PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team, Ivy League regular-season co-champions and winners of the Ivy League Tournament this past weekend, is ready for its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years. Seeded 16th in the Midwest Regional, Penn will face top-seeded Kansas in Wichita, Kan. The Quakers and the Jayhawks will be the first of four games at INTRUST Bank Arena and tip off at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. local).
 
The Penn-Kansas game will be televised live on TBS, and fans nationwide also can listen to the Westwood One radio broadcast. Fans in the Philadelphia area can listen to Saturday's game on WXPN 88.5 FM where Matt Leon, Stan Pawlak and Vince Curran will be on the call.
 
GAME 33 – #16 PENN (24-8) vs. #1 KANSAS (27-7)
NCAA Tournament First Round
Thursday, March 15, 2018 * 2 p.m. (1 p.m. local)
INTRUST Bank Arena (Wichita, Kan.)
 
THE SERIES WITH KANSAS
• The Quakers and the Jayhawks are meeting for the fourth time overall, with Kansas holding a 3-0 advantage.
 
• The first meeting took place December 8, 1997 in Washington, D.C. as part of the Franklin National Bank Classic. Kansas won, 89-71.
 
• The following two seasons, the Quakers and Jayhawks played a home-and-home in arguably college basketball's two most famous venues. The first took place at The Palestra in Philadelphia on November 11, 1998, with Kansas squeaking out a 61-56 win. One year later, at Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks would have no such trouble in winning, 105-59.
 
• Current Penn head coach Steve Donahue was an assistant coach on all three of those Penn teams, the last two of which went a combined 27-1 in Ivy League play and won conference championships.
 
• Donahue also coached Cornell against Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse on January 7, 2010. In that game, the Big Red—who would win their third-straight Ivy title and advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen—took the Jayhawks right to the wire, Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Wittman missing a potential game-tying three in the final 15 seconds which allowed KU to escape with a 71-66 win.
 
PENN IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• The Quakers are making their 24th appearance in March Madness, but the first since the 2006-07 season. The 11-year drought is the program's longest since they made it in 1970 after a 17-year absence.
 
• Penn has 13 wins in NCAA Tournament play, the most recent coming on March 17, 1994 when the Red and Blue defeated Nebraska, 90-80, in Uniondale, N.Y. Currently, the Quakers are on a nine-game losing streak in NCAA play.
 
• Penn is a 16 seed for just the second time in program history; the Quakers were also a 16 in 1987, and lost to top-seeded North Carolina 113-82 in Charlotte, N.C.
 
• Penn has played an NCAA game on March 15 five times previously, including its most recent appearance exactly 11 years ago (a 68-52 loss to 3 seed Texas A&M in Lexington, Ky.). The Red and Blue are 0-5 on this date.
 
• Penn is 3-10 all-time against programs currently in the Big 12; three of those losses have happened in the NCAA Tournament.
 3/15/75 - Kansas State 69, Penn 62
 3/21/02 - (6) Oklahoma St. 77, (11) Penn 63
 3/17/06 - (2) Texas 60, (15) Penn 52
 
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW...
• Penn enters the NCAA Tournament having won seven of its last eight, 12 of its last 14, 15 of 18, 19 of 23, and is 24-6 since dropping its first two games.
 
• Penn's Ivy League title was its 26th overall, but its first since 2006-07. This is the fifth time the Quakers have shared the championship, the other years being 1979-80 (Princeton), 1980-81 (Princeton), 1995-96 (Princeton), and 2001-02 (Princeton/Yale).
 
• Penn went 7-0 at home against the Ivy League this season, the 24th time that has happened since conference play began but the first time since 2006-07.
 
• Penn has already set three program records this season, for total points (2,446, previously 2,427), three-point field goals made (280, previously 266), and three-point field goals attempted (801, previously 690). This will be just the second time the Quakers play 33 games in a season, the other coming in 2011-12 when they went 20-13.
 
• Penn is 17-0 this season when making as many or more free throws than its opponent, and 18-0 when taking as many or more free throws that its opponent.

• Penn is 22-2 this season when shooting a better field-goal percentage than its opponent.

• Penn is 19-3 this season when leading at the half. The three "blown" leads? Four points to Toledo, one point to Temple, one point to Yale.