PHILADELPHIA – A potential championship is on the line this Saturday for the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team as the Quakers make the short trip to North Broad to face Temple. That is one major storyline on Saturday, the other of course being that this will be the last time Penn faces the winningest coach in its program history. Temple head coach Fran Dunphy is retiring after this season, following 17 years as head coach at Penn and the last 12-plus as head coach of the Owls.
 
Saturday's game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.
 
What's at Stake on Saturday
• If Penn wins, the Quakers will be 3-0 in Big 5 play with one game to play and would clinch a share of their 13th Big 5 title. It would be the Red and Blue's first crown since the 2001-02 season and just the second since the 1993-94 campaign.
 
• If Temple wins, the Owls clinch a share of the Big 5 title at 3-1 along with Villanova, which also finished Big 5 play 3-1. Penn would still have a chance to tie the Owls and Wildcats atop the Big 5 with a win over Saint Joseph's next Saturday at The Palestra.
 
GAME 17 – PENN (10-6, 2-0 Big 5) at TEMPLE (14-3, 2-1)
Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 | 5 p.m.
Liacouras Center (Philadelphia)
Penn Game Notes | Temple Game Notes
 
The Series with Temple
• This will be the 68th meeting between the Quakers and the Owls in men's basketball, with Temple holding a 48-19 lead in the series
 
• Temple has won 11 in a row over Penn, including a 60-51 decision last year at The Palestra and a 70-62 victory the last time these teams met at the Liacouras Center (two years ago).
 
• Penn's last win took place on January 24, 2007—ironically, Temple head coach Fran Dunphy's first game overseeing the Owls in this rivalry after spending 17 years as head coach on the Penn side.
 
• Penn has played on Temple's campus 14 times—the first coming on January 22, 1977—and won just once, a 68-62 decision on December 30, 2001.
 
Temple's Fran Dunphy at Penn
• Dunphy was head coach of the Quakers from 1989-90 until 2005-06 and is Penn's all-time winningest coach, winning 310 games in 17 seasons (310-163, .655 win percentage).
 
• Dunphy won 190 Ivy League games—second in league history behind Princeton's Pete Carril, who had 310 Ivy wins over 30 seasons—and went 190-48 (.798 win percentage) while winning 10 Ivy titles and making nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
• Dunphy is 14-15 as a head coach in this series (3-14 at Penn, 11-1 at Temple).
 
The Donahue/Dunphy Connection
Current Penn head coach Steve Donahue's history with the Quakers runs deep, thanks to Coach Dunphy who hired him as an assistant coach prior to the 1990-91 season. Donahue spent 10 seasons by Dunphy's side as the Quakers went 182-91 overall and a staggering 114-26 in Ivy League play (with six Ivy titles).
 
Donahue vs. Dunphy
This is the 17th coaching matchup between Donahue and Dunphy, with Dunphy holding a 15-1 lead.
12-0 Dunphy at Penn/Donahue at Cornell
3-0 Dunphy at Temple/Donahue at Penn
 
Donahue's lone win, of course, came in the 2010 NCAA Tournament, when his Cornell team knocked off Dunphy's Temple team 78-65 in the first round in Jacksonville, Fla.
 
Penn by the Numbers
2 • Consecutive double-doubles by junior AJ Brodeur; he had 18 points and a career-high 15 rebounds two Saturdays ago at Princeton, then followed up with 16 points and 12 boards last Saturday vs. the Tigers at The Palestra.
 
3 • Points scored by junior Ryan Betley in Penn's season opener, when he drained a three-pointer on Penn's first possession of 2018-19; less than five minutes later he ruptured his patellar tendon, and so last year's leading scorer is out for the remainder of the season.
 
4 • Penn players with at least 30 assists this season: seniors Antonio Woods (42) and Max Rothschild (31) and juniors Brodeur (team-high 55) and Devon Goodman (37); another senior, Jake Silpe, has 25 assists.
 
5 • NCAA Division 1 players this year from China, including freshman Michael Wang. He shares the distinction with Michael Ou (Cal State Northridge), Johnny Wang (Cal State Fullerton), Kevin Zhang (Tulane) and James Zhao (California).
 
6 • Consecutive Penn wins from November 24 to December 22, the program's longest win streak since winning seven in a row late in the 2011-12 season.
 
8 • Turnovers committed by Penn in last Saturday's loss to Princeton, a season low and fewest since the Quakers committed seven in their Ivy League Tournament championship-game win over Harvard last season.
 
12 • Previous Big 5 titles won by Penn; that said, the Quakers have only won three since the 1980-81 season (1-1 in 1991-92, 2-0 in 1993-94, 4-0 in 2001-02).
 
24 • Penn wins last season, most since the Quakers had 25 in 2001-02. All time, the Red and Blue have had nine seasons with 24 or more victories.
 
40 • Years since Penn started a season 4-0, as the Quakers did this year; that 1978-79 Penn team, of course, would later play in arguably the most famous Final Four of all time with Magic Johnson's Michigan State team, Larry Bird's Indiana State team, and Mark Aguirre's DePaul team.
 
41 • Penn players who have scored 1,000 career points all-time, after Brodeur reached the mark at Toledo on December 29; he enters today's contest against Temple with 1,057 points.
 
42 • Combined points scored by Woods over the last three games, a 14.0 per-game average (19 vs. Monmouth, 11 at Princeton, 12 vs. Princeton).
 
74 • Points scored by Wang over a four-game stretch from Miami (12/4) to New Mexico (12/22), an 18.5 per-game average; he was injured early in Penn's 12/29 game at Toledo and has scored just eight points in the last four games.
 
165 • Points scored by Brodeur over the last ten games, all double-digit outings; he has 144 in the last eight contests, an 18.0 per-game average.