Some random Penn basketball stats

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Every now and again you'll hear a stat this Penn basketball season with the words "for the first time since 2006-07." That was the last time Penn won an Ivy title, and it had just been some fun fodder until this weekend, when the Quakers thrust themselves firmly into contention with Harvard.

Your newest "for the first time since 06-07" stat? Penn has won five-consecutive games — and five-straight Ivy games — for the first time since 2007, when the Red and Blue won their final 10 Ivy games on the way to the NCAA tournament.

A couple more statistical nuggets for you to mull over in this long week between action:

• Eeking them out: In those five consecutive wins, Penn's average margin of victory was 3.2 points. For the entire Ivy season, the Quakers avg. point differential is 6.8, aided by three double-digit wins in the first five games (Cornell, Princeton and Brown). The average score differential for Penn games is the lowest in the Ivy League. Columbia is the only team under 10 at 7.25. Unsurprisingly, Brown has the highest at 12.75 (lots of big losses), and Harvard is second at 11.42 (lots of big wins). What does it mean? Penn is best in the league at playing to the level of its opponents — for better and worse. The Quakers have been fortunate to not lose any of the games they were favored to win. Chalk up all those close wins to senior leadership from Zack Rosen, Tyler Bernardini and Rob Belcore.
• Saturday night fever: The Quakers only two Ivy losses have come on Friday nights (Yale, Feb 3, and Harvard, Feb. 10). The last time Penn lost on a Saturday was a three-point loss at UCLA on Dec. 10. While nobody would overlook Brown on Friday night (especially considering Penn's recent margins of victory), this is important as the bigger test comes against Yale on Saturday.  Interestingly, Zack Rosen has performed markedly better on Friday nights than Saturdays. He averages 21 points on Fridays in the last four Ivy weekends, but only 14.25 on corresponding Saturdays. He also averages 4.5 assists on Fridays, and 3.75 on Saturdays over those four weekends. You can probably chalk that up to fatigue; Rosen's averaging 38.2 minutes per game. That's a conference best, and fifth in the nation.