CARLTON REESE. Sayonara To The Home Court Advantage: The Old O-Dome Edge Ain’t What It Used To Be

For me and my hosts that night, as well as a handful of others, sitting here has not changed how we cheer our team. For many others, Gator basketball is a different world in this atmosphere. Empty seats paint a spectacle much like any cross-section of Doak Campbell Stadium any Saturday during the fall.

By CARLTON REESE The Florida Gators basketball team has forever enjoyed a vaunted home court advantage, one that only a handful of other places seem to match or surpass. Such has been the case going back to the days of the old Alligator Alley, where some pretty mediocre UF teams took down some national powers from time to time. The fans seemed to crowd the court from sideline to sideline and baseline to baseline, leaving opposing teams feeling a bit claustrophobic and perhaps even overwhelmed. I remember the 1979 UF team dismantling ninth-ranked Kentucky in that old building and that was a Gators team that won only eight times. In 1975, the fourth-ranked Wildcats fell to a sub-.500 Gator squad and that season UF took down a pair of top-10 teams in Alabama and Vanderbilt in the span of three days. Beginning in 1980, the Gators moved into the more modern Stephen C. O’Connell Center, and although the atmosphere for home games changed overnight, the crowds were bigger and louder and still seemingly right on top of the players. That home court advantage became legendary when coach Billy Donovan took over and guided the Gators to a pair of national championships. Those days are long gone, and it is not because of the talent or coaching. The renovated dome now referred to as the Exactech Arena, where fans sit in the dark and stare at a luminous court as though at a Broadway show, cannot be described with the same adjectives as in days of yore. After Wednesday night’s loss to LSU, head coach Mike White commented on how pleased he was with the crowd’s involvement. “It was…” White said, then paused before continuing, “… good.” Not “electric” or “intimidating” – just “good.” He would have been lying had he described the crowd, whose loudest moments came during the halftime entertainment, as “raucous” or anything of the sort. No, ‘good’ was pretty accurate. There were some loud moments when the Gators roared back to within a point and had the Tigers on the ropes. The students did their part as they usually do and have for the last 45 years that I have attended UF basketball games, including my time in that section during the mid-to-late 1980s. The problem is on the other side of the court. As a student, I remember chants of “Old People, Stand!” directed at the alumni section. It was funny and the point made, but that side was always full of fans and for the most part was as loud as one could expect. What we have today borders on embarrassing. I have sat in the Club Seats several times and did so again for Wednesday night’s loss. The area is not wanting for the creature comforts: complimentary all-you-can-eat dining with desserts and snacks, bottomless beverages and virtually no lines to wait in for a beer. The chair-back seating is miles from the cheek-to-cheek bench seating that existed before the renovation. For me and my hosts that night, as well as a handful of others, sitting here has not changed how we cheer our team. For many others, Gator basketball is a different world in this atmosphere. Empty seats paint a spectacle much like any cross-section of Doak Campbell Stadium any Saturday during the fall. At one point, three ladies took their seats near us at about the 5:30 mark of the first half and I am not sure if they ever noticed anything taking place on the court – cell phones in their grills and hair-dryer conversations aplenty. They weren’t the only ones. It occurred to me that the atmosphere was merely social for them and likely for many others who do not share the same passion for the game as me and my gracious hosts. To watch a Florida basketball game on television is to notice quite demonstrably what seems like half a half-empty stadium courtside. It looks like a Rays game, quite honestly. Perhaps if the television cameras were situated on the other side of the court, one would only see a packed student section. I cringe every time I turn on a Gator basketball game, for that very reason. Club section seats are expensive and go to many benefactors and long-time season-ticket holders. They are rewarded with a first-class experience at every game and the event becomes something more than just a basketball game – I highly recommend it. So why all the empty seats there? It used not to be this way – in the days of the cold benches, these sections were always packed, even during lean times when victories were not so common. I’m not conducting any psychological experiment here, only asking a question regarding something that has been nagging me from the time of this building’s renovation. Where has the energy gone? It’s too easy to say that it went away after the dominance on the court faded – that energy was there in good times and bad during my lifetime of attending games. This phenomenon is recent. At Duke’s storied Cameron Indoor Arena, the student section surrounds the entire court and it is likely the greatest home court advantage in all of college basketball. They don’t enjoy carved meat and bread pudding, but they do enjoy annual runs at championships. The old Alligator Alley was akin to Cameron in this way. Dank and musty, Alligator Alley was a relic even in its time, but there certainly existed a charm. We shall never go back and the construction of the O-Dome helped make those national titles possible, even if they did take 25 years in the making. The O-Dome provided its own atmosphere about which television announcers and opposing coaches extolled, carrying on without hyperbole the role of the venue in making a road trip to Gainesville among the most feared in college basketball. The last two opponents to visit Gainesville, Alabama and LSU, were clearly superior teams to the Gators, yet both came in as underdogs according to the bookmakers. No doubt, the minds in Vegas have not yet caught on that Exactech Arena is no significant edge for the home team.

At this point in time, the Gators are a good basketball team, certainly not a great one. The first three SEC games were all against elite competition and UF was competitive in each and probably should have won at least one, that being against LSU where the offensive game plan yielded more wide open 3-point shots than we have seen in a very long time; unfortunately, very few of those shots went through the hoop. The 22.6 percent shooting from 3-point range and the uglier 50 percent from the free throw line were not the result of LSU defenders. Meanwhile, LSU players were banking in fadeaway 3-pointers at shot clock buzzer.

Colin Castleton has his moments but it's too early to tell about this team. (Chris Spears photo)

It’s too early to write off this Florida team, but we’re close – a bad day in Columbia Saturday will most certainly put the Gators in too big a hole to crawl out of, with the conference being as loaded as it is. If the Gators can make a run, it would be nice for it to happen in front of a full crowd courtside and not a bunch of empty blue chairs. Will an upset or two do the trick… or would lobster bisque be the more enticing option?