• Tonight’s game marked the first time in Brian Grandieri’s career that Penn lost an Ivy League contest at the Palestra.

• As a team, the Quakers shot 9-17 from downtown, hitting three more triples than the Bears. The difference was the play inside. Despite Brown’s smaller size, the Bears etched out 30 points in the paint (compared to Penn’s 24) thanks to a number of smooth backdoor cuts. More importantly, the Bears got to the free throw line 26 times — Penn was 2 of 6 from the charity stripe. Brown’s 61.5% clip wasn’t impressive, but it was good enough.

• Grandieri overcame his recent shooting woes tonight, going 9-15 from the field and 2-4 from beyond the arc. He was the Quakers’ only reliable option in the second half — especially with Kevin Egee on the bench in foul trouble — and hit a number of clutch shots down the stretch.

• Cameron Lewis did not see any action tonight, and though Remy Cofield did see 12 minutes, he left the Palestra wearing a Tom Brady-like protective boot.

Tomorrow’s game against Yale has been moved up to 6 pm. If you can’t make it to the Palestra, ESPN Classic will be televising the game. Stay tuned to The Buzz for more coverage.

P.S. Jack Eggleston was a guest earlier this week on UTV’s DP Roundtable and was asked about the incident with Noah Savage at the end of the Princeton game. With Princeton inbounding the ball under its own basket down by 3 with 9 seconds to go, Savage took a swing towards Eggleston’s groin area and was called for a technical foul, essentially ending the Tigers’ chances. On an earlier possession, Savage missed an important shot that would have put his team in better position to win. On the show, Eggleston said that right before Savage picked up the “T,” Eggleston — who played with Savage a lot over the summer — said something to him about the missed shot, prompting the hot-headed reaction. Zidane, anyone?

There were roster changes aplenty last night against Temple. The obvious one was the return of Harrison Gaines. He played well for 10 minutes, and with eight days off before Harvard we have no reason to think he won’t be 100 percent by then.

Ironically, in Gaines’ first game back since NJIT, Kevin Egee played his cleanest game yet, logging 29 minutes without a turnover.

Andreas Schreiber benefited from the presence of Temple 7-footer Sergio Olmos. As Penn’s best interior defender along with Cameron Lewis and Jack Eggleston, Schreiber was a logical choice to stay on the floor for more time than normal. Justin Reilly, who usually gets more minutes that Schreiber, played just 4, and Eggleston played 33 minutes in his best game so far.

Video of the postgame press conference can be found here.

Just finished watching the Blue-bloods beat the Cherry and White easily at the Wachovia Center. No surprise there. The Dukies had plenty of help (from the guys who are supposed to be colorblind). Enough to build a 16-point lead before the refs realized, hey, we should give Temple a few non-calls to make this thing exciting. Alas, as always seems to happen, the officials righted their ship too late to save the integrity of the evening.

The Inquirer’s audio of the post-game conferences can be found here, here, here and here.

One of the ESPN announcers mentioned that the Big 5 is “down” this year as opposed to last. Numbers-wise, I’m not so sure. Let’s take a look.

Temple is in almost exactly the same spot. The Owls are 6-7 with an RPI of 71 (after tonight’s loss); they were an identical 6-7 at this point last year with a final RPI of 67.

La Salle was an even 6-6 twelve games into 2006 and is 3-9 now, but its current RPI is actually a bit better than last year’s finish.

St. Joe’s is 8-4 with an RPI of 36 (after tonight’s win); the Hawks had a slightly worse record a year ago, 7-5, and a much lower RPI at year’s end, 95.

Villanova has regressed a smidge, but the Big 5 is in roughly the same spot as last year — outside of Penn, which has spun backwards from its ‘07 team.

In another Big 5 item of note, the renovations to the Hawks’ Alumni Memorial Field House that we heard about in early 2006 will indeed force St. Joe’s to play its 2008-09 games at the Palestra, the Daily News reports.

Dick Jerardi also gives us a notebook on the local storylines.

Now on to the Quakers. Freshman point guard Harrison Gaines suffered another setback after playing 24 productive minutes against NJIT, coach Glen Miller told PSN’s Brian Seltzer.

“We’re a little worried about Harrison,” Miller said. “He probably came back too quick; he re-tweaked his hamstring and he didn’t practice yesterday and probably won’t practice today [Wednesday]. We really need him on the court.”

Miller didn’t say whether the injury came in the NJIT game or in a subsequent practice, but either way Gaines has another five days to recover before Penn faces La Salle. He had eight assists against NJIT.

While I’m not ready to eat my words just yet on Cameron Lewis, Miller had good things to say about him, which you would expect after the last two games. What are your thoughts on Cameron Lewis and the men whose minutes he’s taking, Jack Eggleston and Justin Reilly? Should Lewis continue to start?

As always, leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Here are my third Ivy Rankings installment. The number in parentheses is how far everyone’s RPI has risen or fallen since the last edition.

1. Brown [8-6; Previous Ranking: 3; RPI: 90 (+29)]
The Bears are still playing well despite a loss to Baylor, and Damon Huffman continues to be one of the League’s top scorers.

2. Cornell [6-5; Previous Ranking: 1; RPI: 123(-5)]
A 14-point loss to Duke won’t lose Cornell many points. Point guard Louis Dale is creating a lot of buzz around the League.

3. Harvard [6-11, 1-0 Ivy; Previous Ranking: 4; RPI: 281 (+20)]
Tommy Amaker’s roster changes are helping Harvard score, and the Crimson enter Friday’s rematch with Dartmouth riding two straight blowout wins.

4. Columbia [6-8; Previous Ranking: 2; RPI: 215(-12)]
Two steps forward (beating Lehigh), one step back (losing to American). Ben Nwachukwu might finally be picking up steam.

5. Yale [5-8; Previous Ranking: 6; RPI: 166 (-8)]
Another underwhelming week for Yale against three underwhelming teams; thumping 2-15 Longwood doesn’t prove much.

6. Penn [5-9; Previous Ranking: 8; RPI: 270 (-15)]
A bad loss (Miami) and a bad win (NJIT) were two more steps back for Penn this week. Continued struggles at point guard negate Lewis’s hot streak.

7. Princeton [2-12; Previous Ranking: 5; RPI: 309 (-18)]
A blown lead and overtime loss to Lafayette is a tough way to drop a record 12th straight game. Look for Sydney Johnson to shake things up even more than he already has to get the Tigers out of their historic funk.

8. Dartmouth [5-8, 0-1 Ivy; Previous Ranking: 7; RPI: 262 (-21)]
Dartmouth’s only game this week was that disaster against Harvard, so it drops into the cellar for the time being.

Sorry, Andrew, one post illustrating what happened last night is not enough.

Penn’s six points, 5.9 percent shooting and one field goal in the first half were all the worst by any Division I basketball team in the shot clock era. Even the 30-point total was Penn’s worst in 40 years. Here are a few stats that I found must supplement the last post:

• Penn had 16 turnovers and 12 missed shots before scoring a single point
• 10 players attempted a three pointer for Penn, seven of which didn’t make one
• Nine players had multiple turnovers, five (Brian Grandieri, Jack Eggleston, Tyler Bernardini, Justin Reilly and Andreas Schreiber) had four or more
• The five starters (Grandieri, Eggleston, Bernardini, Reilly and Cohen) had eight more turnovers (21) then points (13)
• The starters had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.095
• Six players had more turnovers than points
• Schreiber (2-for-5) and Bernardini (2-for-9) were the only players to make more than one basket

I could go on, but I don’t want to see grown men crying before New Years. Here are some quotes from Penn head coach Glen Miller after the game:

“That’s probably the worst performance that any of my teams have ever had — and I’ve been a head coach for a long time. I’m very disappointed.”

“We were just very lethargic and unsure of ourselves. We certainly didn’t handle the five days we had off. We’re a much better team than that.”

“I want to give [the Eagles] credit. I think they’re a better basketball team than their record [4-9] and I think that will come through when they get in league play.”

Since it’s a new year coming up soon, Penn fans can look on the bright side:

• Penn’s 36 rebounds equaled FGCU’s total
• Joe Gill, playing in the first half for (I believe) the first time in his career had a wonderful game, hitting his only shot attempt, scoring four points, and dishing out one assist to no turnovers in seven minutes
• None of this matters until the Ivy League

I’d like to get your thoughts on a big personnel question during the final exams lull. How should Glen Miller divide up time in the Penn frontcourt over the next few games?

Well, it depends on the answers to a few other questions:

• Is Justin Reilly’s offensive game worth his defensive lapses?

• Is it the right decision to bury Brennan Votel on the bench?

• Should Cameron Lewis be more than a defense/rebounding role player?

• Should we see more of Conor Turley after the boost he gave against Monmouth?

• Will Andreas Schreiber ever be able to stay out of foul trouble?

For a frame of reference, here’s how the minutes and points have been divvied up so far. I’m not counting Brian Grandieri in this group, although he’s been listed as a forward most of the year.

Eggleston: 10 GP, 26.4 mpg, 7.7 ppg, 51.8 FG% (29-56), (7-18) 3-pt. FGs, 4.7 rpg
Reilly: 10 GP, 18.4 mpg, 7.1 ppg, 46.0 FG% (23-50), (7-13) 3-pt. FGs, 2.3 rpg
Schreiber: 10 GP, 13.8 mpg, 5.0 ppg, 54.1 FG% (20-37), (3-14) 3-pt. FGs, 3.7 rpg
Votel: 9 GP, 9.4 mpg, 1.9 ppg, 33.3 FG% (7-21), (1-7) 3-pt. FGs, 2.6 rpg
Lewis: 8 GP, 8.1 mpg, 1.5 ppg, 33.3 FG% (4-12), (0-0) 3-pt. FGs, 1.3 rpg
Turley: 5 GP, 7.2 mpg, 1.4 ppg, 28.6 FG% (2-7), (0-3) 3-pt. FGs, 0.4 rpg

Leave your comments on this frontcourt mess below, but be fair. If you suggest that one player should see more time, please indicate who those minutes should come from.

Brian Seltzer’s weekly podcast offers some insight on Harrison Gaines’ absence from the starting lineup against Monmouth; Miller commented that he was looking for “more organization for our offense” and better decision-making — when to push things and when to put on the brakes. With a couple of days’ hindsight, I think it also had something to do with Gaines’ night against North Carolina, where he looked completely out of sorts.

Harvard once again one-upped the rest of the Ivy League — just like it did on early decision — by revamping and expanding its financial aid program. (Yale did its best to play catchup.) At some point, will Harvard’s advantages in this department (a roughly $36 billion endowment) give it an edge over the rest of the conference when it comes to convincing recruits to leave scholarships on the table? Or will it force everyone to up their commitment and thereby help the League? I lean toward the latter. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

A few more thoughts from the Monmouth game: Overall, it was probably the best basketball the Quakers have played outside of the first half against North Carolina. There were downers; they still struggled to get the ball into the post without turning it over, and point guard play was erratic. But they hit 50% from the floor and didn’t turn the ball over nearly as much in the second half, which should be encouraging.

My one prediction for winter break is that we’ll see a few more players grab time in the frontcourt, like freshman Conor Turley did. Glen Miller said after the game that Penn had to adjust and spread the floor in the second half, because in one-on-one situations down low Monmouth was getting the better of every play. The main culprits there were Jack Eggleston and Justin Reilly.

He also said he was pleased that his team didn’t seem to be as reliant on the three-pointer as it was earlier this year, and he suggested that he would like to see the Quakers take fewer threes in the future, too.

The biggest question mark of the night was Harrison Gaines’ lack of minutes, and I don’t really have an explanation there.

Kevin Egee wasn’t with the team at Monmouth, and seperately, I spotted Remy Cofield on crutches outside Franklin Field today, so there’s two more items to keep an eye on in the coming days.

Monmouth-Penn also gets the award for ’smallest media contingent ever’ — two DP reporters, myself included, and one from the Ashbury Park Press in the Hawks’ weight room. Aaawkward.

What a rough game to watch, as Penn loses its third game in as many tries. After the overtime loss to Drexel, you had to be pretty confident in the Quakers’ chances of not seeing to drastic dropoff from last season as well as being the favorite in the Ivy League. But two games later, this squad is reeling.

What was most troubling was the defensive effort from Penn.

For a team that allows 29 points per game and 48 percent shooting from the three point line, I can’t imagine how a 1-3-1 defense was the best option defensively.

The Red and Blue played that set - with the point guard up top, big man in the middle with someone on either side of him and an athletic guard or swingman patrolling the back line - almost the whole game. And as a result, the defense allowed Howard to shoot 22 threes, making 12 of them. Many of these came from the corner, the area of the court that is traditionally most succeptible to threes in the 1-3-1 scheme.

Still, some execution would have prevented the onslaught that ensued. The Bison put up 80 points on Penn after averaging 56 in their first two losses to Duquesne (129-59) and Virginia (92-53).

Howard shot 57 percent not only by hitting wide open threes, but also beating Penn defenders off of the dribble. Quakers forwards seemed a step to slow against the small Bison side, and they conversely couldn’t use their size to their advantage. Penn inside was not particularly strong or intimidating, and recorded no blocks (after altering nine shots in the first two games).

And yet what was even more disturbing was the lack of communication.

Howard players were left wide open, and not just for three, but often under the basket. Whenever players screened, or crossed each other, Penn defenders struggled to cope, for example two defenders heading to the same offensive player on an off-the-ball screen.

This miscommuncation manifested itself on the offensive side as well. The Quakers had 14 turnovers from eight different guys - Grandieri was the only player who played over five minutes that didn’t give one away (Howard had four such players). Many of these were not so much bad passes, but bad decisions - throwing a pass into heavy traffic or to a place that a cutter wasn’t heading.

Key stats:

Read Monday’s paper to hear captain Brian Grandieri’s strong words following the surprising loss.