The game of basketball is played within the same parameters every time: an 84-by-50-foot court… The game of basketball is played within the same parameters every time: an 84-by-50-foot court and a rim raised 10 feet above the floor. The 3-point line is a constant, as is the free throw line and the rules on the court. But at places like Pitt, there’s something off the court ‘mdash; something that can’t always be measured ‘mdash; that has a profound impact on the outcome of the game. There’s something that stands out to opponents and gives the home team an advantage. The Oakland Zoo, Pitt’s student section, is one of those phenomenon. ‘The Zoo,’ said Pitt freshman and guard Ashton Gibbs, ‘is crazy. Knowing that they’re on your side makes the game a lot more intense.’ The fact that home teams win more than opponents is obvious. Since the opening of the Petersen Events Center in 2002, the Pitt men’s basketball team holds a 112-10 record in front of its home crowd. But it’s hard to understand why some arenas and some audiences help to produce such staggering winning percentages for the home team. To understand how it happens, one has to understand where it begins. Sports psychologist Bill Cole, founder and president of the International Mental Game Coaching Association, says a home-court advantage starts with the mindset of the players. ‘You only have the advantage if you believe in the advantage,’ said Cole. ‘It’s all about how a player determines the situation. You have to overcome the belief that you’re under the microscope, to come to terms with the fact with that people are judging you.’ Gibbs hasn’t had a problem with that this season. ‘The crowd has always given me a positive outlook on the game,’ he said’ ‘It’s great to play in front of these fans.’ At the same time, though, the road team can sometimes gain an advantage by playing on the road. Cole gives a hypothetical situation of an ideal strategy for the coach of an underdog team traveling to play on a top-tier basketball program’s floor. ‘We’re going to the big gym, a lot of pressure, right?’ said Cole, posing as the coach of the road team. ‘But who really has the pressure? If we’re expected to lose, how do we have pressure?’ In the end, it all boils down to managing emotions. ‘You have to manage the pressure gradient,’ he said. ‘You have to manage expectations and have your mindset correctly aligned.’ It starts with the players’ mindsets, but coaches have methods to promote their teams’ strategies in managing the pressure gradient. Gibbs thinks his team is able to handle the pressure gradient with great success and said he knows that at home, with the Oakland Zoo in the background, the opposing team will likely struggle. That’s because, according to Cole, it takes an opposing player time to assimilate to all of those variables while the home team is already comfortable. Pitt’s Advantage Enter the fans. And at Pitt, the opposing team notices the fans before the game even begins. Lining up outside the arena hours before tipoff, fans are itching to get a word in to the other team’s star. The crowd shouts ‘sucks!’ and hides behind specially printed Zoo newspapers after every starter from Pitt’s opponent is announced. Then comes more of the jumping, the chanting, the taunting and, sometimes, even the cursing. As the game progresses, the fans jump higher and get louder. The emergence of the modern-day student section has had a profound impact on home-court advantage in college basketball. While filling a stadium is important, it’s the jumping and yelling fanatical fans in the student sections that give certain arenas ‘mdash; especially the Zoo ‘mdash; superior reputations. These fans aren’t hard to find at a Pitt basketball game, as the Oakland Zoo was recently ranked seventh in a list of the top-10 college basketball fan sections in the nation by collegehoopsnet.com. Pitt senior Andrew Solarz knows just how the Oakland Zoo is such an intimidating factor to the opposition. Solarz, who along with seniors Chris Logan and Will Plump dress as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for most home games, has been following Pitt basketball since he arrived on campus. ‘The fact that the Zoo wraps around the court makes it really intimidating to opponents,’ said Solarz. ‘Just how crazy the Zoo can get at times makes it amazing.’ That craziness has impressed Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon, a junior college transfer from Florida who has been waiting to play in front of a big crowd his entire life.’ ‘When I finally stepped out on the court, I got to see how crazy the Zoo got,’ said Dixon. ‘Every time something happened, the Zoo went crazy, and it was a good feeling.’ And besides igniting the team with energy, the Zoo has a huge impact on the opposition’s ability to run the offense. Since opening in 2002, the Peterson Events Center has earned a nasty reputation. Wins by the opposing team are hard to come by. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has gotten used to the crowd during his time here. And by now, it’s almost like he expects it. ‘We take the sellouts for granted because we’re sold out every night,’ he said. ‘Our support is tremendous. Our crowds ‘mdash; it’s not to be taken for granted.’ The Others While Pitt’s home-court advantage stands as one of the best in the country, there’s an arena about 400 miles south that reigns above the rest: Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. But Duke’s advantage isn’t much more than Pitt’s. In the last 122 home contests, the Blue Devils are 113-9 ‘mdash; just one win better than Pitt’s in that same time span. Like the Pete, the staple of Cameron Indoor is its fan section, the Cameron Crazies. Still, the Crazies’ unparalleled enthusiasm and support for their team has given them the title of the ‘rowdiest, wittiest, best-organized college basketball fans in the land,’ according to ESPN. Duke guard Jon Scheyer said he realizes that the Crazies are an integral part of his team’s success and an even bigger part of the opposing teams’ failure. ‘When we are playing games at home, the fans take us to another level,’ said Scheyer. ‘They believe in us more than anything.’ Scheyer said that like players do at Pitt, he and his teammates look to the fans for support when they’re struggling. ‘At times when we are going through a drought or don’t score on a couple of possessions, that gets them louder,’ he said. ‘They really rally behind us no matter what the situation is, if we are down 15 or up 30 with two minutes to go.’ It’s been something that both Scheyer and Gibbs, who have been playing basketball their entire lives, had to get used to. ‘Back in high school, there was nothing like this,’ said Gibbs. ‘The home crowd brings my game ‘mdash; and this team ‘mdash; to an entirely different level.’