Game 9: Home. Home? Home.
Ain't no rule that says an art school without an arena can't play basketball.
What goes into “home-court advantage?”
When I think about that term, my mind flashes back to December 31, 2013, when I traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to broadcast a men’s basketball game between the George Washington Colonials and the Kansas State Wildcats. GW had a good squad that year – they were 11-1 at the time and earlier that year they knocked off Maryland as well as Doug McDermott’s Creighton team at neutral sites. Expectations were high.
But this wasn’t a neutral site. This was Bramlage Coliseum, known affectionately as the “Octagon of Doom.” The student section was absolutely electric, with choreographed chants and traditions. They were supported by a vocal and engaged fanbase ringing all sides of the court. And unsurprisingly, there weren’t that many Buff and Blue faithful pushing back against the purple-clad Wildcat faithful. You could really feel all 12,528 fans in your heart and in your eardrums. GW looked helpless from whistle to whistle and got blown out, 72-55. This is despite the fact that both teams would just a few months later be selected for the NCAA tournament as a 9-seed. I don’t think all 27 points in the final margin came from the home-court advantage, but I’m sure a ton of it did.
But in the world of minor college basketball in the Bay Area, at least as I’ve seen thus far, there’s no Octagon of Doom. Not even a Rectangle of Discomfort. Every game I’ve been to below the NCAA Division I level has been spectated upon primarily by friends and family members of the players or occasionally other student-athletes. Parents are a very particular type of fan – their emotional connection means their vocalizations are confined to outbursts of cheer and coaching surrounding the successes or failings of their loved ones. The groupthink-infused mass drone that a rowdy student section can bring just isn’t there. More importantly, because Division II and NAIA schools tend to fill their schedules with nearby opponents, the family of the away team is just as likely to be there as that of the home team.
So maybe home-court advantage at this level is about more than just the crowd. It’s the way the ball bounces on a certain spot of the court that you’ve learned from months of practice. It’s knowing which shower has the best water pressure. It’s the subconscious comfort that comes with constant contact with a space. After all, these are the general sorts of things that make our own homes feel like home.
But what if you take all of those effects away? What if a school doesn’t have its own gym, so it borrows a gym 20 miles away, and then that gym becomes unavailable so you have to play your home game at a facility you hadn’t played at before? Is there still a home-court advantage simply from the albedo effect of the white jerseys and pop-up signs with your school’s name on it along the baseline? Can it still feel like home?
On December 19, 2021, the Academy of Art University men’s basketball team got to find that out.
The Academy of Art University is in San Francisco, but the “Urban Knights” have been playing home games this season away from The City. As a matter of fact, this game was played at a home away from home away from home for Art U. Last season and for many prior, they played at Kezar Pavilion in Golden Gate Park. This season’s primary home, however, has been Belmont, California, where they occupy the gym of Notre Dame de Namur University, a former conference rival of Art U that dropped athletics in 2020. That venue received flood damage in the week before this game, shifting the Urban Knights to another suburban locale, this time the Conlan Center, the San Rafael home of Dominican University of California.1
Despite being an art school without a home gym, their men’s basketball program is actually competitive within NCAA Division II’s PacWest Conference. At press time they’re firmly middle-of-the-pack in the standings, and they even pulled off a win over a Division I opponent when they shocked UC Davis 79-60 on November 28.2
I can’t find any lore on why this 9,000-student open-enrollment for-profit art school in San Francisco chooses to have a competitive NCAA athletics program while so many other schools like it choose not to have sports at all. “Why is an art school good at basketball?” feels like a natural question at first until you ponder the follow-up: “Why is any school good at basketball?” Competitive sports are as tangential to the mission of an art school as they are a traditional university, after all. As for the student-athletes, NCAA commercials are quick to remind us that most of them will go pro in something other than sports, so this could be a place for creative ballers to get their hoop on while developing their craft.3
Their opponents in this conference tilt are the Silverswords of Chaminade, one of three Hawaiian sides in the PacWest. Chaminade is located in Honolulu but is best known for their association with the Maui Invitational, an annual tournament held a few islands over featuring the seven of the best Division I programs…and Chaminade.4 This tournament began after a top-ranked Virginia team headed to Honolulu in 1982, originally to play the University of Hawaii. Unable to schedule a game with the Rainbow Warriors, they took on then-NAIA Chaminade, who pulled off the massive upset and making the small Catholic school, at least temporarily, a household name.5 Since then they’ve moved up to NCAA Division II, where they’ve been in the PacWest since its 1992 founding, and they’ve pulled off a few more wins over big names in the Maui Invitational.
My day started with brunch with friends on Polk Street, coincidentally near one of the many Academy of Art University outposts strewn across San Francisco. This was also fortuitously located near Van Ness Avenue, upon which the Golden Gate Transit 101 bus runs, connecting SF express to San Rafael and then on to points north. The 101 runs on one-hour headways on weekends, and the bus timing was such that I arrived in San Rafael more than an hour before the game. The Conlan Center sits about a 20-minute-walk northeast of the transit center where my bus stopped, so I had some time to kill.
I first stopped in the Goodwill I noticed last time I was in Marin. The selection was subpar but I stumbled upon a silicone spoon that was an exact facsimile of one my dishwasher melted the week before, so I snagged that and perused the hats and belts. After that, I sauntered over to the serpentine streets that ran along Boyd Memorial Park, climbing a hill that afforded great views of central and eastern San Rafael.
I got to the arena about 20 minutes before tip and got my tickets from a table set up in the lobby. There were a few pop-up signs with the Academy of Art University logo, the kind you would see on the exhibitor floor of a trade convention or advertising a new Planet Fitness that opened up in a strip mall, strategically placed around the gym obscuring Dominican’s name and penguin logo whenever possible. They also brought their own chairs for both benches, which struck me as odd. Did Dominican not have any to lend? Or were the chairs essential to making it feel like home?
Chaminade looked ready to go in their “Ohana” warm-up shirts during the lay-up line before the game. The Silverswords roster featured five Division I transfers to Academy of Art’s two. It looked like it was going to be an even game.
It was anything but.
There were a few bad misses to start things off for Art U and the game was tight for the first five minutes. But in a nine-minute blur after that, the Urban Knights went on a 35-5 run, leading 45-15 with six to go in the half and leading by 32, 61-29, at intermission. The run was fueled by strong drives to the basket, transition jumpers, and a swarming defense that stifled the Silverswords’ scoring. In a 92-second stretch during this run, reserve guard Klay Brown scored a transition 3, nabbed a steal that set up a second three, and slammed home a dunk off of a Mike Asante assist. Art U shot an out-of-this-world 69% from the field in the half to Chaminade’s 38%.
It was all smiles and laughs on the Urban Knights players. They played with swagger and confidence but still seemed amused at what they were able to pull off. Maybe it’s because I’m not usually so close to the players, but I don’t think I’d ever seen a team look The Chaminade fans – of which there were a few dozen – did their best to encourage their team but there was still quite a bit of stunned chitchat among the Silverswords fans.
The second half was quite a different story, as Art U’s shooting cooled down tremendously and the Silverswords started sinking shots at a bit higher rate. It was only enough to stem the bleeding as Chaminade trimmed the lead to turn the game from a farce to a garden-variety big win. The only drama was whether or not the ‘1’ digit in the hundreds place on the home side of the scoreboard would be illuminated, and illuminated it was. A Mike Asante three with 38 seconds left to secure the 100-77 win for Academy of Art University. Five Urban Knights finished with double figures, including leading scorer and Eastern Illinois transfer Deang Deang with 18.
It was a type of blowout I don’t think I’d ever seen before. In most college games that finish with a 23-point margin of victory, the difference usually builds relatively evenly – maybe a ten-point game at the half, the trailing team tries to stick around, then the leading team pulls away in the final few minutes. But this frontloaded thumping struck me as odd. It felt like this game was going to be a historic blowout but regressed sharply to the mean in the second half and ended with a rather unremarkable result.
I ended the day with a return walk down winding suburban streets to Downtown San Rafael, avoiding the hill I climbed earlier. I grabbed dinner at Los Moles, which has an all-you-can-eat weekend mole buffet along with a wide range of other Mexican fare; it’s a must-stop if you’re ever in the area.6
The sun set while I ate, so the 101 bus returned me back across the Golden Gate Bridge in crisp darkness. I transferred to the 22 Muni bus at Fillmore and Lombard which took me over Pacific Heights and back to the Haight. This ride was pleasantly reminiscent of one I would take weekly in 2019, when I hosted trivia at Monaghan’s in the Marina. In comparison to the largely unfamiliar Golden Gate Transit coaches, it felt like I had a home bus advantage.
This game was Chaminade’s last before the holidays. Only one Silverswords player was a Hawaii resident, so the Chaminade fans in attendance were likely there to pick up their sons to take them home after the game, grateful for the school-sponsored flight to the mainland.
This was also my last game before heading back to my own childhood home in Rockville, MD for a few weeks, where I would spend quality time with my parents, reconnect with high school friends, and (as discussed) briefly quarantine due to catching COVID-19.
Like many people my age, I don’t live near where I grew up. I moved to San Francisco three and a half years ago, and while my mother grew up in the Bay Area, it still took a while to start calling this home. Through pandemic urban hikes, increased civic involvement, and sheer willpower combined with the passage of time, this is beginning to feel more like a home. I caught myself using the term to refer to SF instead of Maryland or DC when I was on a recent trip to Nebraska. Using the term interchangeably and freely has broadened my relationship with the concept.
Beyond just Rockville and San Francisco (and my early childhood home in Oregon), I think what “home” means to me defies definition and exists outside of space and time. Because it’s no longer tied to a single place it really is just a state of mind I slip into and out of it. It can follow me wherever I choose to go, if I let it.
A month after this game, Academy of Art headed to Hawaii to play Chaminade once again, this time at their home court, McCabe Gym. It was the third game in five days for the Urban Knights, who played in their road black unis. Maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was the need for revenge (the smiling faces of Art U players burned in Chaminade’s minds), or maybe they couldn’t conjure home 2,400 miles away. It’s possible McCabe is an “Octagon of Doom".” No matter what the cause, the rematch was nothing like the original, with the Swords pulling out a six-point win.
I know this is but one anecdotal occurrence that is not statistically significant and carries many counterexamples7. But thinking back on how thoroughly they trounced Chaminade in that first half, you can’t help but to think about what that home advantage meant in that moment. They played with a certain spirit, a sense of comfort that comes with feeling like you are where you belong. Even without their logo on the floor and playing in a gym many of them had never been to before, it was still home. For them, and maybe for us, home is wherever you decide it is.
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Music Notes:
Music was more rhythmic/R&B-focused. I think this actually makes for good warm-up music. I’m beginning to develop more thoughts on this subject; maybe by the end I’ll be able to put together my ideal basketball game playlist.
Pre-recorded anthem, as expected. People clap for pre-recorded anthems and I’m not sure why. Are we applauding America?
Upcoming Games:
So, things have taken a turn for the better. It appears as if I will get at least 14 of #TheBay16 in this season. After some cancellations and closed-off games, most schools have opened back up post-Omicron. I have made it to Cal State East Bay, Santa Clara, and Stanford since returning to the Bay Area. Those recaps will be coming in the next few weeks. This weekend I am doing a doubleheader on Saturday, returning to Dominican to see the Penguins take on Academy of Art (gender TBD) in the early afternoon and Pacific Union WBB take on UC Merced at 7pm. After that, my last game will be a date with Menlo College later in February as they take on The Master’s University, assuming they open games back up to fans. The 16th and final school is Lincoln University, which as far as I can tell never played a home game and isn’t planning to for the rest of the season. To paraphrase the late Meat Loaf, “15 out of 16 ain’t bad.”
Since this game, they’ve played most of their home games at Holy Names, which as we know has pretty restrictive rules about fans. They are slated to return to Belmont later this month.
UC Davis beat Pacific, who beat BYU, who beat Oregon, who beat #3 UCLA. Why isn’t Art U ranked!?
Most members of the team major in “Communications and Media Studies,” except for Tre Elrod and Christian Popoola, Jr., who are studying “Music (Production) and Sound Design for Visual Media”
They previously played in each iteration; they now play in the main portion of the tournament just on even-numbered years.
According to Wikipedia, they were going to rechristen themselves “University of Honolulu” until this win gave them name recognition.
They also have locations in Emeryville and El Cerrito.
Art U beat Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego but lost to them at “home” in Oakland