Here we go. The final game for Princeton before the school's exam break. A chance to get back to .500. The start of Ivy League play and on top of all that, the opponent is the Tigers' primary rival in Penn.

When it is time to talk about the Quakers for Know! Your! Foe! it is time to check in with philly.com's above-pictured Jonathan Tannenwald.

I sent him questions, he sent me well-considered answers in return and you can find both sides of our email conversation after the jump.

If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know.

First of all, use the following space to convince readers Penn is better than their 2-12 record.

I can’t really. Every time it seems like they make progress in the first half of a game, they start the second half terribly and end up unable to recover. I disagree with Jerome Allen’s assertion that his freshmen aren’t really freshmen anymore – he may hold them to that high a standard, but their inexperience is so clear. Especially the two freshman guards, Jamal Lewis and Tony Hicks.

Fran Dougherty was having a monster year before getting sick. Can you talk about the leap he's made as a junior and do you think we'll see him return to face Princeton?

I think he just got smarter. I’m sure he put in a lot of work during the summer as well. He was good towards the end of last year, but he’s really the focal point of the frontcourt now. Or at least he was until he got sick. I’d be very surprised if he plays against Princeton, in part because Darien Nelson-Henry has played well enough in the last two games to merit some of what would be Dougherty’s minutes.

I know last year we discussed Miles Cartwright's lack of development from his freshman to sophomore years. Has he also taken a step forward as a junior averaging 14.5 ppg?

I would say no. People expected him to step up and really be a leader, not quite in the Zack Rosen mold but certainly a significant scorer and distributor. That hasn’t happened, despite his double-figure scoring average. He hasn’t really taken a game by the horns in a while, even though he’s had plenty of nights that appear to fill up box scores.

Zack Rosen is gone. Who has filled his 94.3% of all available minutes and how have they done

Well, I’m more of a writer than a math guy, so the best way I can answer that question is to say it’s not really possible. As I said above, Cartwright was expected to become a leader and that hasn’t happened in the way that people thought it would.

Is there something specific at the root of Penn's poor offensive numbers? It seems on paper like holding on to the basketball and grabbing offensive rebounds are the biggest issues.

Turnovers are definitely the biggest culprit. Penn is averaging 16.6 turnovers per game. That’s really bad. Offensive rebounding is a little bit a function of size of the bodies on the floor - Henry Brooks’ perpetual foul trouble and Fran Dougherty’s sickness have hit the frontcourt depth hard. Nelson-Henry is getting better but he has only played more than 20 minutes in a game twice this season.

What's your take on the suspensions of five Quakers for the Delaware game? Was too much made about this story or not enough?

Honestly, I would say not enough. I don’t want to say things that haven’t been proven, but I will say that it seems to be endemic to college coaches to just say something is a “violation of team rules” and try to sweep the rest away. I know there are FERPA considerations but it would have stopped the perception problem well before it became a big deal if someone had just given a one-paragraph statement explaining who did what.

Do you think Jerome Allen has over-scheduled for the team he has? Penn has played 10 games (all losses) versus Pomeroy Top 200 teams.

I don’t. I really hate making excuses but three of the losses – Drexel, Fordham and Lafayette – have been by two points each. Wagner is better than people thought they’d be and Lafayette was picked to tie for fourth in the Patriot League. That’s not terrible but I think the schedule isn’t overbearing.

What transpired on Tuesday evening against Lafayette? Appears like a lot of unfamiliar faces helped bring the Quakers back from down 15 (but not all the way back).

What transpired is that Lafayette beat Penn at the Palestra for the first time in program history. As I watched the comeback, something told me to not get too excited because Penn never actually took the lead. What we did see, though, is the emergence of Nelson-Henry. If he can play the 5 and Dougherty the 4 when he returns, that could be a pretty significant frontcourt in conference play.

Penn wins at Jadwin Gym for the first time in five seasons if...

I really don’t know. I have trouble believing in a double-digit spread for this game (that is, if you believe in that sort of thing in the first place), but Princeton’s defense is the difference. Penn would have to simply put a lot more points on the board than they have this season, and I don’t see enough of a secondary scoring threat in the backcourt to take Princeton’s attention off Miles Cartwright.

Princeton heads into their annual exam break with a .500 record if...

They exploit the inexperience of Hicks and Lewis, who I suspect will have serious trouble on defense. Hicks is not the most patient guy and I don’t think he’ll really like having the game really slowed down on him.

To put it another way, Princeton wins if it does what it should do against a lesser team.

Anything new to pitch or plug since we talked previously about Drexel?

Unfortunately I once again will not be present at Jadwin this year, this time due to a family obligation. Our last Q&A was recent enough that nothing has really changed. I will say, though, that I’m headed to Indianapolis on Wednesday to cover the Major League Soccer draft and I’m planning on catching Butler vs. Richmond while I’m out there. I’ll say hello to Chris Mooney for you.

Thanks, Jonathan. Have a good trip! Sounds like a lot of fun.