PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team got off to a great start in Ivy League play last Saturday, routing Dartmouth at The Palestra. The Quakers face their first road challenge on Monday, traveling to Ithaca to face Cornell in an MLK Day matinee.
 
GAME 17 – PENN (9-7, 1-0 Ivy League) at CORNELL (11-3, 1-0)
Monday, Jan. 15, 2024 | 2 p.m.
Ithaca, N.Y. | Newman Arena
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Cornell Game Notes (PDF)
 
Ivy League on ESPN+
A reminder that the Ivy League is paired with ESPN and you will be able to find all Penn home games, as well as road Ivy games and select non-conference road games, on ESPN+ again this season with the same high broadcast quality you've come to expect. ESPN+ is a subscription-based service that offers monthly and yearly packages. Click here to subscribe to ESPN+!
 
Quaker Audio Network (QAN)
Penn fans can listen to most of the 2023-24 Penn's men's basketball season through the Quaker Audio Network, a free Internet-based audio streaming service. Matt Leon will be on the play-by-play call Monday afternoon, 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 Cornell
*Monday's meeting will be the 239th in men's basketball between the Quakers and the Big Red, with Penn holding a sizable 162-76 lead in the series.
 
*These teams split the season series last year, Cornell winning 88-69 here in Ithaca but Penn coming back with a 92-86 victory a month later at The Palestra.
 
*Prior to last season, Penn had won five in a row and 16 of the previous 17 matchups in the series.
 
Preseason Picks
In the Ivy League's preseason media poll, released on October 17, Penn was picked to finish fifth in the league while Cornell was picked third. The poll featured two media members from each of the eight schools, so 16 votes in total.
 
Weekly Honors For Perkins
Freshman guard Tyler Perkins was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the first time this season on Monday, after he scored 19 points in the first half of Penn's 80-51 Ivy-opening win against Dartmouth last Saturday. Perkins enters Monday's game seventh among Ivy Leaguers in scoring (14.8 ppg) and rebounding (5.8 rpg). He also leads the Quakers and is third among Ivy players with 25 steals, and third on the team in assists (35) and 3FG (32).
 
Ivy Schedule Changes
The Ivy League has undergone some schedule changes from the last two years...
 
*Penn's MLK Day game with Cornell comes after two years of facing travel partner Princeton on this holiday.
 
*The schedule is backloaded to include four "Ivy weekends" over a five-week span in February and March. As a result, Penn will play just four league games in the month of January this season.
 
*Balance continues to be an issue: Penn opened Ivy play at home (beating Dartmouth 80-51) and will close with three straight Ivy League home games in March. Starting with this Cornell game, the Quakers will play seven road games across a 10-game span from January 15 to February 24.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
2 - Penn players with a double-double this season: junior Nick Spinoso (11 pts/11 rbs at UMES, 19/11 at Rider) and freshman Tyler Perkins (24 pts/11 rbs vs. Bucknell). Spinoso flirted with a triple-double December 2 vs. La Salle with 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
 
3 - Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors won by Penn players over the last four weeks: freshman Sam Brown on December 18 and December 26, then Perkins last Monday,
 
4 - Non-conference opponents who were ranked in the AP Top 25 poll at the time Penn played them: Villanova (#21 on November 13), Kentucky (#16 on December 9), Houston (#3 on December 30) and Auburn (#25 on January 2). The last time Penn played four non-conference games against ranked opponents was 1994-95.
 
4 - Overtime games played by Penn already this season. Only three teams in program history have played more: 1983-84 (6), 2010-11 (5), 2018-19 (5).
 
4 - 20-point games put up by Perkins so far this season; the last freshman with that many such games was last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, Jordan Dingle, who had five in 2019-20.
 
4 - Penn players with at least one 20-point game this season, after Brown went for 20 at Auburn. The others are senior Clark Slajchert (5 such games), Perkins (4), and Spinoso (1).
 
+5.1 - Penn's overall rebound margin this season, tops among Ivy League teams.
 
6 - Minutes played by Slajchert before he injured his ankle in Penn's loss at No. 3 Houston on December 30; the Ivy League's fourth-leading scorer has not played in the last two games.
 
8 - Three-point shots hit by freshman Niklas Polonowski over the last three games—two at Houston, three at Auburn, three vs. Dartmouth—in scoring 24 points; 14 of his 16 field goals this season, including the last 11 in a row, have come from beyond the arc.
 
11 - Penn players with at least one double-figure scoring game this season, after senior Andrew Laczkowski and junior Reese McMullen both scored 10 points last Saturday vs. Dartmouth.
 
12 - Double-figure scoring games by Perkins this season, tied for the team lead with Slajchert; he has double digits in the last three games and five of the last six, scoring nine in the outlier.
 
13 - Consecutive shots Penn made from the 12:19 mark to the 2:37 mark of the first half last Saturday game against Dartmouth (nine from beyond the arc); in the process, the Quakers grew their lead from 9-4 to 46-17.
 
29 - Penn's margin of victory against Dartmouth last Saturday (80-51); it was the Quakers' largest Ivy-opening win since 2005-06, when they beat Cornell at The Palestra, 84-44.
 
36 - Of Laczkowski's 57 rebounds this season, 36 of them (or 63.2 percent) have come on the offensive glass.
 
40.0 - Penn's 3-point FG percentage this season, tops among Ivy League teams; the Quakers have hit double figures in 3FG makes nine times this season including seven of the last nine and eight of the last 11 contests.
 
42 - Points scored by Penn in its loss at Houston, the fewest by a Quakers team in the Steve Donahue coaching era (since 2015-16).
 
50.7 - Percentage of Penn's points scored by freshmen in the Quakers' last two games (42 of 68 at Auburn, 33 of 90 vs. Dartmouth). Perkins had 32 of them, Brown had 25, and Polonowski 18.
 
56.0 - Penn's 3-point field goal percentage in its Ivy-opening win against Dartmouth (14-25).
 
107 - Three-point baskets made by Penn over its last nine games (11.9 per game); the Quakers average 10.3 3FG per game overall, second among Ivy teams behind Princeton (10.9).