Toughest MWC Venues

Well, with the first half of conference play over, here's a look at the toughest places to play in the conference.

BYU's Marriott Center: how can you argue against a perfect 13-0 home record?  Even further, in Dave Rose's 5 seasons at the helm, only one single, solitary conference opponent has defeated BYU in the Marriott Center (last year, UNLV).  That is dominance.  As Coach Marty Fletcher says: they don't leave a mint on your pillow at this Marriott Center...sorry about that Mtn Network reference.

New Mexico's Pit: for opponents it seems more like the armpit.  It's loud, it's nasty, the fans are right on top of the court, and when it's rocking, MWC opponents would prefer to not come a-knocking.  New Mexico's lone home loss this season came at the hands of the most athletic and deep team in the MWC: UNLV.  BYU almost stole a victory from them as well.  UNM is as close to unbeatable as a coach could hope to be in "The Pit."

San Diego State's Cox Arena (I know it's not called that anymore, but it'll always be Cox Arena, just like Division I-AA/FCS): SDSU and Coach Fischer rarely lose at home.  BYU has won there twice in a row, but they are about the only team in the league that has solved the mystery.

UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center: I think this is a tougher place to win because of how good UNLV is.  However, MWC teams have a greater familiarity with the arena than any other place b/c the conference tournament is played here.  In an MWC conference tournament final, this is as tough a venue as there is, but for a regular season home game, I give the difficulty edge to SDSU.  And honestly, anyone who loses on their home floor to Utah THIS YEAR, can't have that great of a homecourt...50 points, at home, against CSU.

CSU's Moby Arena: CSU has amassed an 8-2 record at Moby this season.  The only losses to this point are to teams in the top half of the conference.  They haven't beaten any great teams at home, but they took Montana, Colorado, and Denver down (two in-state "rivals" and a traditionally decent Big Sky program).  They also gave UNLV and SDSU some trouble at home, something they will not even come close to doing on the road.

TCU's Daniel-Meyer Coliseum: TCU has zero wins at home against teams with winning records. The best win is Wyoming. However, the worst loss was to Northern Colorado, who may very well end up winning the Big Sky and is currently a top 100 RPI team. The fact that they haven't lost to anybody bad is what allows me to put them ahead of Utah. This year at least. As with Wyoming, they have a pretty crummy team and still have a winning record at home. TCU's road record is 1-8.


Wyoming's Arena-Auditorium (AA): while this may not appear to be as difficult a place to play based on wins and losses, but when you factor in how poor of a team Wyoming is and how they have performed at home, it makes some sense to have them ahead of Utah.  They beat two teams ahead of them in the MWC standings at home (SDSU and Utah), and had New Mexico on the ropes.  Now consider this is a team that lost to Air Force, Denver, Hampton, Monmouth, and South Dakota State: 6 teams outside the top 150 in RPI (though several of those games were at home).  That's a bad team to be putting up such a fight at home.  Really, I should probably put them in a tie with Utah and see how the rest of the season plays out, but I'm going to take a few shots at Boylen's Runnin' Utes, because I am very much not a Boylen fan.  He has way too talented a team to be sub .500, in 6th place in the conference, with 6 home losses (2 in conference when they haven't even played the 3 best teams in the Huntsman Center yet!).

Utah's Jon M. Huntsman Center: this is probably the most debatable placement of a team in the conference.  After all, they beat Utah State at home and played SDSU and Oklahoma well before falling in nailbiters.  But I look at the losses and the point margins.  They have lost at home to 4 teams that won't even make the NIT.  And 2 of those losses were by double digits.  They lost to Idaho and Seattle.  Last night was the icing on the cake for me.  A 15-point loss in a battle for 5th place in the MWC in front of 8,000 fans (and watching the game, they must have counted everyone twice...).  It's the eighth time this year they haven't even been able to score 70 points in their own building.  In 13 games!

Air Force's Clune Arena: just a few short years ago this place was impossible to win at.  It was one of the toughest places in the nation to win.  I think they went 3 years without losing a home game.  Section 8 was one of the greatest student sections west of the Mississippi.  This year, they have lost to every team in the top 200 of the RPI at home.  I suppose I should consider that all of their wins this season are at home, with the exception of 1 neutral site win.  But come on, they have lost by over 20 points twice, and by 18 another time.  They have lost at home by double digits nearly as many times as they have won at home by double digits.  There is no advantage here: it allows them to beat teams that they are even with or better than, but it can't keep them close when they play a team better than them.

How would you order MWC venues in terms of difficulty to win road games?