Pregame: Illinois at Purdue, Saturday, January 24th, 2:00pm CT, FOX

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#226      
IllinialuminAZ
Fighter of the Nightman said:
No to continue down this rabbit hole, but scanning a list of our home games since the 2022 season (first full season after we were clearly good again that allowed fans), I would say these are the only times I would say we had a "great" home court atmosphere:

Elite
1) 2021-22 vs. #11 Arizona ... I attended this close loss, and the Hall hasn't rocked like it did for this game in a long time.
2) 2021-22 vs. #22 Ohio State ... This was the game where Brad got ejected and we had a massive comeback that fell short. There is no way around admitting SFC was super loud during this one.

Very Good
1) 2024-25 vs. #1 Tennessee ... Last year, we definitely brought the energy for that Tennessee game, and I even read multiple comments on the Tennessee board how our home court atmosphere was way better than theirs. However, it is a touch above the Elite ones above.
2) 2025 vs. #11 Michigan State ... I also attended this one, and it got REALLY rowdy in there when we were looking great in the first half. It of course died down when we didn't score for like the last 12 minutes or whatever, but the Krush specifically was way better than they had been in previous years.
3) 2022 vs. #24 Iowa ... This is when we won the Big Ten and rushed the court.
4) 2022 vs. #4 Purdue ... It got super loud toward the end when we forced both OTs, but it left a little to be desired early on. It had a sleepy, morning of MLK Day vibe at first.
5) 2024 vs. #3 Purdue ... We had a genuinely good home court atmosphere this day, as we still had an outside shot at a Big Ten title and it would have been a huge win for the resume.

Granted, it's just my totally subjective list, but ... 7 games and only 2 elite ones in 5.5 seasons is just less than I expect from the House of 'Paign. Also some TRULY unfortunate omissions on this list, by the way, such as hosting #4 Marquette early in the 2023-24 season or the home game vs. #18 Purdue last year where KJ iced it ... atmosphere just wasn't what you'd expect, pure and simple. It's looking like our best chance for a truly elite atmosphere this season will be the Friday, February 27 home game vs. Michigan.
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I would argue that last year's Purdue atmosphere was very good. I was there and it was really loud.
 
#227      
Zorak
Really good discussion about home court advantage here - I don't have a lot to add except

[1] I got priced out of my season tickets this year and am still mad about it (make of that what you will, as far as trends go)
[2] I am an Illini diehard who's anti-chief (not trying to stir anything up, but certain folks in this thread said they've never met one)

I don't have a clue how tomorrow will go but am stoked Vegas thinks it'll be close. @Purdue is always appointment viewing for me, but this one feels colossal.
 
#228      
madillini4
IllinialuminAZ said:
I would argue that last year's Purdue atmosphere was very good. I was there and it was really loud.
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Purdue has the best environment in the big ten every year, and I would put it right behind Duke and Kansas at #3 overall.
 
#232      
BoiseBaller
Joel Goodson said:
Mihailo gone shut down their pesky little Amish PG

:ROFLMAO:
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amish GIF
 
#234      
illinifan1987
On the flip side, the 2022/2023 PSU game was the quietest that I've ever been to. There was very little to cheer about (worst in-person game). That's saying a lot coming from someone who was at the 38-33 :poop:show.
 
#236      
Fighter of the Nightman
Illinijoe said:
The data would tell otherwise more recently.

Illinois has been a top-tier home team in the Big Ten over the last four seasons, generally ranking in the top 3 to 4 in the conference for home-court winning percentage.

While teams like Purdue have had historic runs at home recently, Illinois’ consistency at the State Farm Center puts them ahead of traditional powers like Michigan State and Indiana over this specific four-year stretch.
Big Ten Home Record Comparison (2021–2025)

Approximate totals based on regular season home games.
| Team | Est. Home Record (Last 4 Seasons) | Home Win % |
|---|---|---|
| Purdue | 60–6 | 90.9% |
| Illinois | 56–12 | 82.4% |
| Michigan State | 53–14 | 79.1% |
| Indiana | 50–17 | 74.6% |
| Wisconsin | 48–18 | 72.7% |
How Illinois Compares
* The "Mackey" Factor: Purdue is the clear leader in this category. Their home-court dominance at Mackey Arena included a 26-game home winning streak that was only recently snapped in 2025.

* Elite Consistency: Illinois is one of the few teams in the conference that has not had a "down" year at home. Even in seasons where they struggled more on the road, they consistently won 75%+ of their games in Champaign.

* Attendance Impact: Illinois consistently ranks in the Top 10 nationally and Top 3 in the Big Ten for home attendance. In the 2024-25 season, they averaged over 15,000 fans per game, trailing only Indiana in total conference attendance.

* Toughness vs. Top Opponents: Since 2021, Illinois has been particularly effective at home against ranked Big Ten opponents, holding a winning record in those specific "quadrant 1" home matchups.

Current 2025-26 Context
As of late January 2026, the Illini are continuing this trend with a 9–1 start at home this season, keeping them neck-and-neck with Purdue and Michigan State for the best home record in the conference once again.
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Appreciate compiling the stats, and this was an interesting read. My only two gripes would be these:

1) There is something to be said for the eye test. If a top 15 Illinois team goes 13-2 at home but wins a couple too-close-for-comfort games, loses its 2 biggest matchups of that season and plays just as well on the road as they do at home ... that IS evidence of a general lack of home court advantage. Which brings me to my second point.
2) A good team will win most of its games, and its record will necessarily be better at home than on the road, especially because of early season cupcake games. I would view a team's "home court advantage" in two chunks. A first part is totally subjective and has nothing to do with data ... we had our best crowd of the last several years for a 4-point loss to Arizona. The fact we lost doesn't mean it wasn't a huge home court advantage, Arizona simply overcame it. The second, more objective measure would be measuring how much better a team is at home than its away games.

So if we just look at Big Ten games (easiest to track and helps make this more apples to apples by ignoring cupcakes in the non-con), this would be the data since 2022. By the way, the totals aren't completely even due to some cancelled games.

Overall Big Ten Record
Purdue: 68-22 (.750)
Illinois: 59-29 (.670)
Michigan State: 56-31 (.644)
Wisconsin: 54-34 (.614)
Indiana: 44-44 (.500)

Big Ten Home Games Only
Purdue: 39-5 (.886)
Michigan State: 34-9 (.791)
Illinois: 34-10 (.773)
Wisconsin: 30-14 (.682)
Indiana: 28-16 (.636)

So we have the second best record but third best home record out of this group. However, this is what I would argue is interesting. First is how each of these teams rank by looking at how much better their home records are than their overall records. Second is the same thing but comparing it instead to non-home games.

Ratio of Home Winning Percentage to Overall Winning Percentage
Indiana: 27.3% better in home games
Michigan State: 22.8% better in home games
Purdue: 18.2% better in home games
Illinois: 15.3% better in home games
Wisconsin: 11.1% better in home games

Ratio of Home Winning Percentage to Non-Home Game Winning Percentage
Indiana: 75.0% better in home games
Michigan State: 58.1% better in home games
Purdue: 44.4% better in home games
Illinois: 36.0% better in home games
Wisconsin: 25.0% better in home games

Now, this isn't like explicitly bad news. If you have THAT much better of a record in your home games, it simply has to mean you are also losing a lot of road games to make the math work out ... in other words, we don't WANT to be in Indiana's position, haha. However, this does sort of confirm that we have been rather exceptional on the road over this stretch, so it is sort of frustrating to fans that dropping some surprise home games here and there are having surprisingly big effects as far as maybe dropping us down a seed line or eliminating us from contention in Big Ten title races. Fans understandably want to feel like the House of 'Paign isn't just a serviceable home court atmosphere where a good Illini team will most likely beat the probably-inferior opponent most of the time. We want our home court environment to provide such an edge that (A) surprise losses like Maryland 2022, PSU 2023, Maryland 2024, USC 2025, etc. are just way more rare than they have been and (B) we can more often get over the hump in some of these marquee matchups where we might otherwise be underdogs like Purdue in 2022 and 2024.

TL;DR

Yes, we have had a good record at home ... but I would argue that is because we have just had good basketball teams, not because the House of 'Paign is elevating our prospects of a win night in and night out. In other words, we have mostly been good everywhere, and playing at SFC rarely seems to give our fans "extra" confidence. SFC is also just simply not passing the smell test for being an intimidating or cool atmosphere lately.

EDIT: Sorry @Dan, I had started typing all of this before there was a dedicated SFC thread!
 
#237      
RabidDawgClassic
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Also, semi-related question here, and I'm honestly just asking - I have never been to Mackey. Is its "built-in" advantages really that material compared to SFC? The roof appears lower, but it's still a dome. The slope appears a little less gradual in the lower bowl but honestly not by that much. I tried to find two pictures from a similar angle:

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I think our fans sort of overrate how much SFC has going against it that we the fans must simply overcome, haha. It's still an old building with a concrete roof, and that place can get loud as hell. I have heard folks say something about the metal bleachers at Mackey helping with noise, and obviously the proportion of their crowd that is students is far superior to ours and helps. However, and again admitting that I have never been there, I just don't see THAT much of a difference between the two building designs that just destines us to have an arena that is always less loud. Seems to me it's more of a fan issue.

P.S. As a total nerd about this stuff, I really wish there was any kind of data/information out there about which stands were the steepest and most gradual. Obviously just using our eyeballs, we can all identify places like the Rose Bowl as really gradual and places like Indiana's Assembly Hall are steep. However, I would love to see a list of Big Ten basketball arenas by rise-over-run ratios or whatever. My perception of the three I have been in are that Carver is by far the steepest (pretty much just one steep angle from the first row to the top), SFC is a mixed bag (A Section seems gradual, B Section seems sort of standard and C Section actually seems pretty steep) and Northwestern is the most gradual (as I think most newer stadiums are due to regulations).
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The main difference, between the two: Mackey has a metal roof and SFC has a concrete one. The concrete absorbs the sound while the metal roof reverberates it, echoing it back.

Haven’t been to Mackey since the renovation, but they used to have all metal bleachers. Those helped the sound reverberate to when people would stand and stomp on them.
 
#238      
pruman91
Love listening to Brian and Deon call games as our Illini announcers.....why anyone ever listen's to those network airheads call games is idiotic...........

hope we are hitting our 3 pt shots and playing aggressive defense..................

another of my worthless predictions is............

Illini 88
purdont 82

LET'S GO ILLINI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
#239      
illinifan1987
mattcoldagelli said:
Guys, we went 93-4 at home from 2000-2007 (which I believe included a 38-game home winning streak?). It's not like a bunch of us are wishcasting for the impossible here. We've done it. And yeah, there were some great teams in those years but not *every* team was E8/F4-caliber worldbeaters. It was, objectively, one of the best home environments in CBB. Now it's not. Can't really explain it.
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Thanks! I was about to look this up after seeing that Purdue is 60-6 over 4 years. There were 2 different points where we had the longest non-conference home court winning streak in the nation.
 
#241      
kyillini
I wonder if the weather will hold down some of their crowd that travels in. Let's white wash the Paint Crew tomorrow.
 
#243      
LouHenson
I love AI and the responses that it generates, but he is correct Assembly Hall is not what it was in the 1980’s or even the early 2000’s. The Wake game if you were there tells you all you need to know. We did not lose to a USC in Champaign back then.
 
#245      
jrichisamazing
mattcoldagelli said:
Guys, we went 93-4 at home from 2000-2006 (which I believe included a 33-game home winning streak?). It's not like a bunch of us are wishcasting for the impossible here. We've done it. And yeah, there were some great teams in those years but not *every* team was E8/F4-caliber worldbeaters. It was, objectively, one of the best home environments in CBB. Now it's not. Can't really explain it.
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Does anybody have home winning streaks like that anymore? I remember Kohl Center having a long winning streak. Places like Duke and Kansas being impossible to play in. Just seems like everyone gets upset at home me often now. Not just an Illinois thing.
 
#246      
jrichisamazing
I will say it seems like Purdue fans put pressure on the refs more than any other fanbase. Every single foul called on Purdue is met with angry boos from the fans, even when it's clearly the correct call. If the fouls start to become uneven you can almost guarantee the refs are going to start making up calls on the visitors, just to calm down the crowd.
 
#247      
Mr. Roberts
They still have the bleachers except in the big $ donor area. That allows them to cram in lots of people despite their smaller footprint. The circumference is about 2/3 of SFC, with almost as many people crammed in. As many people + smaller area + lower ceiling + metal ceiling + massive rabid student section = a brutal environment for visitors. I have been there many times (my kids went there and played in the pep band). I do envy their atmosphere.
 
#248      
Second place is 1st loser
This is going to be a rough one. Lacking senior leadership, with all due respect to Keaton, is going to allow for the 10-0, 12-0, 14-2 type runs. This will be the best team we played, by far, on the road. I expect us to get rattled without Boswell to slow things down and orchestrate things. Plus, not having him to guard Smith is going to really hurt.

Purdue. 85
Illinois. 72
 
#249      
illinifan1987
jrichisamazing said:
I will say it seems like Purdue fans put pressure on the refs more than any other fanbase. Every single foul called on Purdue is met with angry boos from the fans, even when it's clearly the correct call. If the fouls start to become uneven you can almost guarantee the refs are going to start making up calls on the visitors, just to calm down the crowd.
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Shall we refer to them as "Purboo" now?
Do It Yes GIF by Movie Trivia Schmoedown
 
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#250      
Jones27
Have they announced the officials yet for this game? Schirotti would kill us as well as high stepper.
 
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