Louisiana at James Madison

[leeman]

Question: Who is taking on the role of Shawn Long? I noticed we only have one center on the team at 6'11" Larenz Stalcup Jr. I guess coach wants the team to be more of a shooting team, which I am all for. Just curious why they are not playing the big guy?

[CajunRebel]

The stats disagree with your feelings MAT. The road win % in college basketball is 34%. It is very real, and as far as I know no other sport comes close to that.

And your guess is actually right on. Statistically refs in all sports are biased towards the home team. The theory is that it happens because refs unconsciously get influenced by the emotion of the game and specifically the emotion of the crowd.

Referee bias is statistically the greatest in soccer and basketball - two sports where the referees have a huge influence over the outcome of the game. Also, naturally this influence is greater in college basketball than NBA basketball because the refs in college are not as skilled.

[Hatch]

Question: Who is taking on the role of Shawn Long? I noticed we only have one center on the team at 6'11" Larenz Stalcup Jr. I guess coach wants the team to be more of a shooting team, which I am all for. Just curious why they are not playing the big guy?

Just because he is 6'11 doesn't mean he is another Shawn Long. Big men with the talent of Long don't come along very often, especially to a mid major program. Stalcup has been ok, and done what he is supposed to. He has grabbed a few rebounds, has a few put back baskets and shot free throws well. Plaisance has been somewhat inconsistent, he looked really good against Montana State but hasn't really backed it up since. Neither one is going to take the role of Long.

Bryce Washington has played very well in the post. If anyone is "taking over" for Long it's him. Not having to battle against Long for rebounds this year his numbers are up, he won't be the double double machine that Shawn was but he will have his fair share of them this season.

[VObserver]

Just because he is 6'11 doesn't mean he is another Shawn Long. Big men with the talent of Long don't come along very often, especially to a mid major program. Stalcup has been ok, and done what he is supposed to. He has grabbed a few rebounds, has a few put back baskets and shot free throws well. Plaisance has been somewhat inconsistent, he looked really good against Montana State but hasn't really backed it up since. Neither one is going to take the role of Long.

Bryce Washington has played very well in the post. If anyone is "taking over" for Long it's him. Not having to battle against Long for rebounds this year his numbers are up, he won't be the double double machine that Shawn was but he will have his fair share of them this season.

Washington will have 15 or 20 double doubles this year.

[ManAboutTown]

The stats disagree with your feelings MAT. The road win % in college basketball is 34%. It is very real, and as far as I know no other sport comes close to that.

And your guess is actually right on. Statistically refs in all sports are biased towards the home team. The theory is that it happens because refs unconsciously get influenced by the emotion of the game and specifically the emotion of the crowd.

Referee bias is statistically the greatest in soccer and basketball - two sports where the referees have a huge influence over the outcome of the game. Also, naturally this influence is greater in college basketball than NBA basketball because the refs in college are not as skilled.

So 33-33-33 away/neutral/home ??

[IberiaCajun]

Where is the Texas Southern preview?
Tip-off is at 4 Sunday, right?

[VObserver]

The stats disagree with your feelings MAT. The road win % in college basketball is 34%. It is very real, and as far as I know no other sport comes close to that.

And your guess is actually right on. Statistically refs in all sports are biased towards the home team. The theory is that it happens because refs unconsciously get influenced by the emotion of the game and specifically the emotion of the crowd.

Referee bias is statistically the greatest in soccer and basketball - two sports where the referees have a huge influence over the outcome of the game. Also, naturally this influence is greater in college basketball than NBA basketball because the refs in college are not as skilled.

Statistics sometimes lie. The lower a program is in the pecking order, the more road games it has to play, conversely, true powers rarely play ooc road games. It follows that road records are negatively skewed by the absolute fact that bad teams play more road games.