Part two of Travis Mason-Bushman's Don Verlin interview

Travis Mason-Bushman offered a second part of his "scheduling" interview with Don Verlin today:

“Nobody wants to play us”
Travis Mason-Bushman
Vandal Nation
September 4, 2009

Yesterday, we talked to coach Don Verlin about the teams the Vandals will be facing. In the second half of our interview, we asked Verlin why the Vandals’ slate isn’t chock-full of major-conference opponents — and in the process, found out much about his scheduling philosophy.

Vandal Nation: There’s been a fair bit of criticism of the schedule, much of it targeted at the lack of a perceived “marquee” opponent. Why isn’t there one?

Don Verlin: One of the things I’m working hard on is to schedule home-and-homes. You know, last year we played Gonzaga and Michigan State — those guys won’t come play here. Our fans will never see them. If you study college basketball, the home team wins about 80 percent of the games. I believe we need to have good, quality wins, and we’d love to play anybody in a neutral-court setting. But we’re not going to put our team at a disadvantage by doing two-for-ones or guarantee games...

Go here for the remainder.