Moody Center Key to Texas Basketball: Will the Hot Streak Continue?

Dave Flemming along with many others in the Moody Center could not hear anything besides impassioned victory cries from the 10,000 Texas basketball fans in attendance after a 19-point win against the No. 2 team in the country.

"“93-74, you can’t even hear the final horn.” said ESPN broadcaster Dave Flemming."

Gonzaga was dominated nearly the whole game, down by ten at the half, and the lead continued to grow until the final buzzer rang through the brand-new Moody Center.

What was the key to success?

Perhaps it was fan support like this.

Screams like this were made possible by the meticulous design of the Longhorn’s new home court. The Moody’s full capacity is 15,000, but it looks like most UT Basketball games will only be able to hold 10,000 attendees.

So what happens to the other 5,000 seats? Sound barriers are lowered from the ceiling to reverberate any screams right back onto the court creating a truly thunderous effect.

The most ingenious part of the Moody may be the seating arrangements. The student section is directly behind both benches, which keeps students engaged and loud. Who wouldn’t cheer with the best seats in the house? The effort to design a special playing environment is paying dividends.

Moody Center proving to give Texas basketball a huge home-court advantage this season

But what happens when the Longhorns can’t play in their new arena? The team is undefeated at home with three wins but has yet to play a road game. As mentioned in “Three reasons why the Longhorns will make the Final Four,” there are plenty of reasons to have high hopes for the season, but unreasonable expectations are a different story. UT will play a neutral site game against Northern Arizona on Monday in Edinburg, Texas but any game in the Lone Star State is going to lean towards a Longhorn advantage.

The first true road game of the season is going to be a real test. Texas will travel to Norman, OK on Dec. 31 to play their biggest rivals, the Boomer Sooners. Unfortunately, it is going to be tough to gauge the potential of this team as every game until the New Year is going to be at home or at neutral sites. In other words, do not get a 2023 Big 12 Championship tattoo yet.

The Big 12 is nothing to scoff at when it comes to talented teams. The conference is home to No. 5 Baylor, No. 6 Kansas, No. 15 TCU, and No. 23 Texas Tech. UT will have to face each conference team twice this season and multiple other ranked teams are sprinkled throughout the schedule. The Longhorns will have to face No. 10 Creighton and No. 19 Illinois in back-to-back games in two weeks. The road to a Big 12 championship for UT  is going to be hard-fought.

These battles are going to be more manageable thanks to the Moody Center. Home-court advantage should become a staple of Longhorn basketball this season and the reputation should only grow if the program exceeds expectations as students blow the roof off of the place. Tough schedule or not plays like this are sure to be in abundance.