How much do the ‘Chadwick Crazies’ actually affect the game?
The most common trope of sports is athletes and coaches thanking their home fans for supporting them after a win. But can the stat books justify the feeling of the home-crowd advantage? For some teams– not so much. But for Wabash– you better believe they can.
Crunching the numbers makes it hard to argue that Wabash has the strongest home crowd advantage in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). At 6-2 on their own court, the Little Giants are tied with Denison for the second best home record in the NCAC. Wittenberg is squarely in first with an 8-2 record when in Springfield, Ohio. But with 14 scheduled home games they will have four more chances to win at home than Wabash during the season, an unsurprising decision given their 3-5 road record. But so many variables play into the outcome of a game, regardless of location, that it’s difficult to pin winning at home solely on the fans.
The one aspect of the game where the fans have the chance to make a real difference is at the free throw line. It is possibly the most mundane event in all of sports, but that doesn’t stop the free throw from being a wildly impactful part of the game. At the free throw line the players get quiet and the stands get loud. The battle is set between the focus of the athlete and the clamor of the crowd. But can fans really make a difference in the outcome of a freethrow? The numbers say they can.
“Obviously we know that there is an advantage when it gets loud and Chadwick,” said Brett Driscoll ’24. “You don’t think that DIII sports get very loud very often, at least from my experience. Because we can watch the live streams at other schools, we can see the opposing fans. And rarely do they have student sections at all. And yet our students section sometimes takes up damn-near half the gym.”
At Chadwick, NCAC opponents hit about 8.7% fewer free throws, compared to the league average of 69.3% free throw shooting. Just to show how monumental this difference is, one can compare it to the difference in FT% between the best and the worst in the conference. The best NCAC team is Oberlin, shooting a respectable 75.5% from the stripe. At the bottom of the conference is Kenyon who shoot a dismal 64.1% at the line.
The gap between the league average at Chadwick and the league average makes up for more than three quarters of the difference between the best and worst free throw shooting teams. If that doesn’t sound important, it is.
All things added up, the six teams who have visited Wabash already this season have combined to shoot a near-blasphemous 59.5% free throw percentage. Compare this to NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who’s free throw shooting was infamously bad that opposing teams chose to foul him rather than let him shoot from the field with a tactic called Hack-a-Shaq. Still, O’Neal was able to muster a 52.7% career free throw shooting percentage. And entire teams are averaging just above that when they get Chadwick.
“Is this surprising?” said Mason Naaman ’24. “Is the Pope Presbyterian? The only basketball players in the world who would be comfortable at the line in Chadwick are those who have Wabash across their chest. We, as fans, try to reflect the passion and energy our players/coaches are bringing to each game. The Little Giants are an easy team to rally for, no matter what sport. It’s my pleasure to lose my voice each and every game.”
How do other teams’ home courts stack up? They don’t. Out of the eight other NCAC teams, only one of them see opponents shoot worse from the charity stripe. That’s Denison, who’s good for keeping opponents 2.3% below their average at their home Livingston Gymnasium.
Other than them, everyone else’s fans somehow give the visitors a boost in FT%. Worst amongst these are Wittenberg and Hiram, where opponents shoot +3.7% and –worst of all– Ohio Wesleyan, where fans get to watch teams knock down an extra 4.7% of the free throws.
The numbers leave little room for doubt, there’s something different about Chadwick Court. Whether it’s the smell of burgers on the lawn, the hearty dose of Indiana basketball on the hardwood or the aptly named “Chadwick Crazies” in the stands, when teams find themselves on the line in Crawfordsville, they struggle to find anything more than the back of the rim.