probably by a lot more than 10 points. Let's see what happens on Tuesday, in Morgantown. Will anyone of you be upset if we win by 1?

Exactly. It's absolutely true in regard to different sight lines, floor, and even the difference of walking into your own locker room with "your" stuff where you expect it to be so that any pregame rituals are predictable and stable.

As much as it can be seen as a dropoff going to another gym, I think it's equal (or even more) comfort of being at home. Consider that our guys aren't just in AFH shooting a couple times a week at games. They're regularly practicing for hours at a time there. Selden isn't just taking 15-20 shots there in games weekly, but is likely taking hundreds of shots in practice.

Tech has an experienced team and Tubby is a veteran coach. They're improving and I have a feeling that by the end of the season an "ugly win" in Lubbock is going to look better and better.

Onto WVU, that's going to be a tough one. Today's paper has a WVU player saying that they feel slighted having to play their way into the top 25 as an unranked team in the pre-season, and they feel that they're every bit as good as KU and plan to show us. The best thing I think we have going for us is that we're a mature team, and the guys seem to have a chip on their shoulders. To you point, however, I'll take butt-ugly road wins any day of the week.

The degree of its impact varies by sport. In football, I think it's less of an issue. In football, it's more of a factor of playing indoor vs. outdoor (and the associated weather issues) and the field surface. So a team that plays primarily in a dome on artificial turf is going to be somewhat more uncomfortable playing in Lambeau on frozen grass.

Golf is another interesting sport where certain courses pose trouble for inexplicable reasons for certain players. Some guys simply can't play well in certain venues for purely psychological reasons.

In some sports, the venue itself is probably meaningless.

What IS significant for all sports is being physically and mentally prepared to perform at a high level. Last week, we were probably less physically ready than we'd normally be just from the OU hangover. Same deal mentally. Travel (as mentioned by others) can also have negative physical and mental impacts that need to be mitigated. ANY athlete who arrives late due to a delayed flight, gets stuck in less-than-ideal accommodations is going to be less prepared than somebody who can stay within their "routine" before it's time to compete.

I'd say venue is the biggest factor in basketball, hockey (how the boards and ice react in a particular venue), baseball (different outfield dimensions in various parks, etc.) are probably the most obvious situations where venue plays a bigger role. Ditto with golf (you'll play better on a course you've played a lot) and maybe most kinds of car racing where familiarity with the venue gives an advantage.