PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team is on the other side of fall-term exams, and the Quakers get back to action with one final non-conference game before hitting Ivy League play in the New Year. Penn hosts Division 3 Wilkes on Wednesday in a holiday matinee at The Palestra.
 
GAME 14 – PENN (6-7) vs. WILKES (7-5)
Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022 | 2 p.m.
The Palestra | Philadelphia
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen Live on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes | Wilkes 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 Wednesday, with Brad Fadem providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Series with Wilkes
*The Quakers and the Colonels are meeting for the first time in men's basketball.
 
*This is Penn's fifth time playing a non-Division I opponent in the Steve Donahue coaching era...
  12/19/15 - Penn 73, Ursinus 66
  11/18/17 - Penn 99, PSU Brandywine 40
  11/24/18 - Penn 112, Stockton, 63
  12/21/19 - Penn 105, Widener 57
 
Hello, Friend
*Wednesday's game pits Penn head coach Steve Donahue against one of his former assistant coaches from Cornell and Boston College, Izzi Metz. Metz is in his ninth season as Wilkes' head coach.
 
*The 2022-23 season has proven to be an episode of "This Is Your Life" for Coach Donahue, who has matched wits with the man who originally brought him to Penn (Fran Dunphy, La Salle); two players he recruited and coached at Penn (Mike Jordan, Lafayette and Matt Langel, Colgate); and two of his former assistant coaches at Cornell and BC (Zach Spiker, Drexel and Metz).
 
Ivy League Upcoming
Following Wednesday's game, Penn begins Ivy League play on Monday with a trip to Brown. The Quakers will open Ivy play with four road games and play five of its first six league contests on the road. The lone home game will come on MLK Day when the Red and Blue host travel partner and archrival Princeton at 7 p.m.
 
Rare Jordan
Junior guard Jordan Dingle scored 120 points across Penn's four Big 5 games this season (28 vs. SJU, 37 vs. La Salle, 25 at Villanova, 30 vs. Temple). That is a Big 5 record for a single season; the previous mark of 116 was held by Cliff Anderson (Saint Joseph's), who set it in 1966-67.
 
Penn MBB By the Numbers
1 - Combined three-point baskets made by senior Lucas Monroe last season and this year, before he hit two in Penn's win over Temple on December 10; he had more than one trey only one other time as a Quaker, versus Widener on 12/21/19.
 
2 - Ivy League players who were named to the Lou Henson Award Watch List by CollegeInsider.com on November 22: Princeton's Tosan Evbuomwan and Jordan Dingle. The Henson Award is presented annually to the top mid-major player in the country.
 
3 - Consecutive weeks Dingle was named Ivy League Player of the Week prior to exams (11/28, 12/5, 12/12); he is just the second Penn player to accomplish that feat, joining Zack Rosen who was POTW three straight weeks late in the 2011-12 season.
 
3 - 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.
 
7 - Points scored by junior Andrew Laczkowski in the final six minutes against Temple on December 10; he entered the game with three points for the entire season.
 
8 - Starting lineups used by Penn this season, through 13 games; the only player who has started every game he played is Clark Slajchert, Penn's second-leading scorer, who has missed the last three games due to injury.
 
9 - Penn players with a double-figure scoring game this season, after Monroe hit for 10 points against Temple; the Quakers return nine players who had at least two such games in 2021-22.
 
9 – Rebounds grabbed by Laczkowski against Temple, a career high; five of them came on the offensive glass.
 
10 – Consecutive 20-point games recorded by Dingle (25.5 ppg in that stretch); the last Penn player to have such a streak was Ernie Beck, who hit the 20-point mark in the first 16 games of his senior season in 1952-53.
 
11 - On November 11 at Missouri—or 11/11, you might say—Penn went 11-of-11 at the foul line, the third time the Quakers have shot 100 percent at the foul line in the Steve Donahue coaching era.

12.8 – Scoring average for junior Max Martz over his last eight games (he missed the 11/30 Saint Joseph's game due to illness); Martz has hit double digits six times in that run and scored nine points in the other two contests.
 
16 - Rebounds by Monroe against Saint Joseph's; that is tied for the most by a Penn player in the Donahue era (AJ Brodeur at Cornell, 2/1/19; Darien Nelson-Henry vs. Cornell, 2/13/16).

21 - Consecutive double-figure scoring games by Dingle dating back to last year, the eighth-longest streak in program history; Rosen is seventh, with 24 straight from 1/29/10 to 12/29/10.
 
24.1 - Dingle's scoring average this season, good for third nationally behind Detroit Mercy's Antoine Walker (24.8 ppg) and UAB's Jordan Walker (24.6).
 
39 - Assists dished out by sophomore Nick Spinoso over Penn's last six games; he had 11 against Saint Joseph's, most by a Penn player in the Donahue era—the last time a Quaker had 11 dimes was 3/7/15 (Antonio Woods vs. Cornell).
 
41.5 – Combined scoring average this season for Dingle (24.1 ppg) and Slajchert (17.4); they are the highest-scoring backcourt at the NCAA Division I level this season.

44 - Second-half points scored by Dingle in Penn's last two games, out of 55 total (23 of 25 at Villanova, 21 of 30 vs. Temple).
 
57 - Games Dingle needed to reach 1,000 points for his career (he reached the mark 11/25 vs. Hartford); only three players reached 1,000 points faster than Dingle, and all of them started their varsity careers as sophomores: Ernie Beck (50 games), Keven McDonald (50), and Stan Pawlak (52). Ron Haigler and Joe Sturgis hit the mark in Game 58.
 
101 - Wins at Penn for head coach Steve Donahue; he became the seventh of Penn's 20 head men's basketball coaches to hit triple digits in the win column when the Quakers defeated Delaware on November 27, 86-73.