Georgia head coach Mark FoxWinning on the road for Southeastern Conference basketball teams always has been difficult, but this season it’s downright bleak.
Arkansas is 15-0 in the comfort of Bud Walton Arena but 15-6 overall, and the Razorbacks are assured of entering February without a road triumph. Tennessee has yet to defeat a Division I team away from Thompson-Boling Arena — the Vols did whip the Division II Chaminade Silverswords in Hawaii back in November — and will enter February without such a victory unless it can prevail tonight at No. 1 Kentucky.
Auburn, Georgia, LSU and South Carolina haven’t won away from home in 2012, leaving half of the SEC yet to win a league road game.
“One thing that’s obviously different in our sport compared to football is the noise stays indoors,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said Monday. “The crowd can have such an effect on the energy of the home team. In basketball, you also see that there is so much more travel and so many more things to balance in our sport compared to football.”
Noisy crowds and stressful travel aren’t new to SEC programs, however, and the difference in home and road performances wasn’t as drastic last season. In fact, every SEC team won at least one league road game last January.