[76lsjumb]

 Perhaps this is the real reason for home court advantage--it is not that the players feed on the energy of the crowd, but the refs do?

You're correct and backed up by studies of officiating, like this one: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...0902729733  Perhaps it was a different sport (maybe pro football?) but I recall a study showing that you can explain almost all of the home field/court advantage by referees favoring the home team.

The study I linked to also shows that when one team is ahead in fouls, they call them on the other team more.  Full text here: http://home.kelley.iupui.edu/kyjander/Of...ersion.pdf

tldr: college basketball officials suck, and when your team loses on the road, that's why.

In this study, we examined the pattern of foul calls exhibited during 365 NCAA basketball games during the 2004–2005 season. Results of the analysis indicate that officials are more likely to call fouls on the team with the fewest fouls, making it likely that the number of fouls will tend to even out during the game. This increased probability increases as the foul differential increases. In addition, there is a significant bias towards officials calling more fouls on the visiting team, and a bias towards foul calls on the team that is leading. The result is that the probability of the next foul being called on the visiting team can reach as high as 0.70. Finally, the implications of this officiating bias are explored, including the fact that basketball teams have an incentive to play more aggressively, leading to more physical play over time.

So what you're saying is that screaming "Make-up call !!" isn't simply the product of emotion, it's actually... SCIENCE!

As for last night, I believe that our number of free throws taken by the end of regulation -- 3 [yes, that's right; we had one more in OT for 4 total] -- is far and away the fewest number of free throws awarded to Stanford in a game in at least 5 seasons [the only stats I could quickly check online].  Meanwhile, Utah had something like 17 FT's by the end of regulation.  We shot 1.000 ... and still got massively outscored from the line.

The only thing the refs got right last night was not letting Rylan Jones come back into the game after the hometown clock guy completely screwed up our last 3.8 seconds of regulation.  Of course, stopping the game for his phantom ankle-twist, when we had just obtained possession on the rebound and had a transition opportunity, was just another of the many gifts the refs bestowed on Utah throughout the game.

I think the US.C loss was on us [despite outrageous reffing], but last night's loss was courtesy of the refs.

[76lsjumb]

 Perhaps this is the real reason for home court advantage--it is not that the players feed on the energy of the crowd, but the refs do?

You're correct and backed up by studies of officiating, like this one: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...0902729733  Perhaps it was a different sport (maybe pro football?) but I recall a study showing that you can explain almost all of the home field/court advantage by referees favoring the home team.

The study I linked to also shows that when one team is ahead in fouls, they call them on the other team more.  Full text here: http://home.kelley.iupui.edu/kyjander/Of...ersion.pdf

tldr: college basketball officials suck, and when your team loses on the road, that's why.

In this study, we examined the pattern of foul calls exhibited during 365 NCAA basketball games during the 2004–2005 season. Results of the analysis indicate that officials are more likely to call fouls on the team with the fewest fouls, making it likely that the number of fouls will tend to even out during the game. This increased probability increases as the foul differential increases. In addition, there is a significant bias towards officials calling more fouls on the visiting team, and a bias towards foul calls on the team that is leading. The result is that the probability of the next foul being called on the visiting team can reach as high as 0.70. Finally, the implications of this officiating bias are explored, including the fact that basketball teams have an incentive to play more aggressively, leading to more physical play over time.

So what you're saying is that screaming "Make-up call !!" isn't simply the product of emotion, it's actually... SCIENCE!

As for last night, I believe that our number of free throws taken by the end of regulation -- 3 [yes, that's right; we had one more in OT for 4 total] -- is far and away the fewest number of free throws awarded to Stanford in a game in at least 5 seasons [the only stats I could quickly check online].  Meanwhile, Utah had something like 17 FT's by the end of regulation.  We shot 1.000 ... and still got massively outscored from the line.

The only thing the refs got right last night was not letting Rylan Jones come back into the game after the hometown clock guy completely screwed up our last 3.8 seconds of regulation.  Of course, stopping the game for his phantom ankle-twist, when we had just obtained possession on the rebound and had a transition opportunity, was just another of the many gifts the refs bestowed on Utah throughout the game.

I think the US.C loss was on us [despite outrageous reffing], but last night's loss was courtesy of the refs.