Men's Basketball Ready to Tip Off 2012-13 Season

PHILADELPHIA - The 2012-13 season is here! The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball fans have a lot of questions about this year's edition of the Quakers; Friday night provides their first opportunity to see what Head Coach Jerome Allen has put together in the absence of the graduated Zack Rosen, Tyler Bernardini and Rob Belcore. Penn and UMBC start the season with each other for the second straight year; tipoff is 7 p.m. at The Palestra.

GAME 1 - PENN (0-0) vs. UMBC (0-0)
The Palestra (Philadelphia)
Friday, Nov. 9 * 7 p.m.
TV: PennAthletics.com (there is a charge for this service)
Radio: WXPN 88.5 FM (Matt Leon, Vince Curran)

Penn Game Notes (PDF) / UMBC Game Notes (PDF)

The Series
*The Quakers have won all three games they have played against the Retrievers; those three games have happened over the last three seasons.

*This is the second year in a row that Penn and UMBC have started the season by playing each other. Last year, at UMBC, Penn was up 28-25 at the break and it was still only eight (41-33) when the Quakers went on a decisive run en route to a 59-45 win. Zack Rosen had 26 points to lead the Red and Blue, while Tyler Bernardini added 10.

*UMBC will always hold a place in Penn basketball history -- as Jerome Allen's first victims as head coach. That came on Jan. 6, 2010, an 82-71 Quaker victory at UMBC's RAC Arena.

*Penn is 8-2 all-time against programs that currently compete in the America East Conference (0-2 vs. Albany, 1-0 vs. Boston University, 2-0 vs. Hartford, 2-0 vs. New Hampshire, 3-0 vs. UMBC)

Early Start
Friday's game matches the earliest start, by date, in Penn men's basketball history. The only other time the Quakers played on Nov. 9 was in 2007, when they opened with Drexel here at The Palestra. The Dragons won that game in overtime, 67-59.

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.

Home is Where the Wins Are
Penn enters the 2012-13 season with 803 wins at The Palestra, which opened in 1927. In an informal survey of the other NCAA Division I programs, only Washington (921 wins at Hec Edmundson Pavilion) and Butler (812 wins at Hinkle Fieldhouse) boast more wins in their current home than the Quakers. The Edmundson Pavilion was opened in 1927, while the Bulldogs opened Hinkle in 1928.

Countdown to 1,700
Penn enters 2012-13 with 1,697 wins, which places the Quakers 10th among all NCAA Division I programs.

The Notes of Note
*Penn's biggest question: How does it replace graduated guard Zack Rosen, who ended his career as the program's all-time leader in assists, games started and minutes played as well as third on the all-time scoring list.

*That said, Penn also needs to fill the voids left by the graduations of Rob Belcore and Tyler Bernardini. Belcore earned honorable mention All-Ivy a year ago, while Bernardini finished his career with 1,456 points which puts him 10th on Penn's all-time scoring list.

*Overall, Penn returns just 36.3 percent of its scoring and 42.6 percent of its minutes played from a year ago.

*Talk about youth -- Penn enters the 2012-13 season with no seniors. In fact, this year's captains will be juniors Miles Cartwright, Fran Dougherty and Dau Jok.

*If you're looking for offensive leadership, a good start would be Cartwright. He finished last season as Penn's third-leading scorer, averaging 10.8 points per game. He had 16 double-figure scoring games a year ago, including three with 20 or more, and was the Quakers' leading scorer in their CBI games against Quinnipiac and Butler.

*Cartwright also played 1,063 minutes last season, which is third on Penn's single-season list. He played in 32 games last season, starting 31 of them.

*Dougherty was one of just four players to play in all 33 games a year ago, making 10 starts. He averaged 4.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, led Penn in rebounding in five games, and hit double figures three times.

*Jok played in 14 games last season, scoring just seven points, but he has already left an indelible mark on the Penn campus for his actions off the court. In March 2011, during his freshman year, Jok was named a recipient of the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects For Peace Award by the University's Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF). During the summer of 2011, he and Rosen traveled to Africa, and they did a daily blog for ESPN.com.

*Penn's other primary starter from a year ago was sophomore Henry Brooks, as he recovered quicker than expected from a knee injury suffered late in his high school career. Brooks averaged 4.6 points and 2.5 rebounds in 32 games last year (24 starts). He hit double figures three times in 2012-13.

*Junior Steve Rennard missed the early part of last season, but came back to play in 23 contests and made seven starts. He averaged 3.7 points and 1.2 rebounds, adding 21 assists and 16 steals. He scored double figures in a pair of Ivy League games last season.

*Sophomore Camryn Crocker is another candidate to fill a role in the backcourt; he saw time in 23 games last season, averaging 0.7 points with 15 assists and seven steals.

*Another sophomore, Patrick Lucas-Perry, played in 12 games a year ago, scoring four points with an assist and two steals.

*In the frontcourt, expect junior Cameron Gunter to fight for a spot in the middle. He played in 19 games last season.

*Two sophomores will also see time up front -- Simeon Esprit and Keelan Cairns. Esprit saw time in 13 games last year, including quality minutes in Penn's CBI game with Butler, while Cairns fought a back injury last year and was able to make just six appearances.

*Looking for a darkhorse in the lineup? How about sophomore Greg Louis. Arguably the most ballyhooed member of last year's recruiting class, he missed all of 2011-12 to a preseason injury.

*Of the freshman class, Chicago-area guard Tony Hicks has to be considered the gem. After all, he holds a unique footnote in Penn's storied basketball history as the first Parade High School All-America selection.

*Freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry, from the Seattle area, was the Washington State 3A Player of the Year and King County MVP last year. He helped Lake Washington advance to quarterfinal round of Class 3A state tournament his senior year, its best finish ever.

*Freshman guard Julian Harrell was the 2010-11 CIF Player of the Year and Mission League MVP at Loyola -- the same high school that Cartwright attended -- and helped Loyola win the CIF championship last year.

*Another freshman guard, Jamal Lewis, attended Sidwell Friends in the Washington, D.C. area, where he was first-team All-D.C. and a member of three conference title teams.