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These are the 15 DI men's basketball teams undefeated at home this season – NCAA.com

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1 year ago

July 31, 2023

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Now introducing the Friendly Confines 15. They’re the 15 teams who have been unbeatable this season — at least when they’re home.
Pauley Pavilion has seen a home winning streak or two in its time since John Wooden used to work there. But Mick Cronin must also like Westwood since he’s 53-6 there and UCLA is the current owner of the nation’s longest homecourt winning streak at 23. That includes this year’s 15-0 record. For that matter, the only game the Bruins lost at home last season was in overtime to Oregon. Only one team this season has come within nine points of the Bruins in Pauley — their pals from down the freeway at Southern Cal. It took a Jaylen Clark 3-pointer with 17 seconds left to get UCLA past the Trojans 60-58 and keep the streak going. It might be threatened again in the last game of the regular season when Arizona stops by.
The Owls have been one of the charmers of the season, playing their way into the AP Top 25 for a while with a 24-3 record. A lot of that has been built with their spotless 15-0 showing at home, though there have been close calls with overtime over Louisiana Tech and a four-pointer against North Texas. Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena is just over three miles from the Atlantic Ocean and the beaches of Boca Raton, so it’s a nice place to visit — unless you want to win this season.
We need everyone to WEAR WHITE! ⚪️⚪️#WinningInParadise pic.twitter.com/YYRG7GfgnJ
The Eagles didn’t even play a home game this season until Dec. 3. By then they had roamed from Hawaii to Florida to get in seven contests and lost five of them. But once they were able to put down their suitcases and play in Reese Court, good things began to happen. Now they’re 11-0 at home and even more weighty, their overall 17-game winning streak is the nation’s longest. They’re also one of only two teams in the country (Oral Roberts) with an unbeaten conference record, their 15-0 mark the best the Big Sky has seen in 54 years.
Just two years ago, Eastern Washington was in the NCAA tournament and led Kansas by 10 points in the second half, before losing by nine. Four of the top scorers on that team are still in college basketball and averaging a combined 43 points this season — but doing it somewhere else. The Groves brothers, Tanner and Jacob, transferred to Oklahoma and Tyler Robertson and Mike Meadows left for Portland with coach Shantay Legans. New coach David Riley had to reload, and has. Only Montana State, second in the Big Sky, can stop the Eagles from a perfect home season when they visit next week.
You’d better be a tough out at your place in the Mountain West, where the top three teams are a combined 41-2 at home. The Wolf Pack have been one of the nation’s better comeback stories — from 13-18 last season to 21-7 this one — and a 14-0 record in their Lawlor Events Center has kept them in the conference race. The top half of the Mountain West with them — San Diego State, Boise State, Utah State, New Mexico and San Jose State — all left Reno with a loss.
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It’s not much fun visiting the Golden Flashes lately. They’re 13-0 at home by an average winning margin of 20.2. Among their 11 wins by double digits was 75-63 over Toledo, the team they’re fighting for the top of the MAC. Neighborhood rival Akron will be by next week.
The Great U-Turn of 2022-23 for the Golden Eagles comes with a final home record of 15-0. Has anyone noticed what these guys have been up to? A year ago, Southern Miss went 7-26, and 1-17 in Conference USA. With nine new faces and a move to the Sun Belt, the Golden Eagles are now 24-6 and tied for the lead in the conference at 13-4. This amazing turnaround could end up in the history books. The all-timer for record improvement in one year is 17 ½ games by Towson in 2013, from 1-31 to 18-13. Southern Miss is at 18 ½ right now and counting.
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Look who’s leading the ACC. It’s been an entertaining year for season ticket holders, not only watching the Hurricanes go 15-0 at home but how they’ve done it. They rallied from 11 points down to beat Rutgers, outscored Cornell 107-105 — their most points against a DI team in 34 years — edged Virginia 66-64 and blew away Duke by 22. Isaiah Wong had 36 points in the Cornell game.
The Miami (Fla.) defense can be particularly troublesome on its own floor. Duke had 21 turnovers. Poor Tyree Appleby of Wake Forest may never want to come back. He had 12 turnovers by himself.
The Watsco Center — where Donald Trump once debated his 2016 Republican rivals for the presidential nomination — still has work to do. Florida State and Pitt — the Panthers are currently a half-game back of the Hurricanes in the ACC — have yet to visit Coral Gables.
Finish this sentence–

The vibes at the Watsco this year are…

We’ll start: SPECIAL. 🙌

Let’s do it again this Saturday, shall we?!
Canes vs. Noles at 4 PM. Get tickets: https://t.co/kXqTzmjkt0 pic.twitter.com/5nu7MQeHYn
Nobody does home sweet home like the Cougars, who are 8-0 at their place and 3-18 in the rest of the universe. It’s helped that four of the eight home opponents were non-DI, but they also just won the Independence Bowl, 73-53 over Hartford. Those are the only two DI programs in the country without a conference affiliation, though Hartford will soon have one — in DIII. That was the Cougars’ last home game and now they must leave their safe place and play next week at — uh, oh — Gonzaga.
These are likely the last days of the Max Abmas Show, so it’s only fitting he have a perfect sendoff on his own stage. With the Mabee Center portion of the schedule finished, the 16-0 record will stand as the Golden Eagles’ first unbeaten home season in 26 years. The coach who did it back then was named Bill Self. Abmas keeps putting up the points as he has for four years and his 22.8 average is the third highest in the nation. He had 27 in what was probably his final home game.
There’s no place like home! 🤩 #ORUMBB pic.twitter.com/ntrLvVg2ic
Alabama is 13-0 at home, and 7-0 in the SEC. Six of those league wins have been by 22, 26, 40, 57, 28 and 49 points. Mississippi State should get a door prize for playing the Tide to three points in January. But really, they have a lot more important issues to deal with right now in Tuscaloosa, where nobody cares what the record is. A shining season has suddenly turned very, very dark.
You know a team might be hard to beat when it plays its home games in a place called the Cajundome. The 13-0 home record includes a 10-point win over Sun Belt leader Marshall and a 14-pointer against second-place Southern Miss. No wonder the Cajuns feel right at home. Eight of the players come from Louisiana.
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The Bulldogs already have the Big South season title in the bag, thanks in no small part to a 13-0 record at home. They’ve won 14 of their last 15 games overall and that includes an 88-80 overtime home victory over Presbyterian when 6-foot-10 forward Drew Pember poured in 48 points, going 8-for-10 from behind the arc. So UNC Asheville’s perfect home record comes with the highest-scoring performance of any DI player this season.
Location has meant a lot for the Blue Devils, who are 14-0 at home and 6-8 everywhere else. Several of the Cameron victories have been hard work: Miami (Fla.) and Wake Forest by two points, Notre Dame by four, North Carolina by six and Pittsburgh by eight.
But home court in Durham is a mighty weapon, starting with 504 consecutive sellouts going back to 1990, not counting the pandemic season. The Blue Devils have lost only 46 of those 504 games — nine percent — for a reason. Take the Wake Forest victory. “Just a vintage Cameron (Indoor Stadium) night,” coach Jon Scheyer called it. “I’m talking to the team in the huddle — it was the first time in Cameron where the team couldn’t hear me. There’s been many moments with Coach K where somebody’s two feet away and you can’t hear.”
Virginia Tech and NC State still have to call.
Cameron was lit after this one 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ pic.twitter.com/fgHAgtLYhk
Amica Mutual Pavilion used to be called the Dunkin’ Donuts Center — “The Dunk” to its friends — but either way, guests can usually expect pain. The Friars are not only 15-0 this season but 36-1 in their last 37 home games. They’re also 86-5 against non-conference opponents during the Ed Cooley era. The home schedule opened a bit wobbly with a 66-65 escape against Rider but Providence has used its court well in making a run at the Big East, beating both Marquette and Creighton in double overtime and UConn by 12 points. Location matters. They just went to UConn and lost by 18. The 8-0 Big East home record is the first in Friars’ history but will be under some threat with Xavier and Seton Hall coming to town next week.
The River Hawks have had a big year with their 23-7 overall record representing their most wins ever in DI, and the 14-0 mark at home has been the catalyst. Take Jan. 11, when they welcomed the power of the America East in Vermont, shot 54 percent and whipped the Catamounts 80-65. If only more people could see them doing it. The UMass Lowell average home attendance of 676 is 342nd in the nation. But since the America East plays its tournament at campus sites, there will be another chance.
Add those 15 together and you get a home record of 204-0. They’re 122-101 on the road but who’s counting?
Mike Lopresti is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, Ball State journalism Hall of Fame and Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He has covered college basketball for 43 years, including 39 Final Fours. He is so old he covered Bob Knight when he had dark hair and basketball shorts were actually short.
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