PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team plays the first of four straight road games in Ivy League play on Saturday, making the trip to the Big Apple to face Columbia at the site for this year's Ivy League Tournament, Levien Gym.
 
GAME 19 – PENN (9-9, 1-2 Ivy League) at COLUMBIA (9-7, 0-3)
Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024 | 2 p.m.
New York City | Levien Gym
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Columbia 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 Saturday, 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 Columbia
*Saturday's meeting is the 242nd between the Quakers and the Lions, with Penn holding a 148-93 lead in the series. Columbia's 93 wins are second among Ivy teams against the Red and Blue, behind only Princeton's 122.
 
*Penn has won the last three meetings, five of the last six, and eight of the last 10 dating back to the 2017-18 season. That includes a season sweep last year, when the Quakers rolled past the Lions in NYC (84-55) before taking a much more competitive, 74-65 decision a month later at The Palestra.
 
*Penn has won five in a row at Levien, which might seem like a modest streak but is the program's best since the Quakers won eight in row from 1993-2000.
 
Preseason Picks
In the Ivy League's preseason media poll, released on October 17, Penn was picked to finish fifth in the league while Columbia was picked eighth. The poll featured two media members from each of the eight schools, so 16 votes in total.
 
Ivy Schedule Changes
The Ivy League has undergone some schedule changes from the last two years...
 
*Penn's MLK Day game at Cornell on January 15 came after two years of facing travel partner Princeton on that holiday.
 
*The schedule is backloaded to include four "Ivy weekends" over a five-week span in February and March. As a result, Penn played 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 this weekend, the Quakers will play six of their next eight Ivy League games on the road, with the two home games coming back-to-back on February 16-17.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
2 - Penn players with a double-double this season: junior Nick Spinoso—who has three after going for 12 points and 11 rebounds at Cornell—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 this season: freshman Sam Brown on December 18 and December 26, then Perkins on January 8.
 
4 - Left-handers in Penn's starting lineup, more than any other Division I team in the country; the Quakers have a fifth lefty (sophomore Johnnie Walter), but we cannot recall the team putting all five lefties on the floor at the same time this season.
 
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, the Quakers going 1-3 in those contests. 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 when he was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
 
6 - Minutes played by Clark 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 four games.
 
12 - Three-point shots hit by freshman Niklas Polonowski over the last five games for 36 of his 38 points in that stretch (7.6 ppg)—two each against Houston, Cornell and Harvard, three against Auburn and Dartmouth; 18 of his 21 field goals this season, including 15 of the last 16, have come from beyond the arc.
 
11 - Penn players with at least one double-figure scoring game this season; among Division I programs, only Texas State (12) has more. Penn's list includes four players with at least one 20-point game (Slajchert 5 such games, Perkins 4, Spinoso 1, Brown 1).
 
13 - Consecutive shots Penn made from the 12:19 mark to the 2:37 mark of the first half in its Ivy opener against Dartmouth, nine of them coming from beyond the arc; in the process, the Quakers grew their lead from 9-4 to 46-17.
 
29 - Points scored by junior Reese McMullen in Penn's three Ivy games including a career-high 15 at Cornell; that's more than he totaled across the Quakers' 15 non-conference games (23).
 
29 - Penn's margin of victory against Dartmouth; it was the Quakers' largest Ivy-opening win since 2005-06, when they beat Cornell at The Palestra, 84-44.
 
38 - Of senior Andrew Laczkowski's 61 rebounds this season, 38 of them (62.3 pct.) have come on the offensive glass.
 
38.5 - Penn's overall 3-point FG percentage this season, tops among Ivy League teams; the Quakers have hit double figures in 3FG three of the last four games, five times in the last seven, and eight times in the last 11.
 
46.5 - Percentage of Penn's points scored by freshmen in the last four games (42 of 68 at Auburn, 33 of 80 vs. Dartmouth, 24 of 60 vs. Cornell, 26 of 61 vs. Harvard). Perkins had 51 of them, Brown had 42, and Polonowski 32.
 
56.0 - Penn's 3-point field goal percentage in its Ivy-opening win against Dartmouth (14-25).
 
123 - Three-point baskets made by Penn over its last 11 games (11.2 per game); the Quakers average 10.0 3FG per game overall, second among Ivy teams behind Princeton (10.6).