Despite losing their final two games in the 2018 calendar year, the Quakers sit at 10-4 on the season with impressive wins over defending national champion Villanova, Miami and New Mexico (on the road) to their credit.
"I think it's been a really different, interesting preseason," Penn head coach Steve Donahue said. "Incredible schedule, we've had our ups and downs, but for the most part this group has really competed offensively and defensively and we've obviously overcome a lot of adversity. So I'm really proud of where we're at."
Most of that adversity has been in the form of injury. Sophomore guard Jelani Williams was lost in the offseason. The Quakers then lost their leading returning scorer, Ryan Betley, to a season-ending knee injury just five minutes into their season opener. Reserve senior guard Tyler Hamilton has been out since the sixth game of the campaign and most recently the Quakers have been playing without the services of senior big man Max Rothschild and freshman forward Michael Wang. The status of Rothschild and Wang is up in the air heading into Saturday.
This is the first of two straight games these rivals will play against each other to start league play. Next Saturday, they will battle at the Palestra. Donahue says opening Ivy action with two games against the same opponent is not a foreign concept to him.
"I did it with my years at Cornell with Columbia," he said. "It's no fun, to be honest with you. Two weeks of just one team and you're going through all their stuff ad nauseam, in particular when it's such a great rivalry game. I don't know if we'll do it in the future. But I think both programs know what the games mean, the fans care deeply about it."
Saturday's game at Jadwin Gym gets underway at 5:00pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @Mattleon1060.