Seifter | Time ticking away for Miller

After the Quakers’ seventh consecutive loss this season, there’s no more room for excuses and sugar-coating. If this team isn’t the worst in Penn history, then it’s awfully close.

Last season — considered an abject disappointment that put Coach Glen Miller firmly in the hot seat — Penn finished with a Rating Percentage Index of 258.

Entering last night’s contest, which marked the Quakers’ first ever loss to a Northeast Conference team, Penn’s RPI was 333 out of 347 Division I teams, low enough for worst in the Ivy League. The more advanced Sagarin ratings paint an even bleaker picture, ranking Penn as the fourth-worst team in the nation after last night’s loss.

Penn’s worst ever record was in 1956-57, when the team finished 7-19. At this point of the season, it’s hard to pinpoint seven winnable games.

When asked about the team’s morale, Miller chuckled bitterly and asked, “What do you think about it? It’s another game we lost.”

I think that if Miller doesn’t have the answers to the program’s current woes, Athletic Director Steve Bilsky should find someone who does.

Yes, Penn has suffered injuries. If Tyler Bernardini were in uniform, the Red and Blue would probably have at least one or two wins. But the full starting lineup was out there for the atrocious first half against Villanova, and it doesn’t take someone closely attuned to Quakers basketball to tell that the program is in a freefall.

“I would say that Penn is definitely not the same Penn team that they’ve been [in the past],” Monmouth coach Dave Calloway said.

Of all the players on Penn’s roster, senior Darren Smith is the most closely attuned to how far the team has fallen.

In his freshman year, the Quakers finished 22-9 and nearly pulled off an upset in the NCAA tournament.

“That’s the key for me, that’s what makes me upset the most,” Smith said. “It’s a little frustrating that it’s just totally different now.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words,” he added. “It’s just the whole feel when we’re out there together is kind of all over the place. Back then, you just felt it. You just felt the chemistry, and it was a lot easier.”

While the Quakers struggle to hang defensively with bottom-feeder teams, Cornell and Harvard have already put up impressive non-conference wins against Alabama and Boston College, respectively.

Miller contends that the early-season disparity is meaningless because Ivy League play is a new season.

I think he’s kidding himself.

The fans, the alumni and the players are all frustrated with the product on the court. Miller has admitted that his team will rarely have an advantage in talent or physicality over an opponent and can’t put together a full 40 minutes.

Last night, he said that “there’s not much separation between us and a Monmouth or a Delaware or a Drexel.”

Since when did those become acceptable expectations for a Penn basketball team?

Besides those damning admissions — and the dismal record — what other criteria exist on which Miller can be judged?

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