WCC Basketball’s home court advantage is underrated

Home court advantage is real. Often it’s seen as an excuse for a loss or given way too much credit in a win. But WCC Basketball’s advantage at home is real.

Last month when BYU Basketball lost to San Francisco in San Francisco, fans began to act like it was the end of the world. How could BYU, the school that has over 30,000 students and a roster full of 3- and 4-star talent lose to San Diego?!

Short answer: Home court advantage.

Long answer: The WCC in general is having an unbelievable, off the charts kind of season at home. Currently there are seven (well more than half the conference) teams that have lost twice or less at home. Even Portland, who is 7-16 this season, is 6-7 at home.

Here’s the complete list:

Gonzaga: 13-0
San Fransisco: 12-1
San Diego: 11-1
Loyola Marymount: 10-1
BYU:11-2
Saint Mary’s: 11-2
Pepperdine: 7-3
Pacific: 9-4
Santa Clara: 9-5
Portland: 6-7

Evaluating the losses

To have a combined record of 99-26 is amazing, but when we look at where those losses came against, it is even more remarkable. Of the 26 losses, eight came to teams currently ranked in the Top 25, and 24 have come against teams that currently have a winning record. That’s unheard of for conferences that are not considered to be P5/P6.

How the WCC stacks up with everyone else at home

Every conference has an outlier team, or a team that can weigh everybody else down. For that reason, for this next list of some of the biggest conferences in the country, the lowest ranked team in each conference will be eliminated so that the overall statistics don’t plunge for one team. In some cases, removing the worst team will favor the WCC over other conferences. For example, the ACC’s worst team is 6-5 at home. But on the flip side the Pac-12’s worst team is 5-7 at home and the Mountain West has a 3-8 team.

WCC: 83.0%
Big 12: 82.5%
Big 10: 81.8%
AAC: 78.2%
Pac 12: 78.7%
CUSA: 76.9%
Big East: 76.9%
ACC: 76.8%
SEC: 76.3%
WAC 75.3%
MVC: 71.3%
MWC: 69.0%
Atlantic 10 – 66.8%

From a statistical standpoint, the difference between 76.3% and 83.0% may not seem like much, but to improve by 3-5% as a conference every team needs to average one extra win. For example, look at the average record of each team in the following conferences:

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WCC: 10.3-2.1
SEC: 8.9-2.7
MWC: 7.9-3.5
Atlantic 10: 7.2-3.8

Perhaps the craziest statistic is that the WCC is doing this without having a handful of elite teams. The Big 10 and ACC each have six teams currently ranked in the Top 25. That means that there are at least six teams that are really good and probably won’t have many if any home losses. Because of this, the rest of the conference can play average and the conference as a whole will remain in the low 80%’s.

The WCC has Gonzaga. After the Zags there is no other team ranked even in the Top 33 (Including others receiving votes). So for the WCC to only have one really good team and STILL lead the nation in home winning percentage is truly remarkable.

So next time BYU or anyone not named Gonzaga loses on the road don’t freak out. This is the WCC.