At 4:30 this morning, six hours into the train ride home and 10 minutes outside of Philadelphia, an Amtrak conductor asked our cabin for electrical tape so he could fix whatever was wrong with our suddenly-immobile vehicle. The look on the face of Andrew Townley, our photographer for this weekend's road trip, was priceless. Almost as good as the night before, when he nearly got thrown out of the fraternity house I had us shacked up in. Sigh. Not all of the Quakers' media entourage -- *cough*brianseltzer*cough* -- get to tag along with the team.

Apparently some tape, somewhere, was located. We're back home now, an hour later than we should have been but safe and sound, the last Ivy road trip of the season mercifully in the books. Time to check the wires before catching some shut-eye.

Congratulations to Cornell, which did what everyone knew it was going to do last night, beating Harvard to win the Ivy League title and become the first team in the nation with a ticket to the Dance. Dartmouth won at Columbia and Yale topped Princeton, too, although in terms of newsworthiness, today's report of possible improprieties in recruiting at Harvard is easily tops.

Does this change how Tommy Amaker should be looked at? How much trouble is he in? Post an answer to these questions or any other reactions you might have.

Brown coach Craig Robinson, who was quoted in the story, told me last night that the Times had let him know that the article would run today. I would expect to hear more reactions from the sources who initially declined comment (like Glen Miller) now that the story is out there.

In local action, La Salle's A-10 win streak ended last night, while Temple-St. Joe's, Round Two will have big implications in the conference race tonight. The tip is at 7.

I planned on taking it easy on my live blog of the Hawks-Explorers game, maybe updating five times per half, but that plan went downhill fast. It was, legitimately, the most entertaining game I've seen all year, although all ESPN seems to show is the Big East, so that doesn't say too much. You can look at the box score, but here are a few things you might not have noticed.

I will never stop liking St. Joe's fans, but two of their roll-outs, while funny, were completely incorrect.

• “Keep Exploring the bottom of the A-10.” - the Explorers may have played the easiest imaginable non-conference schedule (two of their wins came against 1-9 St. Bonaventure and one versus 3-8 George Washington), but still they are 5-5 in the Atlantic 10. An even record in the nation's 8th-best conference according to the RPI. So while that sign is great, the Explorers are proving it wrong.
• “St. Joe’s salutes La Salle fans (both of them).” Again, these two signs are funnier than the Red and Blue Crew's entire season besides the Drexel game. But the La Salle fans were loud, and down the stretch louder than the St. Joe's contingent. True, there weren't a whole lot, but they were just as plentiful as the Villanova fans in the Holy War, and 10-times as ruckus.

Now, here's my top 5 plays of the game. As Chris Rock used to say as "Nat X" on Saturday Night Live would say, why only five? Because the Inquirer could get a top 10, but I work for a college newspaper and the man would let me get half of that. Okay, really I only have five good ones. (And I refuse to pull a SportsCenter and make "La Salle three-point shooting" one of the top plays.)

First, a couple honorable mention:
- St. Joe's Ahmad Nivins throwing Jerrell Williams to the ground to make way for a wide open dunk on his team's first possession. Oh how that was not indicative at all of what happened the rest of the way...
- La Salle's Rodney Green blocking 6-foot-10 Pat Calathes from behind and going the other way. He got fouled, but didn't make the layup, costing him a spot.

5. A Hawks fan in the Qdoba shootout won free burritos for a month, doing basically nothing. I what I believe was 35 seconds, he hit a layup, an elbow shot, an elbow shot from the other side and another layup. That's pretty hard to screw up. In the Penn equivalent you must hit a layup, free throw, three-pointer and a half-court shot for the same prize. Even without the half-court shot the Penn contest is much harder.

4. On a drive in the first half, Calathes took it down the heart of the lane, and while getting his jersey pulled (by I believe Paul Johnson) he threw down a nasty dunk over the La Salle junior. After the play he slapped the ball into the crowd and received a harsh warning from an official (though he didn't receive a technical).

3. With his team up by one with under 30 seconds to go, Kimmani Barrett got the ball in the post, was double-teamed, but somehow flipped the ball over the big men for the eventual game-winning basket.

2. Eight-minutes in, Williams went up for a monster dunk, taking off from outside of the lane on the right side, and Nivins absolutely rejected him. The 6-9 big man got his entire palm on the ball just before the height of its path, and threw it down. Needless to say, the Hawks fans went berserk.

1. With just over a minute to go and the game tied at 86, Yves Mekongo Mbala missed only his second shot of the night, but Green, a 6-5 guard came flying down the lane for a thunderous dunk to take a two-point lead. It was probably the loudest a La Salle crowd got since Donnie Carr. No Fran Dunphy. No Bill Raftery.

I don't have much to say today about Penn basketball, but that Remy Cofield still isn't practicing with his foot injury. Glen Miller wouldn't say what it was, how long he's out for, or whether or not he'll play against Harvard and Dartmouth. He's "day-to-day." If the injury isn't "out for the year", chances are it's "day-to-day."

Getting through the seven-hour bus trip to Dartmouth can be rough, and Brian Grandieri will spend his time watching Lost. That show could even make the Hanover, N.H., trip seem quick. It'd take a bus ride to Japan and back to watch all the episodes of that show.

See video of it by clicking here.

WOW. Harris misses the front end of the 1-and-1, but on a drive left, Carr loses the ball and the Explorers recover and call timeout with 1.4 to go.

La Salle throws a risky pass the length of the court, and Green gets fouled with a second to go. He misses the first.

A whistle goes off as Green is about to let the second free throw go. He stops mid-shot, and gets called for a violation. He probably would have missed on purpose, making a last-second three almost impossible.

So St. Joe's inbounds with one second to go. They throw it long, and the pass for Calathes under the basket is knocked by La Salle to Carr, but he can't get the shot off in time, and the game is over. I can finally stop holding my breath.

That was, no joke, the most entertaining basketball game I've seen this year.

0:09.3 2nd Half: La Salle 90, St. Joe's 89

Carr hits a quick layup, a real tough one at that, and the Hawks are down one. Harris gets the ball and is fouled.

0:17.6 2nd Half: La Salle 90, St. Joe's 87

An Explorer misses but Green throws down a monstrous put-back dunk. Williamson hit one from the line, and the Explorers lead by one.

With the shot clock winding down at under 20 seconds left, Barrett hits a tough layup while getting double-teamed. This place is LOUD.

1:22 2nd Half: La Salle 86, St. Joe's 85

Green hits two from the line and Carr turns it over. Passing around the traps well, the Explorers can't get off a three like usual, but Mekongo Mbala gets to the line with 1:39 left. He hits the second only to go up 3.

Govens makes a nice entry pass to Nivins, and the big man nails a crucial and-1.

2:39 2nd Half: La Salle 83, St. Joe's 83

Williams is back in with four fouls, but he gets trapped, and Harris misses the three at the end of the shot clock.

Carr goes streaking across the lane, and hits with zeros on the shot clock. But Johnson answers with his ugly, ugly shot from three. Govens finally misses, and Williams gets fouled on the other end.

Calathes misses, and Green hits a bank to tie it at 81. The La Salle crowd goes nuts, and then erupts when Carr misses, and Barrett hits a reverse layup to take the lead. Calathes answers, though, with a runner with 1 on the shot clock.

Green somehow blocks Calathes, and then gets fouled on a transition layup that he can't convert. He punches the backboard protector a bunch in frustration.

7:56 2nd Half: St. Joe's 79, La Salle 75

It's hard to imagine that a guy who already has nearly 30 points won't be the player of the game, but Harris hits what I believe is his fifth three of the game. Govens hits a layup, and he's got 26 points, a third candidate for game MVP.

Garrett Williamson finally makes his presence felt, swatting a Harris three. Calathes goes for a rebound but misses, and angrily sways the ball into the crowd, but he somehow avoids a tech.

The Hawk fans roll out another good sign: "Keep Exploring the bottom of the A-10." Now "Smiley" the Hatfield pig mascot is shooting hot dogs into the Hawks student section. One goes to the Explorer faithful, and to their delight, the fan throws it back onto the court. The last hot dog of about 20 explodes on its way out of the gun.

The Explorers fans put up a banner: "St. Joe's has class... Rivera usually cuts it." referring to the guard who "focused on academics" last semester.

11:39 2nd Half: St. Joe's 74, La Salle 69

Calathes hits, but so does Guillandeaux on another floater.

Harris, who hit three threes in the first half, is unconscious on this deep one over Ferguson. But once again, Govens returns with a jumper and then a three.

The action never stops. Harris makes Carr fall on the baseline, but misses the three. Then Calathes puts the ball around his back and hits Govens for yet another three.

14:38 2nd Half: St. Joe's 62, La Salle 63

Carr hits a three to start off the half, but Green turns a steal into two points. Govens converts a nice layup, and now Nivins takes a charge, giving Williams his fourth foul.

Nivins now gets whistled for a charge, and Martelli slams his hand against the scorer's table. Nice ball-movement gets Gullandeaux an open three, and he connects.

Gullandeaux is taking over now - he hits a jumper in the lane, and then nails a trey in transition. Now Mekongo hits an open three, but it's answered by Govens. Harris takes back the lead, and Govens gets it right back. Now Barrett gets fouled, and the shot is goal-tended, and the Explorer's grab back the lead. This has been maybe most electrifying game I've seen all year.

Halftime: St. Joe's 50, La Salle 46

While this section of my post just got deleted, the half ends with the Hawks on top by four. This was an insane first half, not necessarily with bad defense, but the shooting on both sides has been impeccable. St. Joe's is hitting 67 percent from the field, while La Salle is 47 percent, though 10-for-17 from three.

3:27 1st Half: St. Joe's 43, La Salle 40

Gullandeaux nails a three off of a nifty pass from Williams, and La Salle takes the lead for the first time.

Calathes comes right back with an and-1 layup (that should have been called on the ground). Giannini disagrees, but spends more time calming down Williams. Calathes then scores again on a sweet baseline jumper from 17 feet.

Harris is nothing but net on a three from NBA range. He is money tonight.

I must give the La Salle fans credit, they are real loud tonight, probably better than the Villanova coningent at the Holy War.

6:05 1st Half: St. Joe's 34, La Salle 34

Calathes drains a three, but once again it's answered by the big man, Mekongo Mbala.

Following a Nivins dunk, Mekongo Mbala drains yet another trey, and La Salle has tied it up at 34.

8:21 1st Half: St. Joe's 29, La Salle 25

Johnson hits a transition layup, and the Explorers are within six, and the teams then trade threes.

Off of a tough offensive rebound, Williams slices through for a layup, and the game is real close now.

Huh, the St. Joe's staff has a guy walking around the Palestra selling cotton candy.

11:51 1st Half: St. Joe's 24, La Salle 16

Harris drains a three over Carr, he's he's just nasty, has eight points already.

Nivins just made a fantastic and-1, double-teamed in the post but still getting it up.

Wow, Williams cocks it back for a monster dunk, but gets rejected by Nivins, and the crowd goes crazy.

The Hawks fans roll out a sign: "St. Joe's salutes La Salle fans (Both of them)." A Hawks fan just won a semester of free Qdoba burritos just by hitting a couple of layups and elbow shots. That's just sad. The Penn Qdoba makes you hit a layup, free throw, three and half-court shot.

15:32 1st Half: St. Joe's 15, La Salle 10

Both teams are raining threes, as Harris gets the Explorers on the board, Mekongo Mbala hits another, but Calathes nails one from the top of the key to extend the St. Joe's lead.

Johnson misses a three, but makes a pretty feed (while getting trapped) to Harris, who makes an even prettier finish. But Govens comes back with a ridiculous reverse layup, throwing it off the backboard with great english.

18:44 1st Half: St. Joe's 6, La Salle 0

On the first possession, Nivins bullys Williams for an easy dunk and then a layup, as Mekongo Mbala completes his team's second-straight turnover. Calathes adds a dunk and Dr. John Giannini calls timeout.

The crowd is about 75 percent full, and the majority are Hawks fans. The La Salle fans let out a pretty loud chant of "Let's go 'splorers!", but it's drowned out eventually by the "Hawks Are Marching In"

We just had a moment of silence for the Northern Illinois shootings, though that moment lasted no more than two or three seconds.

As the La Salle band plays, the St. Joe's students try to belt the chant of "Phil Martelli!" over it. We're just about ready to go at the Palestra, the Hawks wearing the home white, La Salle in blue.

________

With only three games left in the Big 5, nothing is decided. Well, except for that Penn (0-4) won't win.

Villanova (3-1), Temple (1-1), La Salle (1-1) and Saint Joseph's (2-0) all have a shot at winning at least a share of the Big 5 title, though the Hawks are the only team that can win the title outright.

La Salle hasn't been bad lately, going 4-5 in the Atlantic 10, and will likely make the conference tournament, unlike last season. Out of 14 teams, 12 make it to Atlantic City on March 12, and the Explorers sit in 11th place, two games ahead of 13th-place George Washington (3-8).

The Hawks are on the opposite side of the spectrum. Despite recent losses at Xavier and Duquesne, they sit alone in second place at 7-3, though Rhode Island, Richmond and Temple are all one game behind them, chasing those valuable four tourney byes.

An hour before the game, St. Joe's fans are already here. They aren't making much noise, but that's stilll pretty impressive. The Explorers' student faithful start showing up about 45 minutes early. The Hawks fans do one of my favorite chants "When the Hawks come marching in" replacing "Saints" with their team when their team takes the floor a half-hour before tip-off.

Starters:

St. Joe's:
G Darrin Govens
G Tasheed Carr
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins

La Salle:
G Darnell Harris
G Rodney Green
F Paul Johnson
F Jerrell Williams
F Yves Mekongo Mbala

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.

Good evening from the Palestra. Penn takes on La Salle tonight; refresh this page for live updates.

FINAL: La Salle 62, Penn 58

Turns out that was the game. Mbala missed, but all Bernardini could do was shoot a long three, which missed. A good offensive game at times for the Quakers, but La Salle was even better. Much more on this in tomorrow's DP.

Good night from The Buzz.

:4.9, Second half: La Salle 62, Penn 58

That may have been the game. Penn got an open three for Reilly, but it was a smidge long. Mbala got the rebound and hit his first free throw. He has another one after we come back from this timeout, but its already a two-possession game.

:17, Second half: La Salle 61, Penn 58

Grandieri had a great drive to the hoop to bring the deficit to one, and on the next play he made the right call by fouling Mbala. Mbala, though, hit both free throws. Penn has the ball, let's see if they go for the three or for the easy two. Tough call.

:41, Second half: La Salle 59, Penn 56

Eggleston drew a charge on a last-second drive to the basket -- huge play. Penn gets the ball back with a chance to tie this thing. Timeout.

1:25, Second half: La Salle 59, Penn 56

Ugh, forget that. Two backbreakers for Penn -- a dunk from Green with three on the shot clock and an unnecessary foul on Harris. He hits one to give the Explorers a five-point lead, and Penn makes a slight recovery when Cohen hits two free throws. Kach and Egee are in for Grandieri and Bernardini, presumably for defense.

2:14, Second half: La Salle 56, Penn 54

Eggleston hit a pair from the line and then executed a perfect give-and-go with Lewis for another two points. The Quakers have the momentum.

3:36, Second half: La Salle 53, Penn 50

Bernardini had a tough couple of plays but recovered nicely. He hit two free throws to bring the deficit to four, then missed a layup and got called for a ticky-tack personal foul on the other end. La Salle hit two from the line. Bernardini hit a deep three after the timeout to bring the gap back to four, and Grandieri made one free throw to make it three. La Salle is 20-for-22 at the free-throw line so far, which is basically the difference in the game.

7:18, Second half: La Salle 50, Penn 44

Slight recovery by Penn. The Quakers are clearly a much better team tonight with Lewis on the floor -- he's really playing La Salle tough on the boards. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Grandieri was able to put it back, bringing the defecit from eight to six. But Bernardini missed an open three on the next possession and Glen Miller called timeout.

12:02, Second half: La Salle 44, Penn 38

Green is cleaning up, and Penn's shot selection has deteriorated. The team just doesn't seem to have its rhythm with Egee on the floor; the Quakers are forcing shots and passes and turning the ball over. As a result, the Explorers are getting a ton of points in transition. Conor Turley and Schreiber are in for Reilly and Lewis, and Turley hits a three-pointer(!) for Penn.

15:33, Second half: Penn 35, La Salle 34

Green had a steal that he took coast-to-coast for another dunk, and Penn's offense has misfired a few times in the opening minutes.

16:45, Second half: Penn 35, La Salle 30

Green had a dunk in transition to open the second-half scoring, and then he barreled through the Penn defense for another lay-in. But Lewis responded with a big dunk of his own, and after Barrett hit a layup, found Cohen for a nifty backdoor cut. Penn's lead remains at five.

Halftime stats:
Field goals: Penn 13-34, La Salle 7-29
3-pt. field goals: Penn 2-6, La Salle 2-6
Free throws: Penn 1-4, La Salle 8-8
Rebounds: Penn 23 (8 offensive), La Salle 21 (7 offensive)
Turnovers: Penn 6, La Salle 7
Assists: Penn 9, La Salle 6
Fouls: Penn 8, La Salle 7
Steals: Penn 3, La Salle 4

Halftime: Penn 29, La Salle 24

Two big plays from Bernardini give Penn back the momentum. He hit a three with a defender rushing in, then drew a charge on the next possession. Penn lost Paul Johnson for a minute, and he capitalized with a dunk. Justin Reilly then missed the front end of a one-and-one. La Salle failed to get a shot off on the last possession. Halftime stats up shortly

2:48, First half: Penn 25, La Salle 22

The Explorers are finally starting to hit some shots. Jerrell Williams hit a three for La Salle, its first of the game, and Darnell Harris responded with his first points of the game, a three in transition, to bring the score to 23-22. But Bernardini hit a twisting and-1 under the basket on the next possession, made the free throw, and Penn still has a three-point lead.

7:44, First half: Penn 17, La Salle 12

Penn has been playing better basketball on offense and is in control right now. The Quakers' passes, in particular, are much improved -- on target with some zip. Lewis hit two more solid turnaround baskets inside, Grandieri grabbed his own miss and put it back for two and Bernardini just nailed an open three to force an Explorers timeout.

11:59, First half: La Salle 6, Penn 6

Grandieri hit a jumper and Reilly scored on an open layup for Penn's first field goals. La Salle's biggest game cue -- turnovers -- is hurting them. Giannini lit up Rodney Greene for turning the ball over in the open court twice. Kevin Egee is in for Cohen, and Andreas Schreiber for Eggleston. Remy Cofield is in as well.

15:56, First half: La Salle 2, Penn 0

Ugly so far. The Quakers are getting some looks close in, but they can't convert anything. Eggleston was blocked from behind by Yves Mekongo Mbala, and La Salle hits two free throws to open the scoring. Reilly comes in for Lewis. Cohen is playing point for Penn.

17:57, First half: Penn 0, La Salle 0

Both teams have it rough in the first two minutes. Cameron Lewis started for Penn and so far has an airball but two offensive rebounds. La Salle has not really come close to scoring. John Giannini was upset when Brian Grandieri was assessed a personal foul for elbowing a player in the face. Giannini thought it should be a technical.

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.

La Salle coach John Giannini thinks there are more parellels between the Quakers and his Explorers than just their youth.

"We're a team that's dominated by wing-type players... guys who are 6-5, 6-6," Giannini said. La Salle, he said, doesn't have as many "proven decision-makers in the backcourt" as one might like. (Just like Penn.)

"But that was a conscious decision on my part," Giannini said. "I wanted to get the best, most talented players for this program first."

Giannini singled out a player who doesn't get as much ink as senior Darnell Harris -- Rodney Greene, a 6-5 sophomore who Giannini said could develop into a player similar to another Big 5 great, Mardy Collins of Temple and the New York Knicks, if he gets better at handling the ball.

The biggest trap for La Salle is turnovers, Giannini said, because the Explorers shoot at a good enough percentage to win as long as they hold on to the rock.

You could call La Salle a dangerous team, but they don't exactly have a lot of weapons.

Only four players scored in the Explorers' most recent game, a 72-61 win at Saint Bonaventure on Saturday.

Those four -- Kimmani Barrett, Darnell Harris, Rodney Green and Jerrell Williams -- have scored over 72% of La Salle's points this year. By comparison, Penn's top six scorers account for virtually the same percentage of the Quakers' points.

Penn won a thrilling game at Tom Gola High School Arena last year by shutting Harris down after a torrid first half, which makes the possible return of Michael Kach -- Penn's best perimeter defender -- seem even more important.

I'll be getting coach John Giannini's perspective on Tuesday's matchup with Penn tomorrow afternoon, so if you have a question you'd like addressed, shoot me an email at scurria@sas.upenn.edu and I'll post his response.

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.