Best College BBall Arena I'd make this a poll but I'd no doubt leave out someone's favorite place to see a game. Tell what arena is best in all of the NCAA, can be any Venue. I already know the factual answer but I wanna see some opinions, because we all knowthere are some sacred places to college hoops.
Cameron Indoor is a great arena, even thought their fans are meh, Assembly Hall in Illinois and the Kohl Center here in Madison are both insane, too (w00t), and I think that a couple of underrated tough places to play are Minnesota's home floor and also Iowa State's Hilton Arena.
The Best place to see a Basketball game in the world in the Penn Palestra. A crowded Palestra is the loudest and most classic arena I have ever been too, people who don't know the Philly area might not know much about it but Big 5 games at the Palestra can't be topped. The number one game all year of any College basketball game (if you ignore rankings and only look at the rivalry, the history, and the location) is the Holy War between St. Joe's and Villanova at the Palestra.
Basically anywhere in the Big 10 or ACC is tough. An underrated place to play is Maryland's Cole Field house. They are always crazy. Rupp is always a tough place to play as well, even though so far it's a down year for UK, it will really get cranked up later on in the SEC, when UK starts playing better.
Go down to see a UNC-Duke game on either court and they are both crazy. I'd have to agree with Gators that Maryland's arenas looks like a really tough place to play, I wouldn't want to go down there late in the season.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Fast Luck:</div><div class="quote_post">Maryland's Cole Field House? Do they even use that?</div> lol, have they changed it? It was Cole Field House when they won the National Championship a couple of years ago and I hadn't heard anything about them changing it. Nevermind, I just talked to my friend whose a Terp fan, and he said it's Comcast Center now. My mistake.
Here's what I think are the three hardest places to play in America - 1) Assemby Hall - Illinois - In their last 100 home games, the Illini are 97-3, and they also currently hold the second longest home winning streak in college basketball. Most impressively, even though they've played some really great non-conference competition at home (#1 Wake Forest in '04, #14 North Carolina in '03, etc.), they're 52-0 at home since 1999 against non-conference competition. 2) The Kohl Center - Wisconsin - How many wins in a row do they have now, 38? They really don't get any respect on the national level. You'll hear Dick Vitale going on and on about Cameron Indoor, and then they get pumbled by Maryland. Wisconsin hasn't just padded their home record against "gimmes" like Duke has either. They've been consistent against the nation's best competition. I think Michigan State is something like 0-7 at the Kohl Center under Izzo, and that says a hell of a lot considering all the great Final Four teams they've had. 3) The Breslin Center - Michigan State - They've only lost something like three or four times at home since 1998, including an amazing 53-0 stretch from 1998 to 2002.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">Here's what I think are the three hardest places to play in America - 1) Assemby Hall - Illinois - In their last 100 home games, the Illini are 97-3, and they also currently hold the second longest home winning streak in college basketball. Most impressively, even though they've played some really great non-conference competition at home (#1 Wake Forest in '04, #14 North Carolina in '03, etc.), they're 52-0 at home since 1999 against non-conference competition. 2) The Kohl Center - Wisconsin - How many wins in a row do they have now, 38? They really don't get any respect on the national level. You'll hear Dick Vitale going on and on about Cameron Indoor, and then they get pumbled by Maryland. Wisconsin hasn't just padded their home record against "gimmes" like Duke has either. They've been consistent against the nation's best competition. I think Michigan State is something like 0-7 at the Kohl Center under Izzo, and that says a hell of a lot considering all the great Final Four teams they've had. 3) The Breslin Center - Michigan State - They've only lost something like three or four times at home since 1998, including an amazing 53-0 stretch from 1998 to 2002.</div> Hmm...Big 10, Big 10, Big 10. I like it! Breslin is tough as hell, too. When the Badgers play @ Illinois, I have a rational and serious sense of how tough it's going to be, but against MSU @ the Izzone, you just feel like something's going to happen, there's a bit of a mystique around it, like "uh-oh" lol.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Schaddy:</div><div class="quote_post">Hmm...Big 10, Big 10, Big 10. I like it! Breslin is tough as hell, too. When the Badgers play @ Illinois, I have a rational and serious sense of how tough it's going to be, but against MSU @ the Izzone, you just feel like something's going to happen, there's a bit of a mystique around it, like "uh-oh" lol.</div> Well, no other places in other conferences really stood out to me in terms of difficulty. There are places like Hinkle Fieldhouse that have great history, but I Butler's really beatable at home. The same goes for teams like Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, and Duke. I probably would have put Cameron Indoor up there, until I remembered that Maryland is 3-1 there in the last four years. Playing at Duke isn't as much as a guaranteed loss as playing at Illinois is. Besides, if I extended my list to a top 25, I'm not sure if I'd have more than one (or maybe two) Big Ten teams on there outside of those top three. Just be sure not to pass my post off as biased, because Wisconsin and Illinois are #1 and #2 in the nation in home winning streaks, and I can count the number of home games Michigan State has lost since about '97-98 on one hand.
I would put the Kohl Center above both Michigan State and Illinois. By the way, Illinois is called Assembly Hall too, just like Indiana? Anyway, MSU and Illinois have had such dominant teams, it's no wonder they win at home. They have good homecourt advantages too, but if you consider Illinois, they just about went undefeated anyway last season. Meanwhile, Wisconsin is like magic at home, but away they're sometimes pretty mediocre. This is from the game recap when they finally lost a home game to Illinois last season: And that's what bothered the Badgers, who fell to 53-3 at home under Bo Ryan, who lost a Big Ten home game for the first time in his four seasons as coach. "The guys weren't worried about losing any streak. It was a Big Ten conference game. That's all we were playing for," said Ryan, whose teams are 26-1 at home in the league since he took over in 2001. Wilkinson, who played in all 38 straight homecourt victories, said the Badgers won't sulk about the end of the streak. "It's over," he said. "We've got to move on."
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Fast Luck:</div><div class="quote_post">I would put the Kohl Center above both Michigan State and Illinois. By the way, Illinois is called Assembly Hall too, just like Indiana? Anyway, MSU and Illinois have had such dominant teams, it's no wonder they win at home. They have good homecourt advantages too, but if you consider Illinois, they just about went undefeated anyway last season. Meanwhile, Wisconsin is like magic at home, but away they're sometimes pretty mediocre. This is from the game recap when they finally lost a home game to Illinois last season: And that's what bothered the Badgers, who fell to 53-3 at home under Bo Ryan, who lost a Big Ten home game for the first time in his four seasons as coach. "The guys weren't worried about losing any streak. It was a Big Ten conference game. That's all we were playing for," said Ryan, whose teams are 26-1 at home in the league since he took over in 2001. Wilkinson, who played in all 38 straight homecourt victories, said the Badgers won't sulk about the end of the streak. "It's over," he said. "We've got to move on."</div> I still think that Assembly Hall (yeah, same as Indiana) is a tougher place to play. I don't think it's really fair to count it against the Illini for being a great team. Who's to say they wouldn't be so great at home even if they had a lousy team? They've taken down a few #1 ranked teams in Assembly Hall and are undefeated in the past seven years in nonconference play. That's an accomplishment no matter how much talent you have. It's not like the Badgers have been lousy either. On a few occassions in recent memory, they've even had a better team than the Illini did. For example, in the 1999-2000 season, Illinois lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and the Badgers went to the Final Four. In 2002-2003, the Badgers finished 24-8 while the Illini finished 25-7, but the Badgers had a better conference record. Even when the Illini have the better team, the Badgers will probably still crack the rankings, like last season when they were #10 in the nation at the end of the season. Even with success aside, the Wisconsin red is a lot easier on the eyes than the Illinois orange. I'm sure that orange really bugs the hell out of the players, because it sure bugs the hell out of me trying to watch the games from home. Either way, I wouldn't want to have to play on the road in either arena. Back to back games against Illinois and Wisconsin are like two guaranteed losses. I felt pretty cheated when Michigan State wound up playing in those arenas in their first few conference games.
Of course I'm going to go with The Kennel (Gonzaga). Small arena that is always packed and is home to the longest current home winning streak.
Basically, all the Big 10 arenas are very tough to play in. Wisconsin and Illinois seem to be nearly impossible to win at and Michigan State has always been tough to play at, because the "Izzone" seems to never stop rockin' Kansas, Duke, UNC, etc are others who seem to take it to another level when playing at home.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting UKOwnstheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">Basically, all the Big 10 arenas are very tough to play in. Wisconsin and Illinois seem to be nearly impossible to win at and Michigan State has always been tough to play at, because the "Izzone" seems to never stop rockin' Kansas, Duke, UNC, etc are others who seem to take it to another level when playing at home.</div> I remember when Oregon was good, the Pit was one of the most deadliest stadiums to play in. Even now, it's still loud as hell up there but they just don't got the talent they had when they had Ridnour, Jackson, and Jones. I also think New Mexico's arena is loud. I watched couple of their games last year and this year, they beat Utah last year in that place.
<font color=""Blue""><u>Cameron Indoor Stadium</u></font> has to be the toughest place for any opposing team to play at. The Cameron Crazies are the most mocked fans in College Hoops. Does anyone think there is a harder arena to play in?
You don't have to look far to see what everyone else thinks, since it's like 3 threads down on the first page! http://www.justbball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48551 Not many people agree with you, by the way. That's because this year, they should have lost to Virginia Tech (of all teams!) at home, and only won on a last second hail Mary. And that's because last year, they lost at home to Maryland. And the year before that, they lost at home to Maryland. There are a handful of schools that probably haven't been as good as Duke that haven't lost as often at home.
