PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team is home for its final three games this season, starting this weekend when the Quakers host Ivy co-leader Cornell on Friday and Columbia on Saturday.
 
Both games are the back end of a women's/men's doubleheader at The Palestra. On Friday, the Penn women host Dartmouth at 5 p.m. before the Quakers and Big Red face off. On Saturday, the Penn women will celebrate Senior Day ahead of their game with Harvard at 4 p.m., followed by the Quakers and Lions.
 
GAME 27 – PENN (10-16, 2-9 Ivy League) vs. CORNELL (20-5, 9-2)
Friday, March 1, 2024 | 8 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
GAME 28 – PENN vs. COLUMBIA (13-11, 4-7)
Saturday, March 2, 2024 | 7 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Cornell 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 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 C/C Home Weekend
*Penn is hosting the Big Red and Lions in a traditional Ivy League weekend for the 64th time. The Quakers swept this weekend a year ago, beating Columbia on Friday night (74-65) and Cornell on Saturday (82-76).

*Overall, Penn has swept this home weekend 46 times, split it 15 times (most recently in 2021-22), and been swept just twice, in 1967-68 and 2008-09.
 
Did You Know…
That Penn and Columbia have played each other across more seasons than all but one other rivalry at the NCAA Division I level? It's true, based on research conducted by our good friends down the road at Navy. This is the 121st season the Quakers and Lions have met, tied with...Penn and next weekend's opponent, Princeton! The Red and Blue also hold the third and fourth spots, having played Cornell and Yale across 120 different seasons. Fifth on the list is Oregon and Oregon State, at 117.
 
The Series with Cornell
*Friday's meeting is the 240th between the Quakers and the Big Red, with Penn holding a 162-77 lead.

*Cornell has won two of the last three meetings, including a 77-60 decision on January 15 in Ithaca. Nick Spinoso had a double-double for Penn (12 pts/11 rbs) while Reese McMullen led the offense with 15 points and Sam Brown added 11.

*Penn's record at home has been stellar against the Big Red, the Quakers winning the last nine meetings played here at The Palestra and 10 of the last 11. The outlier was a 71-69 loss on February 2, 2013.
 
The Series with Columbia
*Saturday's meeting is the 243rd between the Quakers and the Lions, with Penn holding a 148-94 lead in the series.

*Penn had won three in a row, five of the last six, and eight of the last 10 meetings before Columbia pulled out an 84-81 victory on January 27 in New York City. Tyler Perkins led four Quakers in double figures, tying his season/career high with 25 points, while Spinoso added 17, Ed Holland III scored 15, and Brown had 13.
 
Ivy Weekly Honors For Brown
Freshman guard Sam Brown was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Monday after he dropped a career-high 26 points in Penn's win at Dartmouth last Friday. The freshman hit his first six three-point shots and ended the night 6-of-7 from beyond the arc.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
1 - Games this season in which senior Clark Slajchert did not reach double figures in scoring (not including the Houston game, when he was injured six minutes in); that was Monmouth on November 26, when he was "held" just shy of double digits with nine.
 
3 - Penn players with a double-double this season: junior Nick Spinoso—who has five after going for 18 points and 11 rebounds last Friday at Dartmouth—freshman Tyler Perkins, and junior Ed Holland III.
 
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 7, Perkins 5, Brown 3, Spinoso 1).
 
12 - Games this season in which Brown has hit at least three three-pointers (one game with six 3FG, six games with four, and five with three); he is third among Ivy players in overall 3FG per game (2.45), behind only Brown's Kino Lilly Jr. (3.0) and teammate Slajchert (2.47).
 
14 - Games this season in which Penn has started four left-handers (Spinoso, Brown, Perkins, junior George Smith).
 
19 - Double-figure scoring games by Perkins, the team lead and most by a freshman since AJ Brodeur had 22 such games in 2016-17.
 
26 - Points scored by Brown last Friday at Dartmouth, most by a Penn freshman in a game since Ryan Betley dropped 28 at Brown on February 17, 2017.
 
45 - Of senior Andrew Laczkowski's 78 rebounds this season, 45 of them (57.7 pct.) have come on the offensive glass.
 
82.1 - Penn's free-throw percentage across its last six games (55-67); that said, last week the Quakers took just 13 foul shots while their opponents took 41 across a pair of road games.
 
85.7 – Brown's 3FG percentage at Dartmouth last Friday, tied for the best performance from beyond the arc in the Steve Donahue coaching era (Devon Goodman went 6-of-7 against Yale on February 28, 2020).

365 - Points scored by Perkins this season, second most by a freshman in program history behind only Brodeur who had 385 in 2016-17.
 
610 - Points scored by Perkins (365) and Brown (245) this season, the most by a freshman duo in program history; the previous mark of 609 was held by Bernardini (362) and Jack Eggleston (247) in 2007-08, and the program has never had two freshmen score 250 points in the same season.