Perfectly at home
Fertitta Center offers UH all the comforts to make life hard for visitors
The University of Houston had just opened Fertitta Center with a victory over No. 18 Oregon when players immediately took off to celebrate in the student section near courtside.
After 21 months of no basketball games on campus during the transformation of Hofheinz Pavilion to Fertitta Center, there was not an empty seat in the building. Crowd noise reached a deafening level not heard for most of the past decade, if UH makes a splashy debut at the Fertitta Center by beating Oregon on Dec. 1 to the delight of, from left, Cedrick Alley Jr., Nate Hinton and Corey Davis Jr. not longer, offering a snapshot of what a true home-court advantage really looks like.
“I feel like we have an advantage because our crowd is behind us,” redshirt freshman forward Cedrick Alley Jr. said. “We come out and play our hearts out for our fans every time. We actually feed off (the noise). It amps us up, gets us going.”
Another sellout crowd of 7,035 is expected Wednesday night when the No. 24 Cougars (8-0) — who this week entered both national polls for the first time this season — host
LSU (7-2) to begin a season-high seven-game homestand.
UH has won 21 consecutive home games, tied with College of Charleston for the second-longest active streak in the nation behind South Dakota State (26). It’s also the fifth-longest streak in school history, behind memorable runs that include a program-record 59 in a row during the Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney era of the mid-tolate 1960s (when it was not uncommon for the Cougars to play home games in multiple venues) and a 43-game streak that spanned the Phi Slama Jama dynasty of the mid-1980s.
UH’s current run of home dominance coincides with the relocation to Texas Southern’s H&PE Arena for all 15 games during the 2016-17 season and the first four games of this season during the $60 million renovation of the Cougars’ on-campus arena.
“We didn’t have a home anymore,” UH coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Think about it: We won 19 in a row at somebody else’s gym that we called ours.”
The last home loss for the Cougars? A 78-75 setback to Akron at H&PE Arena in the opening round of the 2017 National Invitation Tournament, a span of 637 days. UH has won by an average of 21 points and beaten three ranked opponents — including top-10 Wichita State and Cincinnati teams last season — during its home winning streak. Only six contests have been decided by fewer than 10 points. The closest call? A 76-73 nail-biter to Temple that wasn’t decided until a potential tying 3-pointer missed at the buzzer.
With only two road games to date — impressive wins over BYU and Oklahoma State — UH is off to the school’s best start since going 9-0 to begin the 1969-70 season.
Along with an improved facility, a much-improved on-court product in recent years has led to a slow increase in attendance. UH is averaging 4,676 per game this season, seventh among the 12 schools in the American Athletic Conference. UH did not average that total in any of the final 11 seasons at Hofheinz Pavilion, where outdated amenities and only one NCAA Tournament appearance since 1992 left little to cheer.
“It was kind of hard bringing people into Hofheinz,” senior guard Galen Robinson Jr. said. “It had its own challenges. But we have a new beautiful gym.”
Sampson noted UH has played before large crowds, most recently Nov. 24 when 10,959 attended the BYU game at Provo, Utah.
“It’s just been in other people’s gyms,” he said. “We have to adjust to playing in front of that in our gym. That’s what it is like at Connecticut, LSU and Cincinnati.”
A reconfigured seating bowl at Fertitta Center was designed to bring fans closer to the action. That includes a 300-seat student section near courtside, and players already have taken notice.
“I think the first half of the Oregon game showed how much the crowd can have an effect,” senior guard Corey Davis Jr. said of the Cougars’ 20-point first-half lead. “The student section was absolutely electric.”
A more intimate environment with the potential to erupt was part of the hope when the Cougars went through the design phase of Fertitta Center, according to Chris Pezman, UH’s vice president of intercollegiate athletics.
“That’s exactly (the type of noise) this building was built for,” Pezman said.
Among those offering early impressions, freshman guard Nate Hinton said the crowd has “made it comfortable” and a true homecourt advantage. Junior guard Armoni Brooks said the energy “gets (the team) enthused and motivated.”
The streak will be tested over the next seven games, which besides Wednesday’s matchup against LSU includes meetings with Saint Louis, Utah State, Coppin State and NJIT and the start of AAC play with Tulsa and Memphis.
“I wish we didn’t play seven straight home games,” said Sampsonl. “This is a good schedule, but it’s a schedule that will challenge you and also a schedule that will reveal to us how much better we are getting. We can win some of these games, or we can lose some of these games. We just have to make sure we play well.”