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Penn releases complete 2015-16 schedule

08/13/2015, 12:15pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

New Penn head coach Steve Donahue (above) is trying to turn Penn around. (Photo: Josh Verlin)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The path for new Penn coach Steve Donahue to bring the Quakers back to Ivy League glory is a little more clear, as the program released its 2015-16 schedule on Thursday morning.

After winning a total of 15 conference games over the last three seasons, Donahue is hoping to restore the energy in a program that used to be a regular in the NCAA Tournament, and he has some pieces with which to do so.

"I am very excited about this schedule for my first season as head coach at Penn," Donahue said in a release. "I think our non-conference schedule is challenging, but provides us opportunities to get some momentum-building wins before we start Ivy League play."

Seniors Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry are joined by a talented young core, including incoming freshmen Jake Silpe (Cherry Hill East, N.J.) and Collin McManus (Northfield Mt. Hermon, Mass.) and rising sophomores Antonio Woods and Mike Auger. All figure to play big roles in the program’s development over the next few seasons.

Donahue’s first game on the Penn bench since he was an assistant there from 1990-2000 will come on Fri., Nov. 13, when Andy Toole and Robert Morris visit the Palestra for the first time in four years. Toole, a Penn alum, led the Quakers to NCAA Tournament appearances in 2002 and '03 as a player, and repeated the feat this past season by getting RMU to the NCAA Tournament, where they beat North Florida before losing to Duke.

That's the first of three games in a five-day span, with a visit from Central Connecticut State and a quick road trip to Delaware State leading up to the longest journey of the season, a game against the University of Washington. That'll be a homecoming game for Nelson-Henry, who's from the Seattle area, as well as walk-on junior guard Matt Poplawski.

Big 5 play gets underway for the Quakers on Nov. 25 with a home game against La Salle, one of three games in the city series that Penn gets on its home court, along with Temple (Dec. 9) and Saint Joseph’s (Jan. 20). The SJU/Penn game will be part of a Big 5 doubleheader that also includes a game between Temple and La Salle.

Following the La Salle game, Penn travels up 476 to visit Lafayette, who’s won the last three games between the teams in a matchup that’s happened almost every season since 1985-86; that’s only cut Penn’s lead in the series down to 40-8. Donahue and Leopards head coach Fran O’Hanlon were assistants together at Penn from 1990-95 before O’Hanlon took his current job, where he's taken the Leopards to a pair of NCAA tournaments--including this past season, when the Patriot League champs lost to 'Nova.

Two other games highlight the non-conference portion of the schedule.

A matchup with Division III Ursinus pits Donahue against his alma mater in the schools' first meeting since 1944-45. It's the first time Penn has played any D-III school in 22 years.

Finally, a "road trip" down the street to Drexel's Daskalakis Athletic Center on Dec. 22 will mark just the second time in history that the Quakers have graced the DAC, which was a 10 AM matchup back in 2008 as part of ESPN's Tip-Off Marathon.

Ivy League play begins as it usually does, with a game against Princeton, on Jan. 9; after the SJU game on Jan. 20, the Ivy weekend slate begins on Jan. 29/30 with the Yale/Brown road trip.

Penn Quakers 2015-16 Basketball Schedule
(*= Ivy League, **= Big 5)
November
Fri., Nov. 13 vs. Robert Morris (20-15, 12-6 Northeast)
Sun., Nov. 15 vs. Central Connecticut (5-26, 3-15 Northeast)
Tue., Nov. 17 @ Delaware State (18-18, 9-7 MEAC)
Sat., Nov. 21 @ Washington (16-15, 5-13 Pac-12)
**Wed., Nov. 25 vs. La Salle (17-16, 8-10 A-10)
Sun., Nov. 29 @ Lafayette (20-13, 9-9 Patriot)

December
Wed., Dec. 2 vs. Navy (13-19, 8-10 Patriot)
Sat., Dec. 5 @ George Mason (9-22, 4-14 A-10)
**Wed., Dec. 9 vs. Temple (26-11, 13-5 American)
Sat., Dec. 19 vs. Ursinus (10-15, 7-11 Centennial)
Tue., Dec. 22 @ Drexel (11-19, 9-9 Colonial)
**Mon., Dec. 28 @ Villanova (33-3, 16-2 Big East)

January
Sat., Jan. 2 vs. Binghamton (6-26, 5-11 America East)
*Sat., Jan. 9 vs. Princeton (16-14, 9-5)
**Wed., Jan. 20 vs. Saint Joseph’s (13-18, 7-11 A-10)
*Fri., Jan. 29 @ Yale (22-10, 11-3)
*Sat., Jan. 30 @ Brown (13-18, 4-10)

February
*Fri., Feb. 5 vs. Harvard (22-8, 11-3)
*Sat., Feb. 6 vs. Dartmouth (14-15, 7-7)
*Fri., Feb. 12 @ Columbia (13-15, 5-9)
*Sat., Feb. 13 @ Cornell (13-17, 5-9)
*Fri., Feb. 19 vs. Brown
*Sat., Feb. 20 vs. Yale
*Fri., Feb. 26 vs. Cornell
*Sat., Feb. 27 vs. Columbia