You would think that on the heels of the nationally-televised airing of a documentary about a famous building on 33rd street, Penn and its Big 5 rivals would make an effort to reverse a trend that the final minutes of the documentary addressed: the Big 5’s gradually waning commitment to the Palestra. As Penn wraps up Big 5 play tomorrow against Temple, it’s worth taking a look at where the city’s rivalry games are being held.

This season, Penn will have wound up playing only two of its four Big 5 games at the Palestra. Dunphy Bowl II will take place tomorrow at Temple’s licorice factory, or whatever that gym is called. Sure isn’t referred to as “the cathedral.” Dunphy’s alma mater, La Salle, prefers to take on his current squad at Tom Gola Arena. Though St. Joe’s has gladly invited Temple to the Palestra for their second meeting this season, the Owls will host the first one against their A-10 and Big 5 rival at the Liacouras Center (I did a little research… they’ve been calling it that since 2000!).

To their credit, Phil Martelli’s Hawks have shown a real dedication to keeping the Big 5 alive and will call the Palestra home next season. They will also use the Palestra to host this year’s “holy war,” which has drawn an average of 8,689 fans the last three times it’s been played there. However, Villanova insists on hosting the annual rivalry at the Pavilion, which seats only 6,500. And forget about the Wildcats coming to Penn, unless they’re the visitors.

Every year, there are 10 Big 5 games. This year, only half of them will be played in the building that was made for Big 5 basketball. That’s just a shame. Hopefully, by playing its home games at the Palestra next season, St. Joe’s can help to revitalize the building and finally bring the Big 5 back home in the years to come.

Freshman point guard Harrison Gaines is unlikely to see action tonight against La Salle. He is still feeling the effects of re-tweaking his hamstring last week.

Junior Kevin Egee has been seeing more time in Gaines’ absence. Egee played 13 minutes against NJIT last Saturday (Gaines played 24), but he led the team with 30 against Miami when Gaines was on the bench.

Senior guard Michael Kach is good to go, according to Penn’s game notes, as is junior forward Brennan Votel, who dressed for NJIT but didn’t get in the game. Kach had been out with a back problem and Votel with a hamstring injury.

Elsewhere in the Big 5, both Villanova and St. Joe’s could be getting personnel boosts in the near future, the Inquirer reports.

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.

In Drexel’s third game at the Palestra against a Big 5 team, the Dragons were overwhelmed by St. Joe’s, falling 69-51 on New Year’s Eve. Basically, Drexel had the best player on the floor, but the Hawks had the next six.

Dragons center Frank Elegar went 6-for-6 for 17 points and eight rebounds, but the Hawks were too much. Six-foot-8 swingman Pat Calathes had 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and Ahmad Nivins, Tasheed Carr and Darrin Govens all scored in double-figures.

Here are a few interesting notes about the game:

Drexel was the home team, and put down their own stickers along the baseline, but for some reason St. Joe’s sat on the home bench and got to use the Penn (much nicer, much bigger) locker room.

While both teams brought the band and cheerleaders (and in Drexel’s case the dance team as well), I’d say no more than 1,500 of the 5,284 fans in attendance were rooting for the Dragons. Despite being some three blocks away, the Dragons were clearly out-numbered by migrating members of Hawk Hill.

Phil Martelli, still, only plays six players. Idris Hilliard or Rockwell Moody may get 10 minutes on a given night, but Calathes, Nivins, Carr, Govens, Rob Ferguson and Garrett Williamson off the bench got 91.5 percent of the minutes in the win over Drexel. And that’s barely above their season average of 87. These teams have got to be two of the more foul-sensitive in the country. Certain players getting in foul trouble can be fatal.

There were five dunks in all (three by St. Joe’s, two by Elegar), most of which were thunderous ones. A dunk that won’t go down on the scoresheet was one in the first-half for the Hawks when the 6-foot-5 Williamson caught an alley-oop off on the baseline, but it hit the back iron. He jumped from out of the lane, and was about to tomahawk it, but unfortunately for all of the viewers, it didn’t fall.

Drexel coach Bruiser Flint didn’t disappoint, working the refs all game, drawing a technical foul in the second half and standing on the court for the majority of the game, even when the ball was in his own end.

It’s been a while since the DP beat this particular dead horse, but both the Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated do a good job of picking up the slack today. Props to them for showing all the hypocrisy surrounding the Ivy-football-playoffs debate.

Lots of good Big 5 stuff from the Inquirer today, too: Frank Fitzpatrick waxes nostalgic on the Palestra of yesteryear, Joe Juliano recaps another St. Joe’s-Gonzaga squeaker, and Mike Jensen does the same for Temple’s win last night while Mike Kern offers a sidebar.