PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team gets into the second weekend of Ivy League play looking for its first conference win of the season. The Quakers are home on Saturday, hosting Cornell—a 94-83 winner over Columbia last weekend—and then on Monday the Red and Blue is back in Northern New England to face Harvard as the Ivy League plays a full slate of games on MLK Day. Both games are slated for 2 p.m. tipoffs.
 
GAME 15 – PENN (4-10, 0-1 Ivy League) vs. CORNELL (9-5, 1-0)
Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 | 2 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats | Game Program (PDF)
 
GAME 16 – PENN at HARVARD (5-9, 0-1)
Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 | 2 p.m.
Cambridge, Mass. | Lavietes Pavilion
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Cornell Game Notes (PDF) | Harvard 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 both of this weekend's games, with Stan Pawlak providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Series with Cornell
*Friday's meeting will be the 241st all-time between the Quakers and Big Red, with Penn leading the overall series 162-78.
 
*That said, Cornell has won three of the last four meetings. That includes a sweep of last season's games, when the Big Red got a 77-60 win in Ithaca and then an 87-81 victory here at The Palestra.
 
*Prior to last year's game, Penn had won nine in a row over the Big Red here at The Palestra and had gone 16-1 against Cornell across 17 meetings overall.
 
The Series with Harvard
*The Quakers and Crimson will match up for the 187th time on Monday, with Penn holding a 138-48 lead in the all-time series.
 
*Harvard swept last year's games, taking a 70-61 victory at The Palestra and then eking out a four-point win (74-70) a little more than a month later in Cambridge.
 
*Penn had won four in a row prior to that, sweeping the season series in both 2021-22 and 2022-23. The teams split the series in 2019-20, the home team winning both times.
 
There's No Place Like Home
Penn game with Cornell on Friday will be its first home game in 29 days, since the Quakers defeated Rider 79-66 on December 20. Beyond that, this is just the Red and Blue's second home game in 48 days after they played five home games from November 7 to December 1.
 
The Student Has Become the Teacher
Cornell's first-year head coach is Jon Jaques. He is also an alum, having played for the Big Red under Penn's current head coach, Steve Donahue. Jaques was a senior captain on Donahue's 2009-10 Cornell team that won a third straight Ivy League title and then advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
 
Upcoming Homestand
Following Monday's game at Harvard, the Quakers come back home for their next four contests—next Saturday against Columbia, followed by a true Ivy League weekend against Brown and Yale, and then a Friday night matchup against archrival Princeton.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
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.
 
4 - Penn players who reached double figures in the scoring column in last Saturday's Ivy League opener at Dartmouth: senior Nick Spinoso (16 points), Roberts (12), sophomore Sam Brown (12), and Zanoni (11).
 
7 - Total newcomers on the 2024-25 roster: in addition to the transfers, the Quakers also have freshmen Bradyn Foster, AJ Levine, Alex Massung, and Michelangelo Oberti.
 
7.1 - Rebounds-per-game average by Spinoso so far this season, good for second among Ivy players.
 
12 - Players who have started at least one game this season for Penn; Roberts, Spinoso, and sophomore Sam Brown have the most starts this season, with 13 each.

13 - Free throws made (on 14 attempts) by Brown against Maine; that is a Penn player high in the Steve Donahue era and most since Ibrahim Jaaber made 15 against Navy on December 2, 2005. Brown finished with 19 points to go with four rebounds vs. the Black Bears.
 
17.9 - Points-per-game average by Roberts over his last eight contests (he missed the Penn State game due to illness); he has reached double figures in all of them and is currently fourth among Ivy League players in points per game this season (16.2).
 
27 - Points scored by Zanoni at Penn State, his collegiate high including his time at Mercer; he also tied his collegiate best with six rebounds. Zanoni hit seven three-pointers against the Lions, most by a Penn player this season and tied for eighth-most in program history in a game.
 
29 - Days since Penn's last home game, a 79-66 win over Rider on December 20; in fact, this is just the Quakers' second home game since December 1.

32 - Three-point baskets knocked down by Penn over a three-game span against Rider (11 treys), George Mason (10), and Penn State (11). The Quakers shot 36.0 percent beyond the arc in those games (32-of-89).
 
38 - Points scored over the last four games by sophomore Niklas Polonowski; prior to that, he scored just seven points in Penn's first ten games.

42 - Rebounds grabbed by Penn in last Saturday's game at Dartmouth, a team high for this season; the Quakers outrebounded the Big Green, 42-36.

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