Glen Miller's career as Penn coach is 520 minutes old. For those of you who have not taken a class taught by Jim Harrick, that translates into 13 games. And over that time, the record has actually been a good reflection of the Quakers' play.
At 7-6, Penn has been very inconsistent, within games and from game to game, and does not yet have a particularly strong identity.
Are the Quakers the team that took a 10-point lead over now No. 1 North Carolina last week, or are they the team that barely beat Elon (3-10) a few days later?
One thing that makes it so hard to tell what kind of squad this year's team is is that it has not played many close games.
Other than the first game of the year against Texas El-Paso (Penn's worst loss so far) and the most recent game (against an even worse team than UTEP), not a single game has been closer than nine points.
Previous Penn teams showed an inability to come through in the clutch. Right now, we don't know what this team can do under pressure.
Miller came into his first year in Philadelphia with a veteran team. But he changed the team's system, something that takes time to adjust to.
"Many coaches would tell you it takes a good year, if not more, to grasp your system and execute it the way you would like to," Miller said.
I've watched or listened to nine Penn games so far, and it looks to me like many of the mistakes are mental errors - people not knowing where they should be on defense and not executing on offense.
It's not like Penn does not have the talent to beat a UTEP, Fordham or Seton Hall; the Quakers just have not done it.
They have had stretches in games where they have looked like the next George Mason, and other stretches where they look like the next Dartmouth.
While the new system is a good reason why Penn has struggled at times, it does not explain the inconsistency. Do the Quakers go from perfectly understanding the offense to being completely bewildered?
"That's not an excuse for anything," junior guard Brian Grandieri said, adding that so far this season has been "par, maybe below par."
Meanwhile, Grandieri, Miller and senior Stephen Danley could not provide a concrete answer for why Penn's play has been so stilted thus far.
Despite watching most of the season, I cannot really put my finger on it either. Even though they have a different coach and a different system, the overall games and results look a great deal like those that the Quakers put up in the last few years.
But the good thing about the Ivy League is that Penn has cost itself nothing so far but a chance at a very good seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The players and coaching staff at least seem to be committed to improving and admit that they have not played as well as they would have liked.
"We can play with anybody, but to do this we need to be very efficient," Danley said.
The '14-game tournament' starts this weekend, guys.
Put your money where your mouths are.
Josh Hirsch is a senior Urban Studies major from Roslyn, N.Y., and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.
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