Those of you who played basketball; what was your experience? I played basketball in high school in a PA coal town. There is very little to do in a coal town so all of our basketball games where basically attended by the whole town within the fire marshall's limitations. They would leave the doors open so the folks outside could hear and catch a glimpse of the game. During the game I heard my teammates and certainly our coach who possessed more than a little of Geno's game time emotion. But once the game was underway for me the crowd noise disappeared or maybe just became some kind of background static. It may be a function of focus and concentration either natural or learned. I suspect learned. Maybe the players minds just adapt to the noise. Most of times I shot poorly was when I was thinking too much or maybe doubting too much, but not because of the crowd noise. Perhaps you basketball players also experienced playing at ull speed but as you drove to the basket everything seemed to be in slow motion. I hear NFL rookies say their play improved because the game is slowing down for them. No doubt the UCONN players experience the samething relative to the speed of the game and perhaps the crowd noise. However may be the unconscious "feeling" of the crowd noise helps with their rythm of shooting.
My first year at an aerospce employer had 75 of us, all computer analysts and programmers, occupying one half of the 4th. floor. All of us at desks. No cubes. No partitions. Just a sea of desks. Yet somehow we cranked out very good results. At first the din was troublesome but one day the din disappeared just like the game slows down and the crowd noise disappears. We all seemed to get lost in our work.
