15 best home-court advantages in college basketball
13. Butler
- Venue: Hinkle Fieldhouse
- Location: Indianapolis, IN
- Opened: 3/7/28
- Capacity: 9,100
- Home Record Since 2000: 242-51 (.826 Winning Percentage)
There are a lot of historic venues on our list, but perhaps none has more prestige than Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. Hinkle was first built back in 1928, and it has hosted a ton of memorable games, including the 1954 Indiana high school state basketball championship that inspired the movie Hoosiers.
The facility was originally named Butler Fieldhouse, but was renamed in 1966 to pay tribute to long-time coach Tony Hinkle, who coached at Butler for 41 years. The school has played games at Hinkle since its debut almost a century ago, and they have always had a tremendous home-court advantage as a result.
Since the year 2000, Butler has won just under 83 percent of its home games, including three separate campaigns where they went undefeated at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Hinkle came back into the national spotlight when Butler, under the guidance of coach Brad Stevens, made consecutive runs to the national championship game, with the second coming just miles from campus in Indianapolis.
Butler has since moved to the Big East, where Hinkle Fieldhouse now joins other historic venues such as Madison Square Garden in the spotlight. Hinkle has also been declared a national historic landmark by the U.S. government, a sign of how many important moments it has hosted throughout its history.