PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team will gun for its 14th Philadelphia Big 5 title and its first since 2018-19 on Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena, taking on Villanova in the Big 5 Classic championship game.
 
Under first-year head coach Fran McCaffery, Penn defeated Saint Joseph's and Drexel in pod play to earn its spot in the championship game. Villanova advanced to the final by winning games over La Salle and Temple.
 
Saturday's game is the third of a tripleheader at Xfinity Mobile Arena and is scheduled for a 7:30 tipoff. All three games will air live on NBC Sports Philadelphia with Matt Martucci calling play-by-play and longtime La Salle head coach Dr. John Giannini offering analysis.
 
GAME 9 – PENN (5-3) vs. VILLANOVA (6-1)
Big 5 Classic Championship Game
Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 | 7:30 p.m.
Philadelphia | Xfinity Mobile Area
Watch on NBC Sports Philadelphia | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Villanova Game Notes (PDF)
 
Quaker Audio Network (QAN)
Fans can listen to the entire 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.
 
Big 5 Classic History
*This is the third iteration of the Big 5 Classic, and the first time Penn is playing in the championship game. In three years of this event, the Quakers have played in the third-place game (2023), the fifth-place game (2024), and now the title tilt.
 
*Penn is still looking for its first win at the Classic. In 2023 the Quakers fell in memorable gut-punch fashion when La Salle hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to win 93-92 in overtime. Last year, the Red and Blue battled 33rd Street neighbor Drexel for fifth place and fell to the Dragons, 60-47.
 
Championship Spirit
*Saturday's game actually represents Penn's second straight winner-take-all contest; last Sunday, the Quakers met Hofstra in its final Cathedral Classic game with both teams sporting 2-0 tournament records. The Pride won the de fact tourney title, 77-60.
 
The Series with Villanova
*The Quakers and Wildcats are meeting for the 72nd time, with Villanova holding a healthy 51-20 lead in the series.
 
*These two teams were in the same pod the first two years of pod play. Last year's game was played out on the Main Line and won by Villanova, 93-49. The 44-point margin was the second-largest in Big 5 history, behind only Temple's 108-61 victory over Saint Joseph's on December 10, 2019.
 
*Penn won the first pod meeting at The Palestra two years ago, 76-72, its second win in the last five games after Villanova won 15 in a row from 2003-17.
 
*Saturday's game will pit Penn against a former Quaker: Villanova junior Tyler Perkins spent his freshman season wearing the Red and Blue, setting the program record for points by a freshman.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
1.000 - FT percentage by Michael Zanoni so far this season (16-16); another player who has been money at the charity stripe this season so far is senior Cam Thrower (14-15, .933).
 
1.000 • Freshman Dalton Scantlebury's field-goal percentage last Friday against Merrimack (10-10).
 
2 - Players who had double-doubles in Friday's win over the Warriors: Scantlebury scored 22 points (largely on the strength of his 10-10 FG performance) and added 13 rebounds, while junior TJ Power went for 14 points and 12 boards.
 
3 - Wins against Big 5 rivals already this season, heading into Saturday's Big 5 Classic championship game with the Wildcats—pod wins over Saint Joseph's and DRexel, and a victory over La Salle last weekend at the Cathedral Classic. The last Quakers team with at least three Big 5 wins was the 2018-19 Big 5 champions, who went a perfect 4-0 in the old round-robin format.
 
3 - Penn players who have been named Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week this season: Michael Zanoni (11/17), Ethan Roberts (11/24), and Power (12/1). In addition, Scantlebury was Big 5 Rookie of the Week last Monday as well as Ivy League Rookie of the Week.
 
3.25 - Offensive rebounds per game averaged by Scantlebury; that leads the Ivy League and is 46th nationally. Scantlebury is also third among Ivy players in blocked shots per game (1.5).
 
3.5 - Assists per game averaged by sophomore AJ Levine; that is tied for fourth among Ivy League players. Levine also is third among Ivy players in assist/turnover ratio (2.15).
 
7 - Points scored by freshman Jay Jones in Penn's comeback win over La Salle last Saturday; he had not played in the Quakers' previous three games and only came on in the second half against the Explorers.
 
7.9 - Rebounds per game by Power; that is second among Ivy players, behind only Dartmouth's Brandon Day-Mitchell (9.5). Junior Augie Gerhart is fifth among Ivy players in the category (6.8 rpg).
 
15 - Deficit overcome by Penn last Saturday when the Quakers came back to defeat city rival La Salle, 73-71, in the Cathedral Classic; the Explorers led, 53-38, with 15:40 left in the game.
 
17.0 - Points-per-game average for Power in Penn's seven Division I games this season; he has hit double figures in all seven after opening the season with six points against D3 Rowan.
 
20.3 • Points-per-game average for Roberts entering the week; that led the Ivy League and was 32nd nationally. Roberts—who has hit double figures in the scoring column in every game so far this season—also was tops among Ivy players in field-goal attempts and free-throw attempts per game.
 
+45 - Penn's free-throw advantage over its seven Division I opponents heading into Saturday's game with Villanova. Hofstra was the first D1 opponent to shoot more foul shots than Penn this season, winning that category by a narrow 18-17.
 
49.6 - Penn's overall shooting percentage during its four-game win streak over Saint Joseph's, Drexel, Merrimack and La Salle (112-226). Of particular note, the Quakers shot 53.9 percent (83-154) on two-point field goal attempts.
 
53 - Points scored by Power during last weekend's Cathedral Classic—14 vs. Merrimack (to go with 12 rebounds and six assists), 29 in the comeback win over La Salle (19 of them coming in the second half), and 10 vs. Hofstra. Not surprisingly, he was named to the all-tournament team.
 
2025-26 Penn MBB Schedule Notes
*Penn played five home games in November and will play five more in 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.