Home and away statistical differences in Virginia Tech men's Metro basketball games

Abstract

There is considerable agreement that a basketball team enjoys some type of advantage on the team's home court. This study tried to determine whether that advantage was evident in the team's statistics, and whether that advantage was significant over time. The experimental design consisted of t-tests performed on nine different statistical categories, comparing home and away performances. Those statistics were gathered from 43 home and 43 away Virginia Tech regular season Metro Conference men's basketball contests from 1979 through 1987. Results from the testing indicated that there were significantly more points scored at home than on the road. Also, testing showed that Virginia Tech had a significantly higher winning percentage at home than it did on the road. While testing revealed that there were no significant differences in the other seven categories studied, it was concluded that slightly better performances across several categories may cause greater success at home. Continued research on the home court advantage theory is suggested.