Early in the college basketball season, a loyal reader emailed with a sweat barometer request. He wanted the chart to include home and road ATS breakdowns. At that point, such a breakdown was for the most part uninformative since so many teams tend to play many neutral site games at the outset. It was too early to get any real sense of a team's likelihood to cover with a home/road comparison.

Now that we're past the midpoint of the season, though, a sweat barometer with home/road ATS analysis has more value. Remember, the sweat barometer is a metric used to measure how much teams cover or fail to cover the spread, with numbers provided by Sal Selvaggio of madduxsports.com.

In professional sports, so many teams are playing in state-of-the-art stadiums that take away a true home court advantage. The die-hards are pushed to the nosebleeds and the luxury boxes take over. In college basketball, however, the fans are on top of the court in most arenas. Home-court advantage can be a more significant factor.

On the SB top 25, four teams have considerably better SB and ATS numbers at home compared to the road. Michigan State is 9-2 ATS at home with a 6.36 SB and 4-3 ATS with a 3.57 on the road. Other teams with notable home/road splits are Akron (7-0 ATS, 7.79 SB/6-5, 2.68), La Salle (7-1-1, 3.94/5-4, 4.56) and Wofford (7-1/4-7, 0.14).

And remember, the sweat barometer isn't meant to be used in a vacuum. It's a tool to use strategically when there are mistakes in lines and should be used in conjunction with other handicapping tools and techniques.

With no more football games, it's time to start studying these all-important college basketball games in February. Let's turn to the sweat barometer where South Dakota State is once again on top.