Welcome to your first Monday of 2011, a day that brings you an exciting Kentucky Wildcats game against the Penn Quakers. A team that ranks 10th in NCAA Division 1 all time wins, the Penn Quakers are facing Kentucky tonight for their 5th time ever, having never won a game against us. It’s no reason to look past them though.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Here is what the Quakers are thinking about tonight’s game which will be seen on ESPNU and Nation of Blue.
[B]The Penn-Kentucky Series[/B]
*This will be the fifth meeting between the Quakers and the Wildcats; Kentucky has won all of the previous four.
*The last meeting took place Nov. 17, 1999 here in Lexington, a 67-50 UK win. All-time, Monday represents Penn’s fourth visit to Lexington.
*Penn is 6-14 all-time against the schools that currently make up the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Alabama … 0-2
Auburn … 0-1
Florida … 2-2
Georgia … 1-0
Kentucky … 0-4
South Carolina … 2-2
Tennessee … 0-1
Vanderbilt … 1-2
[B]Scouting Kentucky[/B]
The Wildcats won their sixth straight game on Friday, a 78-63 victory against Commonwealth rival Louisville. Brandon Knight had 25 points and Josh Harrellson added 23 points and 14 rebounds. Knight leads UK in scoring (18.0 ppg), followed by Terrence Jones (17.7) and Doron Lamb (14.0). Harrellson (9.3) and Jones (9.2) are Kentucky’s top rebounders. Kentucky’s losses this season have come to Connecticut and at North Carolina.
[B]Winning Programs[/B]
Monday night’s game pits the teams that entered the 2010-11 season first and 10th on the list of the NCAA’s winningest Division I programs. Kentucky had 2,023 wins, topping the list, while Penn was 10th with 1,664.
[B]Tracking Trends[/B]
You want to figure out why Penn is winning? Here are a few things to note…
*Penn’s magic scoring number, it seems, is 60 — the Quakers are 5-0 when reaching the mark this season.
*Penn is 4-0 when outrebounding its opponent in 2010-11, but 0-5 when being outrebounded. (The Quakers tied Delaware on the boards, 32-32, in their Dec. 22 win.)
*In Penn’s five wins, the Quakers have averaged 30.4 free-throw attempts while their opponents have averaged 12.6 attempts. On Dec. 22 at Delaware, the Red and Blue made 29 foul shots — more than twice as many as the Blue Hens attempted (14)!
*This is a little wacky, but Penn is 0-4 when hitting more three-pointers than its opponent and 4-1 when hitting fewer treys.
[B]The Injury Report[/B]
Senior Dan Monckton and freshman Marin Kukoc have not dressed this season due to injury. Monckton averaged 7.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game last year, numbers that jumped to 9.9 ppg and 5.2 rpg in Ivy play. Another blow was struck to the lineup prior to Marist, as fifth-year senior Andreas Schreiber injured his left hand in practice. He will not play at Kentucky, and his future status is undetermined at this time. Schreiber started six games this season, and was averaging 4.6 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.
