PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team is into the city series this week, starting Monday when the Quakers host Saint Joseph's in the first of two Philadelphia Big 5 pod games. The second pod game comes Friday, when the Red and Blue are at Drexel. These games set the schedule for the Big 5 Classic, which takes place Saturday, Dec. 6 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
 
In addition to airing nationally on ESPN+, Monday's game with the Hawks will be broadcast live in the Philadelphia viewing area on NBC Sports Philadelphia+ while Friday's game at Drexel is slated for NBC Sports Philadelphia.
 
GAME 4 – PENN (1-2) vs. SAINT JOSEPH'S (2-1)
Monday, Nov. 17, 2025 | 7 p.m.
Philadelphia | The Palestra
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats | Digital Program
 
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 2025-26 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 again this season, 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 Saint Joseph's
*The Quakers are Hawks are meeting for the 95th time, with SJU holding a 57-37 lead in the series to date.

*Saint Joseph's has won the last five matchups, with three of them coming at The Palestra. Last year, the Hawks gained an 86-69 victory at The Palestra.

*Penn's last win in the series came on January 26, 2019, a 78-70 decision in a game that was played at The Palestra. That win clinched the Big 5 title for the Quakers, who went a perfect 4-0 in the city series.
 
*Monday's game, of course, sees the Quakers facing their head coach from the last ten years, Steve Donahue. He was named head coach of the Hawks in September.
 
*Donahue led the Red and Blue to the 2017-18 Ivy League title, the Big 5 championship in 2018-19, and the 2018 NCAA Tournament during his decade in charge. Donahue also was an assistant at Penn under then-head coach Fran Dunphy in the 1990s.
 
Big 5 Pod Update
*Saint Joseph's defeated Drexel on November 8, 76-65, so if the Hawks win tonight they will represent this pod in the Big 5 Classic championship game on December 6 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
 
*If Penn wins tonight's game, the Quakers will have a chance to make the championship game when they play at Drexel on Friday night.
 
*In the other pod, Temple got a leg up by beating La Salle last Tuesday at the Liacouras Center, 90-63. The Explorers host Villanova on Wednesday, while the Owls head out to the Main Line to face the Wildcats on December 1.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
1 - Penn players who have scored in double digits in all three games so far this season: Ethan Roberts. Last year's leading scorer opened the season with 28 points vs. Rowan—in just 18 minutes—19 at American, and 15 at Providence.
 
2 - Transfers who joined Penn for the 2025-26 season: TJ Power (Virginia/Duke) and Lucas Lueth (Kirkwood CC). Power was a five-star recruit out of high school who started his career at Duke and spent last season at UVA. Lueth helped Kirkwood go 33-3 overall and win the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II national championship last year; he was named the tournament's MVP after recording 46 points, seven steals and nine blocked shots across four games.
 
7 - Total newcomers added to the 2025-26 roster: in addition to Power and Lueth, the Quakers also have a freshman "starting five" in Ryan Altman, Jay Jones—son of current Boston University head coach Joe Jones and nephew of Yale head coach James Jones­—Payton Kamin, William Kruse, and Dalton Scantlebury.
 
11 - Rebounds secured by junior Augustus Gerhart at American, his career high and tops among all players in the game. In addition to leading the Quakers in rebounds per game (9.0), Gerhart has grabbed 12 of his 27 boards this season on the offensive glass (44.4 percent).
 
42.9 - Penn's shooting percentage from three-point land in two games against Division I competition to far this season (21-49); that is actually better than the Quakers are shooting inside the arc (26-73, 35.6 percent).
 
49 - Free throws taken by Penn in the season opener against Rowan; the Quakers made 33. The last time the Red and Blue shot that many foul shots was their four-overtime game at Monmouth on November 25, 2017 (50), and the last time they made at least 33 was January 25, 2014 (35-of-43 vs. NJIT). Penn has taken more foul shots than its opponent in all three games so far this season.
 
50 - Points scored by Michael Zanoni in Penn's two Division I games this season; he had 20 at American, then dropped a career-high 30 last Tuesday at Providence. Perhaps most impressively, Zanoni shot 61.1 percent from three-point land in the two games (11-18).
 
119 - Points scored by Penn in the season opener against the Profs, a program single-game record. The previous mark was 115, scored on December 1, 1969 against Muhlenberg.
 
2025-26 Penn MBB Schedule Notes
• Penn's 11/21 "road trip" to Drexel will be the shortest road trip at the Division I level this season—per Google Maps, the distance along 33rd Street from The Palestra to the Daskalakis Athletic Center is 0.5 miles.
 
• Penn will host a Thanksgiving tournament for the fourth straight season; the Cathedral Classic will feature the Quakers along with Big 5 rival La Salle, Merrimack and Hofstra. The teams will play doubleheaders on Friday, Nov. 28; Saturday, Nov. 29; and Sunday, Nov. 30. Penn will play the second game each day and is scheduled to face, in order, Merrimack, La Salle and Hofstra.
 
• A relative newcomer to NCAA Division I, Merrimack is the only first-time D1 opponent on the docket for this season. That said, this will only be the third meeting between the Quakers and Hofstra and the first since they met at Madison Square Garden in the 1998 ECAC Holiday Festival final.
 
• Penn will play five home games in both November and February, but in between those two months the Quakers are home just four times combined in December and January.
 
• Penn renews a dormant rivalry on December 20 when it makes the trip up to Rutgers. The Quakers and Scarlet Knights were traditional early-season foes through the 1950s and 1960s and have played 23 times overall, but the holiday matchup will be the first between the programs since 1975.
 
• Penn will play on New Year's Eve, hosting NJIT at 2 p.m. The last time the Quakers played on NYE was 2018-19, the Quakers falling in OT to Monmouth at The Palestra.
 
• The Ivy League schedule is new this season and Penn will have some work to do early on—the Quakers will play five of their first seven league games on the road, then five out of six at home before ending the campaign at Brown on Friday, March 6.
 
• That said, Penn will play just one road "Ivy weekend" this season—January 30-31 at Columbia and Cornell. The Dartmouth-Harvard trip will be a Saturday/Monday weekend, the game against the Crimson coming on MLK Day.
 
• Two of Penn's Ivy League games will air nationally on ESPNU—the January 24 home game with Yale and the February 7 home game with Princeton.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.