It's a number of factors.  Haven't you ever felt fatigued from traveling?  Much of it's related to routines.  When you're at home, you get to sleep in your own bed, eat your favorite pre-game meal, have normal practice times, not worry about making up tests, papers, etc.  Athletes are creatures of habit and playing on the road throws them out of their typical habits.  There's definitely a mental aspect to it as well, but there are a lot of physical aspects at play.

On the road ya gotta like your balls.

www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/sports/ncaabasketball/college-home-teams-can-pick-their-brands-of-basketballs.html

Nice Article




Home court winning percentages drive home the fact that the home court advantage in Division I college basketball is not a myth. The midpoint of the current 344 home court winning percentages is 68.2%, with half of those teams' winning percentages above it and half below it. A total of 35 schools have winning percentages of 80% or above, 143 schools have winning percentages of 70% or above, 273 have winning percentages of 60% or better, and 326 schools have winning percentages of 50% or better. A total of 197 schools have winning percentages above or equal to 66.67%, which is the historical home court winning percentage average when Division I teams play only Division I teams. Just 18 schools have losing home court records of below 50%, and CBN believes the number may be less than 18 if all data for some of these institutions were available. This list includes schools that are reclassifying to Division I and count in the RPI but are not yet officially Division I members.

I'm  very surprised to read of the lack of uniformity of the ball.  Not even within the conference?!  That could explain  some of the away woes.

But technique/teaching and resolve should help overcome da ball.  Maybe my expectation are too high but I just can't believe we weren't up 8-10 in the last minute.  If we are at the top of the MAC...

Ding Ding Ding!  We have a winner.

And I think we ARE at the top of the MAC.  The disparity is just nowhere as close to as wide as you think it is.  IF we win the MAC, I can promise you that we'll EARN every bit of it and it won't just fall into our lap because we're superiorly talented (because we're not).

I would say the gap between 75-200 is pretty small.

Last year's team was 3-5 on the road in MAC play. Their biggest win was by 11 points. So I'm not sure why you would expect this year to be any different. If this year's team fares better, they could earn one of the top two seeds and get a bye into the MAC semifinals (3-seed last year).

@BG, L, 67-57
@Akron, L, 68-63
@NIU, W, 67-58
@Toledo, L, 77-73
@EMU, L, 68-55
@Buffalo, W, 88-77
@Kent St., L, 68-61
@Miami, W, 63-54

Every year anew, we collectively forget how difficult it is to win on the road in the MAC. 

That Toledo loss still sticks in my craw. Ohio scored the first 15 points of the game.

Conference supplies the balls for the tournament.

Groce, who"s Illinois team has lost 4 out of the last 6, seemed to be able to peak his team"s performance at tournament time. I hope that JC can do the same thing.  If he does he will be a hero.