Around the Mountain: We knew it! Foul counts do change in the league's loudest arenas

It doesn’t matter where you are in the country; college basketball fans will tell you there are those places where the whistle just isn’t fair.

There are coaches that’ll say it too.

“You know, in this building, they’re pretty much allowed to do it,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said of the New Mexico Lobos’ physical play in the Pit on Jan. 17.

Boise State was called for 15 fouls that game, UNM for 14. Both are below their averages in Mountain West play this season. The personal foul count in Boise last week was 24 on UNM, 15 on Boise State.

Said Richard Pitino of the foul discrepancy in the rematch: “We fouled too much.”

So which is it? Does the whistle change based on the venue? Or do teams change how they play?

Either way, numbers do suggest that foul counts change in favor of teams playing in the league’s toughest venues.

The fact is, the best venues in the league are home to some of the biggest foul-count swings — both in terms of how many fouls are called on opponents (UNM/the Pit leads there) and how the home team may be protected by not calling as many fouls on them as on the road (San Diego State/Viejas Arena leads in that regard).

Here’s what the very small sample size of Mountain West games played this season tells us about fouls called on teams by arena:

Opponent fouls vs. home team fouls:

• +4.7 — New Mexico (the Pit)
• +3.1 — Utah State (Dee Glen Smith Spectrum)
• +3.0 — Fresno State (Save Mart Center)
• +2.8 — Nevada (Lawlor Events Center)
• +2.3 — UNLV (Thomas & Mack Center)
• +2.0 — San Diego State (Viejas Arena)
• +1.1 — Boise State (ExtraMile Arena)
• +1.1 — Colorado State (Moby Arena)
• -0.3 — San Jose State (Provident CU Event Center)
• -0.5 — Air Force (Clune Arena)
• -2.6 — Wyoming (Arena Auditorium)

Some teams seem to get called for far fewer fouls in their home arena than on the road. Here’s a look at the five largest discrepancies of fouls called on a team depending on whether they’re playing on the road or in their home arena:

Fewer fouls at home than on road (Top 5):

• -4.7 — San Diego State (22.0 fouls on road, 17.3 at home)
• -4.5 — Nevada (19.3 fouls on road, 14.8 at home)
• -2.9 — Utah State (20.0 fouls on road, 17.1 at home)
• -2.3 — New Mexico (18.4 fouls on road, 16.1 at home)
• -2.1 — Colorado State (18.0 on road, 15.9 at home)

Bubble talk

There are four MW teams that most major NCAA Tournament projections have either in the Big Dance at the moment or within striking distance.

As of Monday’s NET rankings, here are the four teams in question’s remaining schedules and what quadrant those remaining games would count as based on current ratings (Quad 1 best, Quad 4 worst):

UNM: at SDSU, Tuesday (Q1); vs. Air Force, Saturday (Q4); at Nevada, March 4 (Q1); vs. UNLV, March 7 (Q3).

Utah State: at Boise State, Wednesday (Q1); at Colorado State, Saturday (Q1); vs. Air Force, March 8 (Q4).

San Diego State: vs. UNM, Tuesday (Q2); at Wyoming, Saturday (Q3); at UNLV, March 4 (Q2); vs. Nevada, March 8 (Q2).

Boise State: vs. Utah State, Wednesday (Q2); at Fresno State, Saturday (Q4); at Air Force, March 4 (Q4); vs. Colorado State, March 7 (Q2).

Players of the week

The Lobos’ streak of four-straight Mountain West Player of the Week awards comes to an end, but they still had a hand in this week’s winner — both for player of the week and freshman of the week.

Boise State’s Tyson Degenhart, after a career-high 32 points in last week’s win over UNM, was named Mountain West Player of the Week on Monday, his second honor of the season.

Over two games, the UNM win and a road win over Nevada, he averaged 23 points and 4.5 rebounds.

His teammate, Pearson Carmichael, scored just two points Saturday on the road at Nevada, but in his first college start last week vs. UNM, he scored a career-high 21 points.

Poll position

No Mountain West teams were ranked in Monday’s latest Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll, but two teams were in the “others receiving votes” section.

UNM: 23 points, down from 117 last week, four spots out of rankings, appeared on 10 of 60 voter ballots. High vote No. 20 by David Jablonski of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.

Utah State: 1 point, 14 spots out, left off 59 ballots. Lone vote was Jablonski at No. 25.

Three for me

New Mexico (22-5, 14-2 MW) at San Diego State (18-7, 11-5 MW): Tuesday, 8 p.m. PST/9 p.m. MST, FS1 — The Lobos vs. the Aztecs in Viejas Arena is always fun. SDSU needs this one much more. They can’t really afford another home loss, whereas a road loss for UNM might take away more wiggle room down the stretch. In and of itself, losing at Viejas isn’t going to hurt UNM. On the other hand, the Lobos haven’t lost two games in a row all season. Why would they want to start now?

Utah State (24-4, 14-3 MW) at Boise State (19-8, 11-5 MW): Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. MST, FS1 — This was a two-point Aggies win in Logan last month. The Broncos have won six of seven and are desperately trying to fight their way into the NCAA Tournament at-large conversation. Utah State, meanwhile, is still playing for a Mountain West championship. Depending on what UNM does Tuesday, this game could be one that would put the Aggies back in first place for the moment.

Utah State (24-4, 14-3 MW) at Colorado State (18-9, 12-4 MW): Saturday, 1 p.m. PST/2 p.m. MST, FS1 — Earlier games could affect how big this game is, but as it stands entering the week, this is No. 2 vs. No. 3 in the standings with seeding on the line. The Rams haven’t lost a home game since the Lobos picked them off in Moby back on Dec. 28.