Sideline Chatter:

Home Court Advantage?

When sports observers around the state think of Central Vermont League hoop, chances are one of the first things that comes to mind is that the CVL is a league of small basketball courts. Truth is, they’d be right.

From Cabot and Canaan to Whitcomb and Rochester and several places in between, CVL gyms tend to be less than regulation. In fact, it’s almost easier to list the schools that we know have full size basketball courts than those that don’t. Blue Mountain, Chelsea, Rivendell and Twinfield are CVL schools with full size hoop venues.

Those that are somewhat undersized include Whitcomb, Rochester, Thetford Academy, Cabot, Canaan, Concord, Craftsbury and South Royalton. Whitcomb and Thetford are pretty close to regulation but nevertheless do not meet the standards to qualify for postseason tournament games.

It is almost axiomatic that the small courts will hurt the home team (and their opponents to a degree) in the long run. Teams that practice on short, narrow floors typically have a tougher time developing the necessary levels of fitness, not to mention adjusting their offensive and defensive strategies to bigger courts. Teams that play several games on undersized courts may have trouble changing their playing style back and forth. Come playoff time, having to make such adjustments can be a significant disadvantage.

There is ample evidence to suggest that playing more than half your schedule on undersized floors can haunt a club in the playoffs. Powerful Thetford, for example, a perennial Division Three contender, has had trouble in recent years living up to its regular season record. The Panthers’ boys team won the state title in 2002 but with essentially the same roster in 2001 they got beat in the semifinals by a team that won only five regular season games, then they got dumped in the semifinals last year as well. The Lady Panthers have suffered a similar fate, failing to get past the first round of the playoffs on a number of occasions in spite of impressive won-loss records in the regular season.

Thetford is by no means alone in this regard. With 14 wins, South Royalton’s girls last year had their best season in nearly a decade but were unable to advance to the second round of the playoffs. SoRo’s reward for having such a nice regular season record was to host a "home" game on a foreign court where they got beat by arguably a lesser team. Rivendell’s girls failed to advance in the playoffs until they opened their new full-sized floor. Last year, the Lady Raptors went all the way to the finals.

There are exceptions, of course, and perhaps there are enough of them to suggest that too much is made of the smallish basketball houses in the CVL. Whitcomb’s boys and girls have each won state titles in recent memory. Rochester’s teams have done well. During the Dean Pearce/Will Chadwick era the Rockets got to the Aud four years in succession.

South Royalton’s boys won their only state title in the mid-1990’s. Cabot’s boys have been among the best D-4 teams in the state the past couple of years winning their first state title ever, in any sport.

Even so, it seems reasonable to suggest that the more games a coach can get for his kids on full-size courts the better it will be in the long run. To that end, Rochester and South Royalton regularly host the MVL-CVL challenge at the Vermont Tech Gym, or travel to one of the MVL’s full size gyms for that event. The Beanpot games between Whitcomb and Rochester have been played either at VTC or on Randolph’s regulation-size floor.

Every basketball season brings a new roster and new rosters for the opponents. It remains to be seen if the undersized courts at SoRo, Rochester, and Whitcomb will be a blessing or a curse, or if the nice full size floors enjoyed by Chelsea and the Sharon Academy will help them over the long haul. In the end, where you play ought to be far less significant than how.