Gonzaga leads men with best overall home court winning percentage, while Tennessee tops women's list
Gonzaga once again leads all Division I teams with the best current home court winning percentage among all 344 men's teams through the 2011-12 season. The Zags have posted a record of 107-8 (.9304) in the 8 years they have played in the McCarthy Athletic Center, which was first used during the 2004-05 season. Gonzaga is the only school with a home court winning percentage of 90% or above. Pittsburgh is next in line with a 164-19 record (.8962), No. 3 Memphis checks in with a 145-17 mark (.8951), national champ Kentucky is next at 474-59 (.8893), and Xavier rounds out the top 5 with a record of 162-21 (.8852). 35 schools have won 80% or more of their games on their active home courts, and 143 schools have won 70% or more of their games on their home courts. Just 18 schools have losing home court records through the 2011-12 season. Click here for the entire men's list, including arena name and capacity, years in service, wins, losses, and winning percentages.
Tennessee takes top honors for the best women's current home court winning percentage, with a 353-23 mark (.9388) at Thompson-Boling Arena. The Lady Vols, however, are in a real dogfight with Connecticut, which has a 386-26 (.9369) record. The Lady Huskies' record includes some games at the Hartford Civic Center. If Tennessee had one more loss, UConn would be the leader by a hair, although the Lady Vols lead only by two thousandths of a percentage point right now. Close behind is Division I newcomer Florida Gulf Coast (84-6, .9333), whose record includes games prior to becoming an official D-I member. Green Bay (151-14, .9152) and Louisiana Tech (410-46, .8991) complete the top five. A total of 37 schools have current home court winning percentages of 80% or better and there are 99 schools with home court winning percentages of 70% or better. There are a total of 54 schools that have losing home court records through the 2011-12 season. Click here for the entire women's list, including arena name and capacity, years in service, wins, losses, and winning percentages.
Bracket Bits from The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report
Tidbits from recent issues of The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report
From The RPI Report: You may not
know much about them. They do not have an automatic bid to the NCAA
tournament. There were only 6 teams competing in the league during the
2011-12 season. But the Great West Conference did one thing no other
conference did during this past season. It had the best conference games
only home court winning percentage of any conference in Division I, with
teams going 22-8 in home conference games for a winning percentage of
73.3%. Next were the SEC (67-29, 69.8%), the Mountain West (39-17, 69.6%),
the Mid-American (65-31, 67.7%), and the Pac-12 (72-36, 66.7%). There is
no particular significance to the conference games only home court winning
percentage. It shows that it is much harder to win on the road in some
conferences than in other conferences in any given year. It does not
compare conferences to each other or years to one another. Instead, it
shows which conferences have the best home court success during conference
play in a given year.
From The Women's RPI Report: The
Summit League had the best conference games only home court winning
percentage for the 2011-12 season. The league had a record of 60-30 in
home court conference games for a 66.7% winning percentage. The Mountain
West (35-21) and Sun Belt (60-36) were tied for second at 62.5%, and the
Atlantic Sun, Big South, and Missouri Valley were tied for fourth (all at
56-34, 62.2%). The best such percentage since CBN began
compiling these data in the 1999-2000 season was in 2003, when the
Mountain West had a 73.3% conference games only home court winning
percentage. These data do not show the strength of conferences against
each other, but rather show how hard it is to win on a conference
opponent’s court during a particular year.
Teams with No. 1 schedule strength rankings can usually look forward to NCAA tournament invitation
Michigan State finished regular season with No. 1 schedule strength rank and went 2-1 in NCAA tournament
Michigan State finished in a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten, won the Big Ten tournament, and ended up with the best schedule strength in the land for the 2012 regular season. The Spartans received a No. 1 seed, making it to the Sweet 16 before losing to Louisville in the West Regional Semifinals by a score of 57-44. Since 1991, 17 of the 22 teams holding the No. 1 regular season schedule strength rank were in the NCAA tournament, and 18 of those 22 teams were in post-season play. However, having the No. 1 schedule strength does not guarantee success in the NCAA tournament. In six of the last twelve years, the team holding top schedule strength honors has lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In the ten years prior to that, no teams with the No. 1 schedule strength that made the NCAA tournament lost in the first round. The best that a team has done in the NCAA tournament that had the best regular-season schedule strength was North Carolina in 1997, losing in the national semifinals to eventual national champion Arizona. Notre Dame had the best regular-season schedule strength in 1992 with a 14-14 record and finished second in the NIT. List
Several conferences use CBN's RPI data to break tournament seeding ties
Administrators have complete confidence in CBN's RPI
Nearly all conference offices subscribe to both The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report because they know they can count on the most accurate weighted RPI for the men and the women anywhere this side of the NCAA tournament selection committees. CBN first made the Adjusted RPI ratings (which are no longer used for either the men nor the women) available to The RPI Report and The Women's RPI Report subscribers during the 1998-99 season. The NCAA used the Adjusted RPI ratings from the 1993-94 through the 2003-04 season for the men and have used the weighted RPI since the 2004-05 season, while the women used the Adjusted RPI through the 2010-11 season and began using the weighted RPI during the 2011-12 season. The weighted RPI gives more credit to teams that schedule tough opponents and that beat good teams at home and on the road. Story
AP carried the Men's RPI Ratings for 16th consecutive year during the 2009-10 season
2009-10 was the 13th season that AP distributed the Women's RPI Ratings
During the 2009-10 season, the Associated Press (AP) carried the CBN's RPI for both men's and women's college basketball, for the 16th consecutive year, for at least part of the season. In addition, 2009-10 was the 13th consecutive season that the AP distributed the women's RPI for at least part of the season. Story