There is nothing inherently novel about home-court advantage.
Sure, a home crowd can inspire a player or turn a game. Conversely, the wear and tear of travel and newness of an arena can spook a team on the road. Like most sports clichés, it’s a valid, if not entirely profound, theory.
But during Northwestern’s 2009-10 campaign, it’s one that proved particularly defining - and damning.
The Wildcats didn’t just play well in the familiar halls of Welsh-Ryan Arena, they played exceptionally well, staging upsets of then-No. 6 Purdue and local rival Illinois, not to mention an overtime comeback against Minnesota. All said, NU put together a program-record 16 home wins.
But away from Evanston, the Cats dropped all but one of their conference games, including an overtime heartbreaker at Illinois that snapped their nine-game winning streak which, not surprisingly, was composed of all non-conference home victories.
“We struggled a little bit on the road last season for whatever reason,” senior point guard Michael Thompson said before last Friday’s win at Northern Illinois. “That’s something we’re going to have to figure out if we want to be as successful as I think we definitely can be.”
It’s a curse that NU is looking to dispel early this season as it plays both of its first non-conference games on the road, something it hasn’t done since the 1974-75 season.
In the first installation of their back-to-back road games, the Cats opened with a 97-78 win last Friday at Northern Illinois in front of the Huskies’ largest crowd in five years.
“I’m just happy to get one on the road and get out of here to tell you the truth,” coach Bill Carmody said after the Northern Illinois game.
The sentiment probably had something to do with NU’s less-than-stellar first half. The Cats entered the break clinging to a narrow 43-38 edge after Northern Illinois led in the opening stretch, going 5-for-6 in field goal attempts to NU’s 1-for-13 performance.
After shoring up its defense by switching to its signature 1-3-1 zone in the first half, NU’s offense began to connect-mostly with forward John Shurna. The junior’s 22-point rampage in the opening 10 minutes of the second half made up the bulk of his career-high-tying 31 points on the evening and effectively put the game out of reach for Northern Illinois. Shurna’s performance earned him Big Ten Player of the Week honors for the third time in his career.
The junior was also named to the 50-player pre-season watch list for the Naismith Award announced this week.
“These opening games are really important for us,” Shurna said. “Games on the road were pretty tough for us last year, so we definitely want to go out and win these early on. I think [Friday] was a good start.”
NU (1-0) will look to build on its high-scoring performance when it faces Texas Pan-American (1-2) on the road Wednesday night, and go for a perfect start after opening last season 11-1 against non-conference opponents.
The Cats hold a 5-0 record in their series with the Broncs, though the last time that NU made the trek down south was back in 2003.
“You’ve got to treat getting up for a mid-week road game like any other game,” sophomore forward Drew Crawford said. “We know that we need to start winning on the road, but mentally we just try and look at it like any other game. It’s one that I expect we can get up for.”
