PHILADELPHIA – After a busy November that featured nine games in 19 days with eight of them on the road, the University of Pennsylvania hits a bit of a routine over these next two weeks by playing all of its Big 5 games on a Wednesday/Saturday schedule. The city run starts Wednesday night when the Quakers host No. 6 Villanova at The Palestra and will be followed by road games at Temple, Saint Joseph's and La Salle.
 
GAME 10 – PENN (3-6) vs. #6/6 VILLANOVA (4-2)
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 | 7 p.m. | Buy Tickets
The Palestra | Philadelphia
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen (QAN) | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes | Villanova Game Notes
Villanova radio feed can be heard on SiriusXM Channel 81
 
Quaker Audio Network (QAN)
Again this season, Penn fans can listen to most of Penn's men's basketball games through the Quaker Audio Network, a free Internet-based audio streaming service. Matt Leon will be on the play-by-play call from The Palestra Wednesday night, with Penn Athletics Hall of Famer Stan Pawlak offering analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Penn-Villanova Series
*The Quakers and the Wildcats are meeting for the 68th time in men's basketball, with Villanova holding a 48-19 lead in the series.
 
*Of course, the last time these two teams met here at The Palestra the Quakers pulled out a 78-75 win. That came on December 11, 2018 and Penn went on to win the Big 5 title later that season.
 
*The last meeting took place almost exactly two years ago—December 4, 2019—and Villanova pulled away late for an 80-69 win at the Finneran Pavilion out on the Main Line.
 
*Penn is 0-4 all-time against a team when it is ranked sixth in the AP national poll, with the most recent coming back in 1988 when the Quakers lost to No. 6 Temple. The Quakers have just one win over a team ranked sixth or higher; that came late in 1971 when No. 14 Penn defeated No. 5 USC at the Kodak Classic in Rochester, N.Y.
 
Busy Start to the Season
*This is just Penn's second home game this season, despite the fact it's the 10th game. The Quakers' nine-game November schedule featured five true road games and three neutral-site contests at the Myrtle Beach Invitational on the campus of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C.
 
*Interestingly, Penn enters tonight's game having played as many games at The Palestra this season as Villanova. The Wildcats were just here on Sunday, defeating La Salle 72-46.
 
*Wednesday marks the third time this season Penn has played a team ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 at the time of the game, the others being Florida State (#20 when the Quakers played them) and Arkansas (#13). The last time the Red and Blue played three such non-conference games was 2010-11 (losses at #5 Pitt, at #10 Kentucky, home loss to #12 Villanova).
 
*Here's one for you: Penn spent 11 out of 20 nights in hotels from November 9-28 due to all that travel. The Quakers' next night in a hotel? That won't come until January 28, ahead of their game with Harvard. Penn has four road games between now and then—at Temple on Saturday, at Saint Joseph's next Wednesday, at La Salle next Saturday, and at Princeton on MLK Day (Monday, Jan. 17). Wednesday night is the first of eight home games in that same span.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
1 • Teams at the NCAA Division 1 level that played as many games as Penn in November (9). In fact, Coppin State surpassed the Quakers, playing 10 games in November—and they're at St. Bonaventure on Wednesday!

2 • Penn players who made their collegiate debuts on November 10 despite being upperclassmen: senior co-captain Jelani Williams and junior Jonah Charles; in total, 11 of the 19 players on Penn's roster had never suited up for an NCAA Division I college basketball game entering the Florida State contest.
 
3 • Penn players with international playing experience: senior Michael Wang (China) and juniors Max Lorca-Lloyd (Chile) and Michael Moshkovitz (Israel). Of note, Moshkovitz started every game when Israel won the 2018 FIBA Under-20 European Championship in Germany, the first gold medal by an Israeli team at a FIBA event.
 
4 • Games in which Penn has a double-figure total of three-point baskets (11 against George Mason, Lafayette and Old Dominion; 10 at Bucknell); overall, the Quakers have 85 treys in nine games so far this season.
 
5 • 20-point games by sophomore Jordan Dingle already this season—23 at Florida State, 20 at George Mason, 24 at Bucknell, 31 vs. Utah State, 21 at Towson—matching his total as a freshman in 2019-20.
 
8 • Consecutive points scored by Dingle on November 14 at Bucknell, turning a 58-56 deficit into a 64-60 lead that Penn never relinquished.
 
13 • Rebounds secured by sophomore Max Martz in Sunday's loss at Arkansas, his first career double-digit game on the boards.
 
14 • Points scored by junior Lucas Monroe on Sunday, a season and career best.
 
15 • Penn's 19-player roster features players from 12 different states, the District of Columbia, and two foreign countries (China and Israel).
 
19.5 • Dingle's points-per-game average this season, which is tops among Ivy League players.
 
25 • Points scored by sophomore Clark Slajchert in Sunday's loss at Arkansas, nearly double his previous season/career high (13 at Bucknell).
 
27 • Three-point baskets by Charles this season; he has just four two-point baskets.
 
31 • Points scored by Dingle in Penn's double-overtime loss to Utah State on November 18, the first 30-point game by a Penn player since AJ Brodeur dropped 33 vs. Saint Joseph's on January 18, 2020.
 
95.2 • Free-throw percentage by Slajchert this season, tops among Ivy League players; he made his first 16 foul shots to start the season, missed his first on Sunday at Arkansas, then made his next four.
 
613 • The number of days it had been since Penn last played a competitive intercollegiate game when they took the floor November 10 in Tallahassee. In its last game, Penn defeated Columbia 85-65 at The Palestra on March 7, 2020—and what a game it was. AJ Brodeur became the program's all-time leading scorer AND recorded the first triple-double in program history (21 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists).