A study suggests Minnesota has Big Ten’s best student section

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Without reading the article -- and I say this with all due respect to our student section -- I give you one word (or make it 3):

Izzone.

Orange Crush.
 

Wow, this was his means of determining the best student section:

Corey Schmidt of the newly created blog Halcyon Hoops attempted to study the impact of Big Ten student sections by analyzing how each has affected opposing free throw shooters the past two seasons. His chosen method was to compare a visiting team's free throw percentage in the first half and second half of games because road teams shoot their free throws toward the student section after halftime at every Big Ten school.
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I guess I would love more at home court wins...but that's just me.
 


Coming from a student, it is very easy for me to say that we are NOT the best student section in the B1G. Not to mention that measuring free throw % is not the greatest way to measure the impact of a student section.
 


These kids shooting free throws are trained to concentrate on ignoring noise, arm waving, etc., when shooting free throws at the student section end of the court in the 2nd half. What they are NOT trained on is: Total silence and every student pull up and read a newspaper just as the opponent is shooting a free throw. The opponents are NOT trained for total silence with the background being every student reading a newspaper. Try it...it works.
 

DontHassleTheHoff said:
Coming from a student, it is very easy for me to say that we are NOT the best student section in the B1G. Not to mention that measuring free throw % is not the greatest way to measure the impact of a student section.
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Agreed, and coming from a former student 5 years removed, I'll agree with you. In my opinion about 20% of the student section really gives a hoot....going to the games with the intent of not having a voice afterwards, the rest just take up space. I'd give the nod to the Izzone and the Orange Crush from an overall standpoint, and measuring free throw % to determine the best student section is just laughable.
 

Yea. Just thought it was interesting. No need to analyze this too much.
 




Considering that we do NOTHING in the student section at the moment to distract the shooters at the line, this is really surprising news to me. Everyone just yells a little and throws their arms around in different directions - there is obviously no leadership in starting something there. Someone on the Barnyard Board needs to help us get an identity on something like that.
 

I think the barn is just visually difficult to shoot at. I've been on the floor once and took a few shots, I don't think I made one (and I consider myself a decent shooter).
 

gall0249 said:
I think the barn is just visually difficult to shoot at. I've been on the floor once and took a few shots, I don't think I made one (and I consider myself a decent shooter).
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This. This hit it on the head.

Remove all the people and I would bet that a detailed free throw study would show that Willum yields the worst percentage simply because of the uniqueness...the raised floor, etc.

Also, the statement of how the author of the study was startled that there were so many more free throws in the 2nd half compared to the first. DUH! Ever watched the end of a game??
 

gall0249 said:
I think the barn is just visually difficult to shoot at. I've been on the floor once and took a few shots, I don't think I made one (and I consider myself a decent shooter).
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Our historically awful "free throw defense" and bombardment of three pointers against us suggest otherwise. Opponents had the second best free throw percentage in the country, and have long had great success shooting in the barn. This "study" found statistical noise and little else. It could be just as likely that the free throws were in higher percentage situations given the multitude of close games, or change, or anything. Statistical significane anyone?

Free throws: http://kenpom.com/teamstats.php?s=RankFTPct&od=d


And please note this "study" doesn't even attempt to show which arena is the most difficult to shoot in. It only attempts to quantify the difference in free throw percentage by road teams between the two halves.
 



No, our student section isn't the best in the Big Ten. But I will say this: In the 1990s, Williams Arena had the best atmosphere in the conference, but the student section was just along for the ride, certainly not making any more noise than anybody else. Today, Williams is nowhere near where it used to be, but the student section at least tries to get the crowd going.

Can it improve? Sure. But without the student section today ... we'd be in trouble.
 

From the Barn said:
Our historically awful "free throw defense" and bombardment of three pointers against us suggest otherwise.
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That's just what I was thinking when I read those stats. Being at the games, seems to me especially in the last two seasons that the Gophers' opponents never miss their free throws, especially late in a tight game. We miss plenty, but it sure doesn't seem like our visitors do.
 

Other than the Purdue game, the student section was pretty bad. Living out of state the only game I attended was against Michigan, they were half asleep ans during free throws they made minimal effort to distract the free throw shooter. I know theyre not allowed signs and such but Id love to see some giant Tubby head cutout of the infamous Tubby stare or Mbakwe heads waving back and forth in the student section.
 

The Cameron Crazy in the Speedo about 10-15 years ago

It's not often I'll compliment the Cameron Crazies, but the guy who stood & danced right behind the basket in a Speedo with his gut hanging out (the rest of the student section sat down) while UNC was shooting a free throw was a classic student section performance. I know if I had been shooting the free throw, that would have distracted me.
 

Anyone read Scorecasting? The authors posit that home court/field/ice advantage stems not from the crowd's influence on the players, but rather the crowd's influence on referee bias. It's an interesting position backed up by data, though some of it has been debunked by Sabermetricians. If you are a sports fan and liked Freakonomics, I'd recommend this book.
 

All I know is that the Barnyard was great the first couple of seasons that it was around (04-05 and 05-06). I'm sure it was a combination of desperation (born when less than 100 student season tickets were sold after the Hump year), flying by the seat of the pants, and being fairly autonomous from the rest of the athletic department/ticket office.
 

Slight tilt from center line

I would think that a shooters accuracy would be off slightly if all the students sat with their arms straight up and just at the moment the shooter begins his final motion to shoot, tilt slightly to their right maybe 6 degrees (the shooters left). This slight distortion at the last minute would challenge the brain to adjust for background distortion and complicate the shot. The motion must be executed at the last possible moment. Otherwise, the brain will have already executed its response to background distortion. The brain reacts in fractions of a second. So, the opportunity is small, but relevant. The same effect would be to move the arms backward or alternatively forward, creating mental confusion of distance during the actual pre-release moment.

Thinking of how the brain actually sees, if the students around a circle of maybe 10 feet diameter directly in line with the shooters view of the basket did nothing and the fans around them made the pre-release illusion, the brain would have difficulty at the last moment to interpret what it was actually seeing at the basket. One eye would be suggesting motion, the other would be suggesting no motion. The brain would be seeing tilting and no tilting at the same time. How the brain could reconcile this visual discontinuity would create the best condition for mental distortion in my opinion.

Reversing this on the second shot would add additional complexity to the brain to overcome.
 

DR DON ----- YOU MUST HAVE PLAYED OR COACHED IN THE WOODS ----- I DON"T THINK YOU HAVE EVER SHOT A FREE-THROW
 

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