Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week.  With finals going on, both Penn athletes and we Buzz writers had too much on our plates to focus on Penn Athletics. Hence both the lack of interesting sporting events and posts.

So to get back into things, I thought I'd post a few links to recaps of how the Ivy League has done so far this year so that everyone can catch up.

Dave Zeitlin, Rushing the Court's resident Ivy League expert, weighs in on how the league is doing so far.  His biggest point on Penn is the creation of Fire Glen Miller (more on that later).  As for the rest of the league, he mentions two players Penn fans might want to keep an eye on:  Princeton freshman Doug Davis and Brown junior Matt Mullery.  Davis has earned two Ivy League Rookie of the Week awards, including after his 27 point performance against Manhattan two weekends ago. Mullery, meanwhile, has earned Player of the Week honors once and leads the league in field goal percentage.

Also, of note, he calls Harvard and Brown "Cornell’s biggest challenger for the Ivy title," although he says don't count out Penn or Princeton yet.  If you go by records so far that comment definitely makes sense, since when Zeitlin wrote that the Big Red, Bears and Crimson all were tied for the best record in the league at 4-5.  (However since then both the Crimson have gone 1-0, the Big Red 1-1 and the Bears 0-1.)

This segues into the next item.  So far this year, the Ivy League hasn't performed well out of conference.  The combined record of all Ivy League teams after tonight's Cornell loss at St. Joe's (in the Palestra) is 25-60.  According to collegerpi.com the league's RPI is 30th in the nation.  Out of 31 conferences.  Ken Pomeroy is a little nicer, ranking the Ancient Eight 25th out of 31. (For a more detailed look at the league's non-conference RPI over the years, see the chart after the jump.)

Fire Glen Miller has its own recap of how the league has done so far, breaking down each individual team's RPI and SOS.  The stats are pretty self-explanatory, so I won't rehash them here.  However, I will say that the Quakers' SOS is 59.  Clearly playing two nationally ranked teams (North Carolina and Villanova) as well as 10-2 Penn State and 8-3 Navy have worsened Penn's record, but the Quakers have been battle tested.  In fact, Cornell (71) and Penn are the only Ivy League teams with a SOS better than 193.

Now a note about FGM.  I've linked to their stuff a few times this month.  Some of you might prefer that I don't, especially those who defend Glen Miller.  Personally, if I haven't made this clear yet, I am pro-Glen Miller.  I think the Quakers are 1-6 because they've played some tough competition and their shots just haven't fallen at times.  While I'm sure part of their record can be attributable to Miller, in no way does that mean he should be fired immediately.

However, I still understand why people feel "rowdy," as Zeitlin says. Hence I understand the motivation behind FGM. So I have no qualms about linking to their stuff, since as I said last time, they're improving.  (No, it's not because they quote me in their banner). But the interesting thing to see is how will others react as the news of this site spreads.  Zeitlin, a Penn alum, probably gets more clicks than this site does, and it's only a matter of time until this thing circulates to some of the higher ups in the department, maybe even Miller himself or athletic director Steve Bilsky.  If they find out about this site, how will they react?  Feel free to leave your imagined ideas of their reaction below in the comment section.

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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.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Greetings from about two blocks away from the Miami Hurricanes' BankUnited Center, where the Quakers will try not to set any more dubious NCAA scoring records Wednesday night.

As of midnight, Penn is a 20- or 21-point 'dog, and it's not hard to see why. The 'Canes were ranked for two weeks, then suffered their first loss (to Winthrop) and fell out of the Top 25, but they're still a darn good team on paper.

No way will Penn come out as flat as it did against Florida Gulf Coast, but the Quakers just don't seem to match up well in this game. Miami shoots the lights out from three-point land (nearly 44%), which has killed the Quakers all year. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior Jack McClintock has been particularly ridiculous in this department; he leads the ACC with 2.91 threes per game and a 54.2% clip from deep and has a 20-point scoring average. James Dews, a sophomore with a bit more size, is a distant second in the conference in three-point percentage (47.9) and scores nearly 12 per game.

According to Penn's game notes, Brennan Votel, Harrison Gaines and Michael Kach are doubtful again after missing the FGCU game, which means we'll see plenty of Aron Cohen (who'll start) and Andreas Schreiber, plus some more Kevin Egee, Conor Turley and possibly Cameron Lewis as well.

Check back here at 8 p.m. where I'll be blogging the game live. Afterwards, myself and fellow DP Sports Editors Krista Hutz and Sebastien Angel will all have stories on dailypennsylvanian.com breaking things down.

As promised, here are my personal Ivy Rankings, Edition 2. (Here's No. 1.) RPI is included this time as well, and starting in the next edition I'll include how each team's RPI moved in the previous week.

1. Cornell (6-4, Previous Ranking: 3, RPI: 118). The Big Red had the best-quality win of the week -- Stony Brook -- so the No. 1 spot is theirs by default.
2. Columbia (5-7, Previous Ranking: 4, RPI: 203). 46-point victories are in short supply around the Ivy League, even against an opponent like Polytechnic.
3. Brown (6-5, Previous Ranking: 1, RPI: 119). The Bears got blown out by Notre Dame, but the Irish are 10-2, so Brown only moves down two spots.
4. Harvard (4-11, Previous Ranking: 7, RPI: 301). Harvard is still losing, but by smaller and smaller margins. I'm predicting a win over Dartmouth on Saturday.
5. Princeton (2-10, Previous Ranking: 8, RPI: 291). Still not much for the Tigers to be proud of, but their nine-point loss to Monmouth this week pales in comparison to what the three teams below them did.
6. Yale (3-7, Previous Ranking: 6, RPI: 158). 35-point loss. (Kansas.)
7. Dartmouth (5-7, Previous Ranking: 5, RPI: 241). 35-point loss. (Siena.)
8. Penn (4-8, Previous Ranking: 2, RPI: 255). 30-point loss. (Florida Gulf Coast.) Pick the outlier in that group. Sorry, Quakers, but last place is a lock this week.

Since Penn now finds itself in need of a few upsets, having missed out on most of the good chances already, check out Kyle Whelliston's take on the changing nature of upsets in mid-major basketball.

Unless Penn wins at Miami two weeks from now or beats either Temple or Saint Joseph's next month, it faces the ghastly prospect of its best win of the season coming from within the Ivy League. RPI-wise, Penn hasn't beaten a better team yet this year, and Thursday's victory over Elon (currently ranked 255th out of 341) was the best yet, better than Monmouth (267th), The Citadel (307th) and Navy (318th), Penn's only other wins this season.

Here's the remainder of the nonconference schedule, with current RPI in parentheses:

FGCU (260th) 
Miami (17th)
NJIT (N/A)
La Salle (226)
St. Joe's (112th)
Temple (55th)

Penn is sitting at 235th right now. That number will surely get better once some winnable Ivy road games roll around, but it's still a far cry from previous years. That doesn't bode well for the Quakers should they manage to win the Ivy League, which I still think they have a fighting chance of doing.

Here's the Quakers' highest-quality victory from the past six Ivy championship teams. Penn's final RPI and NCAA Tournament seed from each year are in brackets:

2006-07 [89th, 14-seed]: Drexel (43rd)
2005-06 [98th, 15-seed]: Hawaii (100th)
2004-05 [58th, 13-seed]: Saint Joseph's (56)
2002-03 [59th, 11-seed]: Villanova (70th)
2001-02 [41st, 11-seed]: Temple (79th)
1999-2000 [74th, 13-seed]: California (71)