PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team is ready to tip off the 2022-23 season, and the Quakers will do so on Monday night when they travel just past New York City for a game with Iona.
 
GAME 1 – PENN (0-0) at IONA (0-0)
Monday, Nov. 7, 2022 | 7 p.m.
Hynes Athletics Center | New Rochelle, N.Y.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen Live on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes | Iona Game Notes
 
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 for Monday's game at Iona, with Brad Fadem offering analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Penn-Iona Series
*This is the fifth meeting between Penn and Iona in men's basketball and the first meeting this century.
 
*The Quakers lead the overall series, 3-1, part of a 20-16 record against programs that currently play in the MAAC.
 
*This is also the first time in this series that one team is hosting the other: the other four meetings were all neutral-site affairs.
 
*The first meeting, of course, took place in the preliminary round of the 1979 NCAA Tournament. The Quakers beat the Gaels in Raleigh, N.C., 73-69, the springboard to their incredible Final Four run. (Penn followed up with a win over top-seeded UNC in Raleigh, then beat Syracuse and St. John's in the regional semis and final in Greensboro, N.C., before falling to Magic Johnson and Michigan State in the semifinal round.)
 
*Penn and Iona also have played twice at Madison Square Garden in the old ECAC Holiday Festival, in 1980 (an 82-66 Penn win) and 1998 (a 67-61 Penn win).
 
*Iona's only win in the series came on December 30, 1989, 52-49 at the Cable Car Classic in San Francisco.
 
Penn Picked to Win Ivy League
*Penn was (barely) picked to finish first in the Ivy League's Preseason Media Poll, which came from the votes of two members within each school's media contingent. The poll was announced on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
 
*Penn and Princeton both got six of the poll's 16 first-place votes, but the Quakers finished with 111 voting points while the Tigers had 110. Yale was close behind with 106 voting points including three first-place votes. Harvard was fourth with 86 points and the final first-place vote, while the bottom half consisted of Cornell (54), Brown (53), Dartmouth (31), and Columbia (25).
 
*This marks the first time Penn has been picked first in the Ivy's preseason media poll since the 2006-07 season. That team, behind Ivy League Player of the Year Ibrahim Jaaber and fellow All-Ivy first-teamer Mark Zoller, won the Ivy title with a 13-1 record before losing to Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament's first round.
 
Penn MBB By the Numbers
2 - All-Ivy players back across the league in 2022-23: Princeton's Tosan Evbuomwan and Penn's Jordan Dingle.
 
2 - Penn players with international playing experience: seniors 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.
 
3 - 2022-23 non-conference opponents who were picked in the preseason to win their respective leagues: Iona (MAAC), Towson (CAA), and Colgate (Patriot League). Penn was picked by the Ivy League media to win the Ancient Eight.
 
4 - Players in program history who scored more points in their first two seasons than Dingle (880): Ernie Beck (1,154), Keven McDonald (1,021), Ron Haigler (947), and Stan Pawlak (922).
 
4 - Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors won last season by junior Clark Slajchert (3) and sophomore George Smith (1); sophomores like Slajchert were eligible for the award last season because there was no 2020-21 season due to COVID-19.
 
6 - 30-point games registered by Dingle last year, tied for the most in a season in program history (Beck, 1951-52); in fact, the six games put Dingle fourth on the program's list of CAREER 30-point games behind only Beck (13), McDonald (8) and Pawlak (7).
 
9 - Returning players who had at least two double-figure scoring games in 2021-22, led by Dingle (23), Slajchert (15), and junior Max Martz (12).
 
9 - Returnees who made at least one start in 2021-22, led by Dingle who started all 26 games in which he played. The other returnees who had double-figure start totals last year are Martz (22), Moshkovitz (16), senior Jonah Charles (14) and Smith (11), while Lucas Monroe made nine starts.
 
20.8 - Dingle's points-per-game average last season, seventh on Penn's single-season list and highest by a Quakers player since Keven McDonald averaged 22.3 ppg as a senior in 1977-78.

25 - Points scored by sophomore Nick Spinoso in Penn's last two games with Yale last season, including 14 in the Ivy League Tournament. He scored three points combined in all of the Quakers' other Ivy games.
 
43 - Points scored by Slajchert in the two games missed by Dingle; Slajchert stepped into Dingle's starting spot at Arkansas and Dartmouth, scoring 25 points against the Razorbacks and 18 vs. the Big Green to lead Penn on both occasions.
 
53 - Three-point baskets hit by Charles last season, good for second on the team behind only Dingle (66); of note, however, was that the senior only had six two-point baskets.
 
88.5 - Percentage of Penn's points that return from last season (1,785 of 2,017); that includes the Quakers' top four scorers in Dingle (20.8 ppg), Slajchert (10.7), Martz (10.0) and Charles (6.7).