When Fran Dunphy left Penn for Temple last spring, he took over a team that had, in my estimation, OK uniforms. I don’t love the black road unis, I would have preferred the cherry, but nothing too spectacular.

I only hope that Dunphy was not the man behind the change to this year’s threads, made by Adidas. They are, in a word, horrible.

And that’s just the front, which is definitely the better half.

Here’s the back, which kinda makes me cringe whenever I see it. Where to begin? The shoulder stripe are worthless, the butt stripe is even worse and the side piping in white, the random red stripe on the leg and the very thin black piping all combine to look like one of the worst uniforms I have ever seen.

At least it’s in cherry and not black with cherry writing, and it still have the Temple “T” on the shorts which I like.

We’ll see later about the basketball skills, but one team has the huge advantage in the looks department.

As I walked out of the Palestra from JV basketball practice yesterday, I ran into former Penn coach Fran Dunphy, arriving for a Temple practice. After a quick greeting I started walking home, but after a few seconds the coach calls me back.

He needs me to swipe him in.

Today Dunphy will play his first game at the Palestra in 17 years on the opposing bench. I’ve been trying to decide whether I think it will feel like home for the coach.

He’ll be sitting about 25 feet east of where he used to, will be commanding players in cherry and white and will be stuck in one of the grungy eastern locker rooms, without the couches and flatscreen TV.

But everything else will be the same. The boisterous and supportive (but too obscene for his taste) crowd, the same 80-degree and stuffy atmosphere, the same beige and light-blue stands, the same governor and former players watching on and the same hardwood he won 155 games on.

The keys have officially been passed down to Glen Miller, but the Palestra is still Dunphy’s house.

The Penn-Temple game is all about Fran Dunphy making his return to the Palestra where he won over 300 games for the Quakers.
But the major factor on who wins tomorrow will be decided by Penn coach Glen Miller.

The Quakers play a style of offense that spreads the floor, involves a lot of motion — cutting to the basket, moving around the perimeter — and driving hard to the hoop. This has worked well at times during the year, but it is certainly not suited to beat a team like Temple.

You might consider the Red and Blue a small team (especially the starting five of 6-foot-2 Ibrahim Jaaber, 6-3 Kevin Egee, 6-4 Brian Grandieri, 6-7 Mark Zoller and 6-8 Stephen Danley), but they look like vultures compared to the Owls.

Temple has only has one player with over three minutes per game who is over 6-6, and 7-foot Spaniard Sergio Olmos (16 mpg) is too small at 220 pounds to be a force on the inside.

Saint Joseph’s beat the Owls in North Philly earlier this year by pounding it inside to their big men and taking advantage.

Penn’s style of offense is not the kind that beats a team full of swingmen like Temple. But if the Quakers make some adjustments to get the ball to Zoller and Danley inside, they will dominate, and should move to 2-1 in the Big 5.

Temple Starters:
6-4 Semaj Inge
6-6 Dion Dacons
6-5 Mark Tyndale
6-5 Dionte Christmas
6-5 Dustin Salisbery

A little Monday bonus for you today with your Ivy League player rankings, using the same formula that The Buzz has used all season. But first your top 10. The number in parentheses at the end is that player’s ranking when we last gave you the rankings before Penn’s first Ivy weekend.

1. Zoller, Penn 171.5 (1)

2. Cusworth, Harvard 146.5 (2)
3. Jaaber, Penn 141.0 (3)

4. Grandieri, Penn 108.5 (4)

5. Naeve, Cornell 106.8 (6)
6. McAndrew, Brown 104.0 (7)
7. Baumann, Columbia 102.6 (5)
8. Hughes, Yale 82.1 (12)
9. Nwachukwu, Columbia 81.9 (8)
10. Wittman, Cornell 80.9 (11)
Dropping out of the top 10: Dale (Cornell) and Danley (Penn)

You might notice the Quakers’ dominance at the top of the list with Mark Zoller, Ibrahim Jaaber and Brian Grandieri all in the top three. While it’s hard to see that as a negative, something that’s worried Penn fans all season has been an over-reliance on a few players. But are the Quakers leaning too hard on their big three, who provide 79.4 percent of the contributions based on the formula?

Here are the percentages of the contributions for the top three on each team. The Quakers are high on the list, but not the highest.

Brown (McAndrew, Huffman, Becker) 83.2
Penn (Zoller, Jaaber, Grandieri) 79.4

Dartmouth (Pattman, Mosley, Barnett) 74.5
Harvard (Cusworth, Pusar, Harris) 66.1
Cornell (Naeve, Wittman, Dale) 60.7
Columbia (Baumann, Nwachukwu, Loscalzo) 56.8
Princeton (Koncz, Owings, Schroeder) 55.0
Yale (Hughes, Abromaitis, Flato) 48.1

In Monday’s print edition, I mention that Dan Cepero’s new team, the New York Red Bulls, is shaping up to have four goalkeepers and probably wouldn’t keep fewer than three. On paper, that makes Cepero’s odds pretty good, but there’s more to it than that.

Two of New York’s goalkeepers, Ronald Waterreus and Jon Conway, are mortal locks to make the team. (Waterreus hasn’t officially signed yet, but all indications are that he will.) Waterreus is an incoming transfer from Glasgow Rangers, Scotland’s second-best team. Conway is the incumbent starter, and should compete with Waterreus for time in goal.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The Red Bulls’ number three man is Michael Behonick, an American University graduate who’s played for three years in the A-League, the MLS equivalent of Triple-A. He would seem to be a better candidate to make the team than a rookie. But the wrinkle is that Cepero is eligible to get a development contract, while Behonick, at 26, is too old. Every MLS team is mandated to have a first-team squad of 18 players and a development roster of 10 players who are 24 or younger. The development rosters have non-guaranteed contracts and roster spots, which gives the team increased flexibility.

In New York’s case, it might not want to waste 3 of its 18 first-team spots on goalkeepers. And since that third goalkeeper probably won’t be playing meaningful minutes, it’s probably not as important for him to have a lot of game experience. The financial flexibility aspect should play a much larger role in determining those last roster spots.

Of course, RBNY could decide to keep four goalkeepers (so much the better for Cepero!) or they could pick up another ‘keeper somewhere along the line. But at the moment, purely from a team management perspective, it’s in New York’s interest to sign their new draft pick.

Then again, there’s a reason current Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena didn’t get his contract renewed at his last coaching stop, and it wasn’t because of his sound management.

The growing popularity of “exempt” tournaments — ones that feature several games but only count as one toward a team’s limit of 29 — may have found another home in Philadelphia. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, an exempt tournament that would feature the Palestra prominently is being planned for a future Thanksgiving weekend.

One Philadelphia team would be in the field every year, and the opening rounds would be played at “campus sites.”

Very few details are out at this point, but from having spoken with Penn coach Glen Miller while the scheduling process was occuring, I can tell you that he was hot on getting his team into the an exempt tourney very early on this year. The Quakers ended up in the Black Coaches Invitational (where they were upstaged).

But having one such tournament closer to home might well be beneficial for Penn — even in the years when it doesn’t participate.

While I knew I had to root for my hometown squad, I was excited to watch Kevin Durant, who’s being touted as an automatic NBA lottery pick, in person. But against Villanova at the Wachovia Center today, Durant sure looked like a freshman.

Durant was never able to get into the flow of the game and stumbled to a 4-for-15 shooting performance.

Villanova’s ball pressure and trapping disrupted the No. 21 Texas offense (23 points in the first half) and limited the freshman standout’s touches inside. As a result, Durant threw up eight threes and made only one. With his team within four with under a minute to go Durant took the first available shot – a three from some 25 feet out – and ‘Nova eventually ran out the clock.

Much of Durant’s inability to do anything on the offensive end had to do with the Villanova defense, but the lanky 6-foot-9 freshman must bulk up, stop floating around the perimeter and get touches on the inside. He’s got immense talent, but the NBA can wait.

An interesting tidbit: Penn’s 99-89 loss to Villanova still marks the highest point total that the Wildcats have given up all season. Their next two highest point totals allowed were 87 in the win over No. 20 Notre Dame and 81 in the loss to Drexel.

For fans of either side, Penn’s Big 5 win over La Salle last night involved many moments where you wanted to tear your hair out, and others when you had to be careful not to punch the fan standing in front of you in the back of the head in jubilation. But from a neutral standpoint, it was a back-and-forth see-saw battle with a torrid pace that was a thrill to watch.

The most ridiculous part is how unbelievably close the game was. There were 16 lead changes and eight ties in total, but what was particularly amazing was what happened in the final quarter.

Starting with Brennan Votel’s layup with 11:54 remaining in the second half to cut Penn’s deficit to 63-61, until Ibrahim Jaaber’s runner with 14 seconds to go, it was entirely a one-possession game. That is no exaggeration, there were 55 total points scored, but at no time was either team up by more than three. Both squads just traded baskets until the Quakers could finally get a stop.

Maybe I’m cocky because of all of this ESPN student spirit stuff, but the La Salle fans were terrible at tonight’s game. I will give them credit because of how many regular students (not pure basketball fans) showed up to support their school, but even many of them showed up after tipoff.

And the regular student section was fairly passionate but lacked any cleverness or creativity whatsoever. They had chants such as “let’s go offense” and “let’s go defense”, but not other regular chants that were remotely interesting.
During the starting lineups, for their freshman starter Rodney Green they all chanted “he’s a freshman!” And during his uninspired night (nine points, one rebound and no assists) following a second three by Penn’s Darren Smith, the Penn fans countered with “he’s a freshman!” The only comeback the Explorer Entourage could come up with was “we don’t give a shit.” Not one bit hypocritical. They also played a “hey, you suck” chant while their team was losing, and did a “scoreboard” chant around halftime with a single-digit lead.

I’ve already rambled about the fans, but I have to vent — that was clearly not what bothered me the most about the La Salle fans. With 12 seconds left the majority of the fans started to file out of Tom Gola Arena, which doesn’t sound bad, but their team was down only five with the ball! Their chances of winning were still reasonable, and after a quick two cut the lead to 92-89, had Grandieri missed the front end of the 1-and-1, then that three-pointer at the buzzer would have tied it.

Also, almost more shocking, is that a certain famous La Salle basketball alum walked right by the student section, but didn’t seem to get noticed by a single person. I could see if this was the Hornets’ Rasual Butler, but it was last year’s stud Steven Smith! Smith had a stint with the Sixers earlier this year, and going into his senior year at La Salle in 2005-06 had the potential to be an NBA first-round pick. But I guess it’s good the Explorers don’t live in the past, then they’d realize they haven’t beaten Penn since 2000.

While Darren Smith could have been the player of the game for Penn as he came off the bench in the second half to hit some big shots and play great defense on La Salle sharpshooter Darnell Harris, but Jaaber also had a tremendous game, especially on the offensive end.

The senior co-captain has evolved into a point guard, and it was evident yesterday. Jaaber went a blistering 11-of-16 from the field for 27 points and nine assists. Oh, and he played all 40 minutes. Jaaber pushed the ball whenever he got a chance, and the Explorers’ transition defense on him was lacking. The Quakers’ point guard dribbled with his head on a swivel, always seeing the floor and finding an open man, but still finding ways to create for himself. When the team needed a boost, he alone went on a 7-0 run to cut a double-digit lead down to three.

Penn 93, La Salle 92 (Final)
Grandieri goes to the line and makes the first free throw. Paul Johnson cuts it to one with half a second left, but Grandieri alertly throws it all the way down the court to Smith to kill the clock. Read much more about why this was an instant classic in tomorrow’s DP.

Penn 92, La Salle 89 (0:07.5 2nd)
Too easy. Freshman Rodney Green needs only four seconds to take it to the rack and score. Seven and a half ticks left as La Salle calls time. Far, far from over, especially with how Penn shoots its free throws and how La Salle has shown its range today.

Penn 92, La Salle 87 (0:12 2nd)
And that’s just what they do. Jaaber and Penn take 33 seconds off the shotclock, and Jaaber nets his 26th and 27th points on a nifty runner. Something tells me this one’s not over yet, though.

Penn 90, La Salle 87 (0:40 2nd)
Mark Zoller gets a big steal when Mike St. John can’t handle a pass. Score here, and the Quakers will be well on their way.

Penn 90, La Salle 87 (1:03 2nd)
Acrobatic shots by Zoller and Grandieri give the Quakers a one-point lead. Huge offensive board by Zoller, who knocks down two huge free throws. The Explorers cheerleaders have thrown their pom-poms in disgust on the last two foul calls.

Win or lose, this is a game that Penn fans are going to be talking about for a long, long time. Or at least until Fran and Co. come to the Palestra next week.

La Salle 85, Penn 84 (2:24 2nd)
After missing a chance at an offensive rebound at one end, Danley fouls out at the other end. Final totals for Danley. No field goals, two points, three rebounds.

Penn 83, La Salle 82 (2:59 2nd)
We’re coming down to a great finish. Jaaber nails a three to give Penn an 80-78 lead, but Paul Johnson on cue makes it 80-80. Peddie Jr. right back with a three. Johnson with an “and-1″ opportunity. I can’t even type fast enough to keep up with the scoring. I’m going to need this timeout.

Quick stats update. Harris with 32. Zoller and Jaaber with 24 apiece. Grandieri 15 and Smith 8.

La Salle 76, Penn 75 (5:01 2nd)
Now Harris and Zoller are trading buckets. I haven’t seen too many games like this and probably won’t see too many more. Even if I had paid for a ticket, I’d be getting my money’s worth by now.

Penn 73, La Salle 72 (6:39 2nd)
Grandieri misfires on his 16th shot attempt of the game, but Darren Smith emerges as an unlikely hero to give the Quakers the lead, burying a three from the corner. Team Peddie is coming alive.

Meanwhile Harris makes a mistake and just makes a two, giving him 30 points on the night.

La Salle 70, Penn 68 (9:22 2nd)
Huge three by Jaaber with a defender in his face gives Penn its first lead of the half, but Harris answers with his eighth three to give that lead right back to the explorers. This is two big-time players putting on a show.

La Salle 63, Penn 63 (11:09 2nd)
Harris isn’t letting one airball get to him. The guard nails his seventh three of the game. Meanwhile La Salle has cooled off a bit, but Penn can’t get an offensive board, even with the starting frontcourt in the game. Harris is now two short of the La Salle record of nine threes made.

Never fear though. The Quakers tie the game with some nifty passing from Jaaber to Grandieri. Ibby is really stepping up.

La Salle 60, Penn 57 (14:06 2nd)
Much like he did in the first half and many other times in his career, Jaaber is doing his best to keep the Quakers in the game. Stong drives to the hoop and a nice layup will do it. Missing two of his three free throws won’t.

A Darren Smith layup brings the Quakers within three and brings the Penn fan section to life for the first time in a while.

La Salle 58, Penn 50 (15:38 2nd)
Darren Smith has come off the bench to start the second half and hasn’t done much other than an offensive foul. The Quakers are getting pushed around inside and on the offensive glass. But a Brian Grandieri three rescued this one from double digits.

Explorers alum Steven Smith, whose teams by the way, never beat Penn, is in the house and gets a nice reception from the La Salle student section.

La Salle 49, Penn 41 (Half)
Too bad the Explorer’s don’t have a 100-point deal at Abner’s. With the way they’ve been shooting and the way the Quakers have been playing, it wouldn’t be a stretch at all. The key sequence as La Salle closed the half on an 11-4 run was when Steve Danley and Mark Zoller both trailed ballhandler Mike St. John Up the court, and the ball evenutally got to a wide-open Darnell Harris for his sixth three-pointer on the power-play.

At the half, Darnell Harris leads La Salle with 20 points, 6-for-8 from three-point range. Zoller has 12 and Jaaber 11 for the Quakers, who were lit up by Glen Miller during a timeout, and likely at halftime also.

La Salle 38, Penn 35 (3:48 1st)
Just as fast, Jaaber answers back with seven of his own, and the game continues at an incredible pace. Certainly not the typical Big 5 tilt. Although for the season, the over seems to be prevailing in city games. Maybe it’s the loss of John Chaney.

La Salle 34, Penn 24 (6:42 1st)
Man did that happen fast. Darnell Harris’ fifth three of the game capped a 66-second 10-0 run for La Salle. Penn settling for the first shot, not the best shot.

La Salle 24, Penn 24 (7:48 1st)
The game has taken on a furious pace in the last four minutes with layups and missed layups at both ends. Here’s a lineup for you. Jaaber, Danley, Egee, Kach and Schreiber. First possession results in a turnover, and at the other end, Guillendeaux is fouled taking a three. Three shots to come.

La Salle 22, Penn 20 (9:36 1st)
Sequence of the game as Penn keeps it from getting out of hand with a little luck. The Explorers blew an easy layup, leading to a fast break and Ibrahim Jaaber’s first points of the game. McMahon taken out in favor of Egee.

Penn 17, La Salle 17 (10:45 1st)
Harris is lighting it up from beyond the arc with 14 of La Salle’s first 17 points. Meanwhile, we get our first “overrated” chant from the “explorer entourage.”

Penn 15, La Salle 14 (11:45 1st)
An offensive rebound, a Darnell Harris three and a terrible pass by Tommy McMahon have gotten the Explorers right back into it at the second media timeout. Glen Miller has been substituting early with McMahon for Egee and Votel for Danley.

Penn 15, La Salle 10 (13:11 1st)
Pretty good contingent of fans from both sides. Penn fans are clearly into it. Maybe because some of them haven’t been to a game since Fordham, and there wasn’t much to cheer about there.

Penn 9, La Salle 5 (15:21 1st)
A good start for the Quakers on both ends of the court. Penn’s man-to-man had La Salle out of rhythm for the first three minutes, and Kevin Egee set the tone with an early three.

Good evening from Tom Gola Arena, where the 9-6 Quakers are set to take on the 8-9 La Salle Explorers in a Big 5 game. Penn hasn’t lost to La Salle since a two-point win on Dec. 7, 2000.

Here are your starters:
Penn will start its usual lineup of Ibrahim Jaaber, Steve Danley, Brian Grandieri and Mark Zoller along with guard Kevin Egee. For the Explorers, it’s Darnell Harris, Rodney Green, Ruben Guillandeaux in the backcourt with forwards Mike St. John and Yves Mekongo Mbala.

Following in the footsteps of Matt Haefner, the Penn goalkeeper drafted by the Columbus Crew, Dan Cepero has been drafted by an MLS team.

Cepero went in the fourth round of today’s Supplemental Draft to the New York Red Bulls, who are coached by recently-dismissed U.S. national boss Bruce Arena.

The Baldwin, N.Y. native never played in the NCAA Tournament, but will be remembered as the team’s anchor between the sticks for the past two years. His shutouts late in the year against Brown, Princeton and Columbia helped to preserve the Quakers’ Ivy title hopes right up to the last minute of the last match.

Cepero is still a long way from getting onto the pitch for RBNY, though. He’s unlikely to make the senior roster (only 18 players can, in MLS), so he would likely be battling for a spot on the development roster, the MLS equivalent of the youth teams many European clubs have.

Or, like Haefner, he may end up not pursuing the opportunity at all.

Look for more analysis on the Cepero selection in Monday’s DP.