PHILADELPHIA – After 27 days without a home game, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team is finally back at The Palestra this weekend. The Quakers host Ivy League leader Yale on Friday night and then Brown on Saturday in a key Ivy weekend as they make a push in the second half of the conference schedule to earn an Ivy League Tournament bid.
 
Both of this weekend's games will air on ESPN+, and fans in the Philadelphia region will be able to watch Friday's Penn-Yale game locally on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
 
GAME 23 – PENN (9-13, 1-6 Ivy League) vs. YALE (16-6, 7-0)
Friday, Feb. 16, 2024 | 7 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
GAME 24 – PENN vs. BROWN (6-16, 2-5)
Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024 | 6 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Yale Game Notes (PDF) | Brown 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 for both games this weekend, with Brad Fadem providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Yale/Brown Home Weekend
*This marks the second year in a row and the 63rd time since the start of Ivy League play that Penn has hosted the Bulldogs and the Bears in a traditional Ivy League weekend (Fri/Sat games).
 
*Penn swept this home weekend a year ago, beating Yale (66-64) on Friday and Brown (90-69) on Saturday. In fact, the Quakers have swept this home weekend three of the last four times it happened, splitting with them in 2020.
 
*Across the 62 previous such weekends, Penn has 41 sweeps and 18 splits, and has been swept three times (2014, 2015, 2017).
 
The Series with Yale
*Friday's meeting is the 240th between the Quakers and the Bulldogs, with Penn holding a 153-86 lead.
 
*These programs have split the regular-season series each of the last six seasons, with the home team winning each of the last 11 games after both teams won on the road in 2016-17.
 
*That streak was extended two weeks ago in New Haven, Yale beating Penn 74-58. Freshman Sam Brown led the Quakers with 20 points, matching his season/career high.
 
The Series with Brown
*Saturday's meeting is the 144th between the Quakers and the Bears, with Penn holding a 114-29 lead in the series.
 
*Penn had won five in a row and 10 of the last 11 meetings dating back to the 2016-17 season, before Brown earned a 70-61 win two weeks ago in Providence.
 
*For Penn, junior Ed Holland III had his first collegiate double-double with career highs in points (18) and rebounds (11). Freshman Tyler Perkins also scored 18 points and junior Nick Spinoso added 10.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
3 - Penn players with a double-double this season: junior Nick Spinoso, who has four; freshman Tyler Perkins; and junior Ed Holland III, who recorded career highs in points (18) and rebounds (11) two weeks ago at Brown.
 
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 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).
 
5 - 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. The last freshman with six such games? Tyler Bernardini in 2007-08.
 
11 - Penn players with a double-figure scoring game this season; among D1 programs only Texas State (12) has more. That includes four players with at least one 20-point game (Slajchert 5, Perkins 5, Brown 2, Spinoso 1).
 
11 - Games this season in which Brown has hit at least three three-pointers (actually six games with four 3FG, five with three 3FG); he is third among Ivy players in overall 3FG per game (2.5), behind only Brown's Kino Lilly Jr. (3.1) and Yale's John Poulakidas (2.54).
 
13 - Games this season in which Penn has started four left-handers (Spinoso, Brown, Perkins, junior George Smith), including each of the last two contests (at Yale, at Princeton).
 
14 - Rebounds pulled down by Spinoso last Saturday at Princeton, a career high for the junior.
 
16 - Double-figure scoring games by Perkins, the team lead and most by a freshman since Dingle had 18 in 2019-20.
 
24 - Points scored by Smith across the last three games, as he went for eight each at Brown, Yale and Princeton; prior to that, he had just 11 points in Penn's first four Ivy games and had not scored eight in a game since going for 10 against Monmouth on November 26.
 
17 - Three-point shots hit by freshman Niklas Polonowski over the last nine games for 51 of his 53 points in that stretch (5.9 ppg); 23 of his 26 field goals this season, including 20 of the last 21, have come from beyond the arc.
 
27 - Days between Ivy League home games, as Penn plays at home twice this weekend after four conference road games across the last three weekends.
 
35 - Points scored by junior Reese McMullen in Penn's seven Ivy games, led by a career-high 15 at Cornell on January 15; that's more than he totaled across the Quakers' 15 non-conference games (23).
 
35:55 - Minutes played by Slajchert last Saturday in his first action since getting injured at Houston on December 30; he had 10 points and tied his season high with six rebounds in the Princeton loss.
 
40 - Of senior Andrew Laczkowski's 69 rebounds this season, 40 of them (58.0 pct.) have come on the offensive glass.
 
46 - Points scored by Holland across Penn's last five games, including 15 at Columbia on January 27 and the 18 at Brown; that's more than he had in the Quakers' first 15 games against D1 opponents this season (45).
 
48.0 - Percentage of Penn's points (245 of 511) scored by freshmen in the eight games Slajchert missed to injury (yes, we're counting Houston)—Perkins with 112, Brown with 83, and Polonowski 50.
 
88.2 - Penn's free-throw percentage last Saturday at Princeton (15-17), a season high.