PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team enters Big 5 pod play on Friday night, hosting Saint Joseph's in the next chapter of this city series rivalry.
 
Friday's game will be the back end of a doubleheader at The Palestra, as the Penn women host Saint Joseph's in their Big 5 opener at 4:30 p.m.
 
GAME 4 – PENN (2-1, 0-0 Big 5) vs SAINT JOSEPH'S (2-1, 1-0)
Friday, Nov. 15, 2024 | 8 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | SJU 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 all of the 2024-25 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 for Friday's game, with Brad Fadem providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
Early Start
Penn's 58-57 win at NJIT last Monday marked the earliest start to a season, by date, in program history. Prior to that, the earliest start date was November 5, set in 2019 when the Quakers traveled to Alabama and beat the Crimson Tide in what was Nate Oats' first game as Bama's head coach, 81-80.
 
The Series with St. Joe's
*The Quakers and Hawks will be meeting for the 94th time, with SJU holding a 56-37 lead in the series to date.
 
*Saint Joseph's has won the last four matchups with two of them coming at The Palestra. Last year, the Hawks gained a 69-61 decision at Hagan Arena in the first year of Big 5 pod play. The Hawks went on to win the city series title at the Big 5 Classic.
 
*Penn's last win in the series came on January 26, 2019, a 78-70 decision at The Palestra.
 
Big 5 Pod Play to Date
*Two of the six pod games have already taken place, the home team winning both as SJU beat Villanova 83-76 and Temple downed Drexel 69-61 on Tuesday.
 
*Penn's next two games will complete play in its pod, as the Quakers follow Friday's game by making the trip to the Main Line to face Villanova on Tuesday.
 
*In the other pod, La Salle is at Drexel on Saturday afternoon, and then the Explorers and Owls meet in the first Big 5 game at the new John Glaser Arena on Olney Saturday, Nov. 30.
 
*The second annual Big 5 Classic will take place on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Wells Fargo Center.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
0 – Penn's scoring margin for the season through three games. The Quakers opened the campaign with a pair of one-point wins before falling by two at Lafayette on Tuesday night. As a result, Penn has scored 206 points so far in 2024-25…and so have its opponents.
 
2 – Consecutive one-point wins by Penn to start the season; the last time the Quakers had two straight one-point wins was the 1978-79 Final Four season (59-58 in OT over Princeton on 1/13, then 43-42 over Saint Joseph's on 1/16). Prior to this season, the last time Penn even won ONE one-point game was February 19, 2022, an 89-88 decision at Brown.

3 – Transfers who have joined the Penn roster for the 2024-25 season: Ethan Roberts (Drake), Dylan Williams (Triton College) and Michael Zanoni (Mercer). Of the group, Roberts is the most decorated as he was the Patriot League Rookie of the Year at Army in 2022-23 before spending last season at Drake (missing the campaign due to injury). Williams, meanwhile, started at point guard for a Triton team that went 34-3 last season and advanced to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championship game.
 
7 – Total newcomers on the 2024-25 roster: in addition to the trio of transfers mentioned above, the Quakers also have the freshman quartet of Bradyn Foster, AJ Levine, Alex Massung, and Michelangelo Oberti.
 
7 - Returning players who have recorded at least one double-figure scoring game during their collegiate career: seniors Reese McMullen, Nick Spinoso and George Smith; junior Cam Thrower; and sophomores Sam Brown, Augustus Gerhart and Niklas Polonowski.
 
7.9 - Rebounds per game last season by Spinoso, which was fourth among Ivy League players; he is averaging 7.3 boards per game so far in 2024-25.
 
9 – Rebounds snared by Gerhart in Tuesday night's game at Lafayette, a season/career high for the sophomore.
 
9 – Points scored by Roberts in the final 5:38 of the season opener at NJIT; he had nine of Penn's last 10 points in the contest, including the winning free throw with 1.6 seconds left.
 
10 – Free throws taken—and, thankfully, made—in the final minute of last Thursday's home-opening win over UMES, eight of them from Brown and two by Roberts. Penn needed all of them in taking an 85-84 win, as the Hawks scored a staggering 18 points in that same time.
 
10 – Rebounds grabbed by Roberts in the UMES win, to go with a game-high 23 points for his first double-double at Penn; he had two double-doubles as a freshman at Army in 2022-23, one of them in Patriot League play against Boston University.
 
14 – Points scored by Smith against UMES, his first double-figure scoring game in nearly a year and most points in a game since he dropped 14 in back-to-back games against Harvard and Columbia his sophomore season.
 
17 – Deficit that Penn made up in the opener at NJIT; the Quakers were down, 52-35, with just over 13 minutes left but outscored the Highlanders 23-5 the rest of the way. It marked the largest comeback in a Penn victory in the Steve Donahue coaching era. (The Quakers made up a 21-point deficit at Princeton on January 7, 2017 but ultimately lost to the Tigers, 61-52.)
 
17 – Points scored by Williams at NJIT, leading the Quakers; he scored 11 points Tuesday night at Lafayette.
 
29 - Starts made last year by Spinoso; he was the only player on the team to start all of the Quakers' 29 games. Other returnees who were regular starters are Smith (19), Brown (18), and Thrower (9).
 
61 - Three-pointers knocked down by Brown last season, on 141 attempts (.433); he finished third among Ivy League players in 3FG percentage and fourth in 3FG per game (2.44). Brown's 61 treys were the second most by a freshman in program history, behind only Jackson Donahue who had 62 in 2015-16.
 
209 - Assists dished out over the last two-plus seasons by Spinoso (nine so far in 2024-25, 93 in 2022-23, 107 last season); he finished fourth among Ivy League players in assists/game last season (3.69) and was the only big man among the top 12.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.