The Finishing Touches: Home Court Factors

We're all set to begin a game between UTEP and Central Oklahoma using the new cards.

If you're curious, you might note that there is a special card with the name of the team, something called a "Home Court Factor" which is equal to nine, a "Fast Break Offense" equal to "A" and a "Fast Break Defense" equal to "A".

First, we have to determine the Home Court Factor. The Home Court Factor is designed to influence any games played on a home court in favor of the home team. The factors range from "1" to "10", so "9" is very high. Central Oklahoma did very well on its home court and the high number reflects that.

At the beginning of the game, Central Oklahoma will be alloted nine Home Court Points to influence the game in various ways. They can:

* ignore fouls when they come up
* call for steals when they need them
* ask for their high rebounder to get the ball automatically

...and so forth. These points are "spent" by the home team as needed. A crafty home team could save some points for the end of the game and use them in critical situtations, turning the tide for comebacks in front of a riotous crowd.

So how do we determine the correct number? We have to adjust the college teams wins and losses to 82 games, since the Cardmaker spreadsheet is designed for creating NBA cards. Next, we determine the percentage of home wins and multiply that by 41 to get a home won-loss record:

11-30 or worse at home: 1 point
between 12 and 14 home wins: 2 points
between 15 and 17 home wins: 3 points
between 18 and 20 home wins: 4 points
between 21 and 23 home wins: 5 points
between 24 and 26 home wins: 6 points
between 27 and 29 home wins: 7 points
between 30 and 32 home wins: 8 points
between 33 and 35 home wins: 9 points
36-5 or better at home: 10 points

Central Oklahoma has nine Home Court points, which is excellent. However, they are playing on the road, so they can use none of those points. UTEP has all of the Home Factor points, and they use six points for their Home Factor.

The next part of the "team card" deals with Fast Break Offense and Defense. Each team has a "Fast Break Offense" ranging from A to D and a "Fast Break Defense" ranging from A to D. A special chart on the playing board is consulted to determine which Fast Break chart to use when one of the forwards gets their hands on a rebound. A team that has a great fast break offense which is playing a team with a poor fast break defense might decide to use the board's Fast Break chart if the numbers favor a basket with the fast break as opposed to moving the ball down the court.

The Fast Break values are determined by the spreadsheet - but the spreadsheet needs two values: points scored per game, and points allowed per game.

If we know a college team's points scored per game - which is easy to look up - we just multiply by 48/40, or 6/5 or 1.2. (An NBA team plays 48 minute games; a college team plays 40 minute games). We do the same with points allowed and enter them on the proper place in the spreadsheet.

That's it. We've determined the teams. We've created the cards. Now it's time to actually play a game....