It's a rare home game for Owls

After opening our season with five games away from Philadelphia, we look forward to playing in front of the best home crowd in the country when we take on a tough Miami of Ohio team at the Liacouras Center Wednesday night.

During the past few months I have been asked by several fans and media members why Temple has only 11 home games this season. Let me take a moment to explain as we prepare for our home opener. Our unbalanced schedule is due to a number of factors. First, every other year we travel to our two non-conference Big 5 opponents, Villanova and Penn, which creates a natural imbalance. We also have two return games, Lafayette and Long Beach State, which we moved from the 2007-08 season to this season.

We also took advantage of two unique opportunities. We agreed to play in the three-game Charleston Classic, an exempt tournament, and we were able to schedule two tremendous programs, Penn State and Kansas. In order to do that, however, we needed to start both series on the road.

While you would like to have more home games than away games the bottom line still is that you have to win wherever you play. Next year, we will be in a much better position in terms of home dates as we will play Penn and Villanova at home and also bring Penn State and Kansas to the Liacouras Center.

I hope to see everyone at the Liacouras Center Wednesday night. Come out and join us for what should be an entertaining game against a strong, well-coached Red Hawks team. And come early so you can catch our women’s team, which plays Dartmouth at 5:30 p.m.

Go Owls.

...