"This is the world's most distracting object," marveled Stanford Pines, owner and proprietor of The Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls, Oregon, as he revealed one of the many objects in his shop. "Just try to look away -- you can't!"
I can't help but hear our beloved Grunkle Stan's voice echo through my subconscious every time I take a gander over at the BYU student section. They turn basketball games into manic episodes. Stirring the very souls of those who dare to face their wall of blue. Balloons, hypnotizing spinners, used car lot blow-up tube men, and the most disjointed barrage of faces and words one could even conceive.
It's like taking a stroll through Japan's Don Quixote -- enter at your own risk, exit with rainbows beaming from your eye sockets. You don't even know the meaning of overstimulation until you've seen the mouth of basketball hell.
Loud from tip to buzzer, BYU's Roar of the Cougars gives Kevin Young's team one of the best home court advantages in all of college basketball. Not bad for a private religious school out in Utah.
"Okay, that's all well and good," I can hear you thinking to yourself. "But is there any evidence that this home court advantage actually makes a difference, or do you just believe that it does?"
I'm so glad you asked.
As of today, Wednesday, December 17, 2025, it has been over a month since an opponent last made a free throw while staring down the barrel of the ROC.
best free throw defense in the nation 🙂↕️ https://t.co/is2iSWjrjD pic.twitter.com/fiNAL97RRj
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) December 17, 2025
Just watching yesterday's clash with the Pacific Tigers was evidence enough that mere mortals would likely soil themselves at the very sight of this amorphous conglomeration. With Chick-fil-A on the line, and just two missed free throws required, hands, props, and mouths all worked interdependently to form what may be the most horrific image for any competitor.
In the second half of every Marriott Center matchup, the visiting team must shoot every free throw before the judging and hazing screech of the ROC. They're failing to convert, and at a reliable rate.
It's a task that few dare undertake, and one that even fewer escape unharmed. For the past month, none of the Cougars' adversaries have been able to withstand their influence. Not the Pacific Tigers, the UC Riverside Highlanders, nor the Cal Baptist Lancers.
Come Big 12 play, BYU will need all the help they can get. When every point counts, count on the ROC to steal a few at the line.