Home vs. Away

Indiana University is a basketball school. It’s the home of the Hoosiers. It’s where Bobby Knight made a name for himself (both good and bad). It’s a place where a good number of undergraduates enroll only because of the basketball team’s reputation.

I’ve been in Indiana now for nearly 10 years. I was here at the tail end of Bobby Knight’s tenure, at a time when he was losing as much as he was winning. I was also here for all of the Mike Davis years, which had a lot of bad (missing the NCAA men’s tournament, missing any postseason play) and some good (runner up in the NCAA men’s tournament in 2002). This season is the first with new head coach Kelvin Sampson, and they are finding some success.

Currently the men’s team has a record of 17-8, with a record of 7-5 in Big Ten division play. All of the team’s losses this season have been games played away from Bloomington.

That got me wondering. How can a team play so well at home but lose 2/3 of their games played away? And how can you teach your players to play well away?

If anyone has any ideas about how to do this, I’m ready to listen. And I’m sure the Hoosiers would be too.