Dunphy shares his thoughts on the top teams each week

Numbers mean everything to sports fans.

We judge the success rate of any given team by analyzing the number of victories, obviously, and also by the quality of opponent.

Sure, its great to be rolling over teams left and right, just as long as it's not West Texas A&M;, Eastern New Mexico University or the Philadelphia Culinary Institute.

When watching a game on ESPN, what matters the most to the fan is that little number that is displayed just to the left of the teams' names.

Week to week teams across the nation look to the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll for justification, redemption and inspiration.

But where do those numbers come from, anyway?

Just ask Penn head coach Fran Dunphy, who knows from first hand experience.

Now in his 13th season as the Quakers leader, Dunphy is one of 31 coaches that vote weekly for the ESPN/USA Today Poll. He joins the ranks of the nation's most reputable, including Bob Huggins of Cincinnati, Rick Majerus of Utah and Gary Williams of Maryland. Dunphy is the only coach who hails from the Ivy League.

Every week, Dunphy and his assistant, Andrew Pogach, analyze the collegiate basketball scene, viewing tapes of games, scanning statistics and accumulating information.

"Its just evaluating where teams are, how they've done during the course of the week," Dunphy said.

However, Dunphy is much less enamored with his new job than any die-hard basketball fan would think. To him, the numbers mean little, and he would much rather spend his time thinking about his own team rather than the rest of the country's.

"I thought it was more important to focus our energies towards being the best team we can be," Dunphy said. "They called up and asked, and I've refused every year over the last ten. So finally I acquiesed because I didn't feel like saying no, again."

This season's polls are shaping up to be a bit more interesting for Dunphy and the Penn community after the squad's initial success.

The Red and Blue, now 6-2, are not currently ranked in the top 25, according to either poll, but they have received votes.

For the week of December 10th, Penn tallied one vote in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and three in the AP Top 25 poll. The reigning national champions, Duke, received all No. 1 votes in both rankings.

If nothing else, this job grants Dunphy the opportunity to read up on the successful, or not so successful, teams across the nation.

Should the Quakers continue to do well this season, there is the distinct possibility that such information could become pertinent. Dunphy has his eye on a few teams in particular.

"You've always got Duke -- they're the defending champions, and they have everybody back. They haven't been defeated yet," Dunphy said. "Gary Williams' Maryland team is outstanding, Kansas is great, Arizona has been playing great. There's a lot of teams out there that could step up and win it all this year. The teams that are playing well are only an injury away from 'changing their chemistry' let's say."

As Penn heads into its winter break series, Dunphy knows better than to focus on the numbers. Instead, he's hoping that his team will continue to improve and get healthy.

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