Men's Basketball to Finish Up NIT Play This Week

PHILADELPHIA - In a busy month of November, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team hits arguably its busiest period in this stretch -- with a Monday game against Fordham, and a Tuesday game at Lehigh, the Quakers will be playing for the third time in four days when they tip off with the Mountain Hawks. The games are part of the NIT Season Tip-Off, which began last for Penn Monday and Tuesday in Virginia.

GAME 5 - PENN (1-3) vs. FORDHAM (0-3)
Monday, Nov. 19 * 6 p.m.
Stabler Arena (Bethlehem, Pa.)
TV: None
Radio: WNTP 990 AM (Brian Seltzer, Stan Pawlak)

GAME 6 - PENN (1-3) vs. LEHIGH (1-2)
Tuesday, Nov. 20 * 8:30 p.m.
Stabler Arena (Bethlehem, Pa.)
TV: None
Radio: WXPN 88.5 FM (Brian Seltzer, Stan Pawlak)

Penn Game Notes (PDF) / Fordham Game Notes (PDF) / Lehigh Game Notes (PDF)

The Penn-Fordham Series
*The Quakers and the Rams are meeting for the ninth time in history; Fordham leads the series, 6-2.

*These two teams played a home-and-home series during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, with Fordham taking both decisions (78-63 in New York City, 77-60 at The Palestra).

*Penn is 107-136 all-time against programs that currently compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference. This is the first of five games the Quakers will play against A-10 opponents this year; Butler, La Salle, Saint Joseph's and Temple are also on the docket. (0-1 vs. Butler, 0-1 vs. Dayton, 4-1 vs. Duquesne, 2-6 vs. Fordham, 0-1 vs. George Washington, 38-27 vs. La Salle, 1-3 vs. UMass, 1-1 vs. Rhode Island, 3-2 vs. Richmond, 2-1 vs. St. Bonaventure, 34-48 vs. Saint Joseph's, 0-1 vs. Saint Louis, 22-45 vs. Temple).

The Penn-Lehigh Series
*The Quakers and the Mountain Hawks are meeting for the 27th time; Penn leads the series, 22-4, and has won 11 in a row dating back to the 1991-92 season.

*Despite their relative proximity, this is the first meeting between Penn and Lehigh in men's basketball since Jan. 5, 2002 (a 74-58 Penn victory).

*Penn is 160-50 all-time against programs that currently compete in the Patriot League. The Quakers also have Lehigh's archrival, Lafayette, late this season. (6-0 vs. American, 21-12 vs. Army, 4-1 vs. Bucknell, 7-1 vs. Colgate, 3-3 vs. Holy Cross, 40-5 vs. Lafayette, 22-4 vs. Lehigh, 57-24 vs. Navy).

NIT Season Tip-Off
After losing twice in Virginia last week -- 84-69 to Delaware, 62-53 to Fairfield -- Penn concludes play in the NIT Season Tip-Off this week at Lehigh. Here's what to look for...

*On Monday night, Penn and Fordham will tip off at 6 p.m., followed by Lehigh and Fairfield at 8:30 p.m.

*On Tuesday night, Fordham and Fairfield will tip off at 6 p.m., followed by Penn and Lehigh at 8:30 p.m. This will be the Quakers' third game in four days (they played Drexel on Saturday, losing to the Dragons 61-59).

*The radio call for Penn's game on Monday night game can be heard locally in Philadelphia on WNTP 990 AM, while Tuesday's game will air locally on WXPN 88.5 FM.

Busy November
Penn will play seven games before the calendar turns to December. Interestingly, the only full month in which the Quakers will play more than seven games happens to be the shortest month of the year, February -- they will play eight. Penn will play four games in December, seven in January, and five in March.

Youth Movement
*Talk about youth -- Penn enters the 2012-13 season with no seniors. In an informal survey of the 345 other NCAA Division I programs, only Georgetown, Navy and Wright State came back as programs that started 2012-13 without any seniors on the roster.

Youth Movement, Part Deux
*Our colleagues at Navy came up with another way to determine a team's lack of experience, using a ratio that measured the total number of combined seasons playing Division I basketball against the number of players on the roster. Penn came in at 1.00 (15 combined years of experience/15 players on the roster). Only 13 teams had a lower ratio. (FYI, Navy was third, at 0.76, behind Cal State Northridge's 0.65 and Dartmouth's 0.73.)

Countdown to 1,700
Penn's season-opening win over UMBC was its 1,698th win as a program; the Quakers need two more to become the 10th NCAA Division I program to reach 1,700 victories.

Quaker Notemeal From Drexel
*For the first time this season, Penn led a game at halftime (31-30); the Quakers are now 27-6 in the Jerome Allen coaching era when leading at the break.

*Junior forward Fran Dougherty had his second straight double-double (21 points, 10 rebounds).

*Junior guard Steve Rennard set a career high with three assists.

*Junior guard Miles Cartwright went a perfect 9-of-9 at the foul line.