Saturday, the Quakers will face Dartmouth and Yale in a tri-meet at Sheerr Pool as they enter their first action of the semester.

Fourteen games into the season, Jerome Allen still does not know who this team is — and more importantly, who he trusts to play when it counts.

Starting off 2013 with their first home games since December 3rd, the Red and Blue have fallen back to earth somewhat, beating Morgan State (4-10), 79-73, on Tuesday, after falling to St. Joseph’s (9-5) on Saturday, 66-53.

Penn (2-12) allowed Lafayette (7-10) to shoot 61 percent from the field, making whatever offensive flow the Quakers found virtually meaningless.

Penn men’s basketball drops all four of its games over winter break.

The similarities between the Palestra and Hinkle Fieldhouse couldn’t be more evident, but only one arena takes the cake.

For the Quakers, the first step toward success is learning to deal with a defensive press and tight man-to-man ball pressure, but it appears that this may not happen next game or even this season.

For the second straight season, Penn (6-5) surrendered a second-half lead over St. Joseph’s (9-5), falling to the Hawks, 66-53.

The Quakers fell to La Salle after coughing the ball up 21 times, including 15 times in the first half alone. It was Penn’s sixth-straight loss.

The Penn basketball team has one glaring, fatal flaw. And the only way to fix it is through effort and a willingness to win.

It was all No. 17 Butler down the stretch, and the Bulldogs closed out the game on a 21-5 run to coast to a 70-57 victory at the Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Penn basketball is suffering from a similar lack of strong leadership. Call it “the leadership cliff,” because if nobody steps up soon as the leader of this team in clutch situations, the Quakers will fall even further into a downward spiral.

The Quakers won both of their games in Ames, Iowa, taking down Air Force, 61-39, a day after beating Alabama State, 52-37.

Despite returning five key contributors from one-game suspensions, Penn (2-9) fell in overtime to Wagner (6-5), 68-63. The Quakers missed their leading scorer, junior forward Fran Dougherty, as he recovers from mononucleosis.

The Daily Pennsylvanian is hearing from various sources that alcohol may have played a role in the suspensions. Our original sources, though, maintain that positive drug tests triggered the suspensions.

The Quakers had one of their best defensive efforts of the year, defeating Alabama State, 52-37, in the first game of the Cyclone Challenge.

A highly reputable source has told the Daily Pennsylvanian that Miles Cartwright, Henry Brooks, Tony Hicks, Darien Nelson-Henry and Steve Rennard were all suspended for Penn basketball’s game at Delaware on Dec. 21 after failing random drug tests.