Print edition: 
It's gotten to the point where you wonder why basketball teams bother, other than they're contractually obligated. But most trips into Lawrence these days to play Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse go something like this: Get off the plane. Go to the hotel. Go to shoot-around. Go back to the hotel. Go to the game. Get on the plane. Lick your wounds.
KU games inside the country's most intimidating arena are usually over before they start, which helps explain the Jayhawks' 54-game home winning streak, the longest in the country.
You can't hear inside Allen, which everybody understands when they enter. The next two-plus hours are going to be a little crazy, then hope that the ringing in the ears eventually goes away.
It's not much different at Bramlage Coliseum, home of the Kansas State Wildcats, or Koch Arena, where Wichita State rules its roost.
The state's Big Three (and it's perfectly acceptable and accurate to call them that this season) are a combined 35-1 at home this season. It can't all be explained away as home-court advantage, either.
Kansas knows a thing or two about how to win on the road, too, as its No. 2 ranking indicates. Kansas State is No. 11 and Wichita State, had it not dropped a game at Drake last weekend, would be knocking on the door of the Top 25.
But it's at home where these teams thrive, willed to win by loyal and excited fan bases who cross days off the calendar in anticipation of basketball season.
"These fans at KU are great,'' said Jeff Withey, a 7-foot freshman who transferred from Arizona, whose basketball tradition is rich but whose fans don't compare to those at Kansas. "They're one of a kind. You're like, 'There's so much history here,' and there's a standard where you have to step up. You just want to play your best when you're in there.''
Kansas has always won big at home. During the decade that just ended, the Jayhawks were 160-9. Yes, you can count the number of KU home losses the past 10 years on both hands, with a finger left over.
K-State was nearly as unbeatable once upon a time. During the 30 seasons from 1950-79, the Wildcats lost 55 home games.
And Wichita State is 596-212 at Koch Arena/Levitt Arena/The Roundhouse since it was built in 1955.
"This place gets full,'' WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. "And it gets loud, especially when we give fans something to get loud about. It's got its own unique charm with the music they play. It's a festival atmosphere.''
Kansas State lost much of the home-court edge earned during the Tex Winter-Jack Hartman-Lon Kruger years. Bramlage, opened in 1988, was often half empty and quiet during the 1990s and early 2000s as neither Tom Asbury nor Jim Wooldridge was able to elicit much excitement.
Bob Huggins changed that. His hiring in 2006 invigorated a fan base that for too long had been ambivalent about basketball.
And even though Huggins stayed just one season before moving on to West Virginia, his former assistant, Frank Martin, has been able to build on to what Huggins started.
The atmosphere inside Bramlage for Kansas State's win over then No. 1 Texas last week was similar, I have to believe, to the runway at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. At rush hour.
Kansans don't just love basketball, they're genetically drawn to it.
Think about it: James Naismith, the inventor of the game, coached at Kansas. So did Phog Allen. Dean Smith is from Emporia. Adolph Rupp grew up in Halstead. Ralph Miller's hometown is Chanute. Eddie Sutton is a Bucklin native. Gene Keady hails from Larned.
You can have Kentucky and North Carolina. I'll take Kansas for basketball any day.
"Our people here have tremendous passion for our basketball team,'' K-State's Martin said. "You walk out there and you feel it.''
Literally.
Monday night, as the Missouri-Kansas game was getting ready to tip at Allen Fieldhouse, I felt my body shaking. And it wasn't because Elvis Presley was playing over the PA.
Sometimes it gets so loud inside the old barn that I need to close my eyes for a few seconds.
"The first game after I got here last year, we played K-State,'' said Withey, who became eligible this season. "And I felt it. It was awesome. The entire game, I just had goosebumps. It was awesome.''
One more time: It was awesome.
Thousands of K-State students line up outside of Bramlage for every home game now, hoping to get inside. And when they do, they don't sit on their hands.
It's the best heckling student section I've seen.
"I like how our students sit in the middle,'' K-State junior guard Jacob Pullen said. "Every school I've been to, they put their students behind one of the baskets. Really, it's good for only a half. Our students are in the middle of the court the whole time and you hear them all game. That makes it unique.''
All three venues are unique. And it's almost impossible for opponents to succeed in them.
Illinois State, for instance, beat Wichita State by 15 points earlier this season at Normal, Ill. But is there anyone who thinks ISU has a reasonable chance of beating the Shockers tonight at Koch Arena?
It might happen, I suppose. But I would be surprised.
It's difficult not to take our home teams for granted, such is their mastery of the home environment.
Kansas has an astounding .838 winning percentage at home since 1899. So this is nothing new. Solar eclipses occur with as much regularity.
Wichita State has always owned its home court; the Shockers were 61-4 at home from 1961-62 through 1965-66.
Kansas State was nearly unbeatable inside Ahearn Field House, where it was 379-87 in 38 seasons. Now the Wildcats are just as bad a host at Bramlage.
This is good stuff. This is dominant stuff.
You don't come into these houses and win. You come, you lose, you lick your wounds.
