Momentum Blues

[ZorbaGarp]

I'm coaching at IU, just won the ncaa, have a prestige of 92, am currently ranked #4, and I can't get my homecourt momentum ever above one third. Much of the time my opponent will have momentum at my place even when they're down a lot. Do others see this? Is there an anti-IU bias at work here? I've been to a lot of college basketball games including at Assembly Hall and IU's home crowds are as raucous as they come.

[PointGuard]

I suggest you provide your comments on this (along with any more specifics you can) via a Support Ticket (since Gary has just begun working on CB2021). Not sure if he will see your post here since he is likely pretty busy now.

[Orsalak]

I've seen odd momentum behavior as well, but I HAVE been able to get my momentum higher than 1/3. Usually when it gets higher, the opposing coach calls a timeout which lowers it. I've noticed at times it seems to award my opponent momentum points I should have received though. I was trying to see if it was at all related to the ref messages I see flash up sometimes during play when the AI coach or the team players are working the ref, but I don't think it's related to that.

[NCAAhoops]

ZorbaGarp, What is your teams Facility rating? That has an effect as well at home as does your opponents on the road.
From what I see it usually stays below the 1/2 way most of the time. I have only seen Momentum get in the upper half during during a blow out.
Its just my assumption but my guess is when its below half both teams have a shot of winning and momentum has more of a chance to swing to either team when its above 1/2 your dealing with a blowout and that team will have everything go right and the poor opponent will just want the game to end.
If it was high all the time you would be blowing out every team.
I haven't noticed problems with it but I'll pay more attention next time as it could be and I haven't noticed. While I look at it I haven't dwelled on it for long periods.
Definitely don't want my opponent getting credit for my guys efforts. The time out should lower it as I use it for that myself because if that gets too high so will the score.

[Orsalak]

Agree on the timeout, wasn't trying to suggest that was an issue but was just suggesting timeouts may be lowering his momentum before it gets too high.

Also, I would say most of the time I watch momentum, it seems to work fine. I have noticed a few times though where I was up say 10-2 early in the game and they had momentum for some reason. While I didn't watch the bar to see what happened, it seemed suspicious. I've also seen the opponent go up after I stole the ball and scored on a fastbreak or something similar.

One other note, if you get your points off of foul shots, you do not seem to earn momentum points, so if your early lead comes from the foul line, that doesn't seem to help your momentum. Not saying that is a bug, but it is noteworthy.

[NCAAhoops]

Early in the game the home team get some momentum points at the start that's where the facility rating has an effect. So if you were on the road against a team with high Facility rating that could be the reason for the early momentum. Home court advantage starts with momentum based on Facilities. I'm not sure prestige has any effect on it but might.
I assumed you knew on the time outs I was just putting it out there for those reading interested how momentum works.

[Orsalak]

Thanks for the tip NCAAhoops, I didn't know about the facility rating impact on momentum. I'll keep an eye out on that and will try to take note of home vs. away as well. I started a new league as a rookie coach a couple of days ago and will probably sim seasons for the first few years before I settle in at a long term program. Once I do that I'll start playing through the games again and will try to take note of the facility and home/away impacts. I spend a lot of time on the recruiting part, so it will probably be a couple of weeks before I get back to play games out again.

[PointGuard]

Facility rating definitely affects momentum. If you're playing on the road against a team with an excellent facility rating, their spurts will result in quick and high spikes in momentum for them and your spurts may gain you some momentum, but it will be severely dampened.

The number of fans going to home games and the more rabid they are means will increase facility rating...I look at facility rating as a combination of that and the quality of the facility and training facilities.

[Orsalak]

PG, I was unclear on a point you just made. Are you saying the # of fans plus the facility rating impact momentum? So a school with a D facility that averages 15k fans may do better with momentum than a school with 5k fans and a B facility? Maybe not in that exact example, but you get my point.

[PointGuard]

To be honest, I have NO idea how Gary derives facility rating or exactly HOW it works. So my comment was more what I feel goes into it. Most schools with an A or A- rating are the high flyers with huge crowds and fans that have become zealots and DRIVE momentum. Most schools with D or C- ratings not only have far less impressive actual facilities but also don't draw that many fans and their fans don't act as 6th men. My comment was meant to be more general that specific.

As an example, I go to games at a college that draws very few fans (even though the facility could hold a lot of fans) and the fans have little affect on the game (i.e., momentum) so the D rating they have is well-deserved.

As I'm playing DDSCB I guess the way I "envision" in my mind improvements to facilities is that there are either improved training facilities/equipment or the court/arena is improved...and since facility upgrades are approved only if the program has been pretty darned successful that more fans are coming to the games (because the team is is doing better) and the home fans are louder and more intense (which results in greater and more rapid momentum for the home team and dampened and slower momentum for the visiting team).