PHILADELPHIA – Coming off a record-setting offensive night Friday against Rowan at The Palestra, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team is ready for its first tests against Division I competition Sunday and Tuesday. The Quakers—under first-year head coach Fran McCaffery—are at defending Patriot League champion American on Sunday at 1 p.m. in our nation's capital, then travel North to Providence to take on the Friars out of the Big East on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
 
GAME 2 – PENN (1-0, 0-0 Ivy League) at AMERICAN (0-1)
Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025 | 1 p.m.
Washington, D.C. | Bender Arena
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | American Game Notes (PDF)

GAME 3 – PENN at PROVIDENCE (1-1)
Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025 | 7 p.m.
Providence, R.I. | Amica Mutual Pavilion
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Providence 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 American
*Sunday will be the seventh meeting between the Quakers and the Eagles in men's basketball, with Penn winning all of the previous six.
 
*This is just the third matchup this century, the others coming in 2001 (a 61-51 Penn win in D.C.) and 2003 (a 66-55 Quakers victory at The Palestra).
 
*Penn is making its third trip to Bender Arena, the others coming in the aforementioned 2001 game as well as in 1992.
 
*Overall, Penn is 172-61 all-time against the programs that currently make up the Patriot League; this is one of two contests the Red and Blue will play against a PL opponent in 2025-26, the other coming on December 8 when Lafayette comes to The Palestra.
 
The Series with Providence
*This is the 11th meeting between the Quakers and the Friars in men's basketball.
 
*Interestingly, none of the first ten took place at The Palestra. The first four were all neutral-site affairs, including three straight NCAA Tournament games in 1972 (in Jamaica, N.Y.), 1973 (Charlotte, N.C.), and 1974 (Jamaica, N.Y.). The last six have all taken place in Providence.
 
*The last time Penn came to Amica Mutual Pavilion was just six years ago—on November 23, 2019, the Red and Blue headed home with a 81-75 victory which ended a four-game losing streak in the series that dated back to 1978.
 
*Overall, Penn is 35-69 all-time against programs that currently play in the Big East—but that improves to 15-18 if you take away the 51-20 deficit the Quakers have with Big 5 rival Villanova. (Fun fact, Villanova is the only Big East program Penn has played more than Providence.)
 
Notes From Friday Night
*Penn scored 119 points against Rowan in Friday's season opener, a program record; it broke the previous mark of 115 scored on December 1, 1969 against Muhlenberg.
 
*It was the Quakers' first 100-point game since a 111-57 victory over FDU-Florham on December 6, 2023.
 
*Penn took 49 free throws, making 33. The last time the Quakers 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 outrebounded Rowan, 59-29; the +30 differential was the largest since the Quakers outboarded Bucknell 52-22 almost exactly two years ago (November 8, 2023) and the 59 boards were the most the Red and Blue snared in a single game since they had 59 against Haverford College on December 18, 1993.
 
*Senior Ethan Roberts led all scorers with 28 points, going 8-of-11 both from the field and at the foul line. That included a 4-of-5 performance from beyond the arc.
 
*In his collegiate debut, freshman Dalton Scantlebury posted a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The last Penn player to record a double-double in his debut was AJ Brodeur; the program's all-time scoring leader posted 23 points and 11 rebounds at Robert Morris on November 11, 2016. Scantlebury also had three steals and all of Penn's four blocked shots.
 
*Junior Augustus Gerhart nearly had his first collegiate double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing nine boards. Both numbers matched his career highs in those categories.
 
*After missing all of last season due to injury, senior Cam Thrower played nearly 15 minutes on Friday and finished with 10 points and four assists with just one turnover.
 
*Sophomore guard AJ Levine dished out seven assists, a career high, and also had four rebounds and two steals.
 
*In his first collegiate game, freshman Jay Jones finished with eight points and three assists.
 
*Ten players saw at least 13 minutes in the game, and all but two of the 15 who played in the game scored at least four points.

Penn MBB By The Numbers
2 - Transfers who have joined the Penn roster 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.
 
4 - Penn players who have played in the U20 Eurobasket Championships over the last three summers: senior Johnnie Walter (Germany in 2023), junior Niklas Polonowski (Denmark in 2024 and 2025), sophomore Michelangelo Oberti (Italy in 2024), and freshman William Kruse (Norway in 2025).
 
7 - Total newcomers added to the 2025-26 roster: in addition to the aforementioned transfers, 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.
 
9 - Starts made by senior Cam Thrower two years ago as a sophomore; he did not see any game action last year due to injury, but you can expect to see him playing a role immediately for the Quakers this season.
 
16.8 - Points per game last season by senior Ethan Roberts, which led the Quakers and was sixth overall in Ivy League play. He also led the team and tied for sixth among Ivy players with 59 three-pointers.
 
26 - Steals last season by sophomore AJ Levine, which led the team and was 12th among Ivy League players; in Ivy play, his 1.4 steals-per-game average was fifth among Ancient Eight players.
 
27 - Points scored by senior Michael Zanoni in last year's loss at Penn State; just when it looked like he was going to be a major part of the lineup heading into Ivy play, he was knocked down by a virus and struggled to find minutes when he came back healthy.
 
82.6 - Iowa's points-per-game average the last five years under Fran McCaffery; expect Penn to play that same up-tempo game under his leadership.
 
2025-26 Penn MBB Schedule Notes
• The Big 5 continues with its "pod" setup again for the third straight year. Penn's pod this year includes Saint Joseph's and Drexel. From those "group stage" games, the teams will be paired up for the second annual Big 5 Classic on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Xfinity Mobile Area. At that event, the third-place teams in each pod will play for fifth overall, the second-place teams will play for third, and the pod winners will meet to determine the Big 5 champion.
 
• Penn's 11/17 home game with the Hawks will mark a Palestra return for the Quakers' most recent head coach; Steve Donahue took over SJU in September when previous head coach Billy Lange left the program for a job with the NBA's New York Knicks.
 
• 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 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.