There is a mural in the Palestra dedicated to it. It calls the matchup “the toughest game you’ll ever play in … the kind you never forget.” Its teams have each won 26 conference championships, including a 44-year stretch in which each won or shared the title all but twice. It is the third-oldest consecutively played contest in the history of the sport.
But in recent years, the men’s basketball rivalry between Penn and Princeton has been anything but.
“I wouldn’t even consider it a rivalry right now,” senior guard George Smith said. “They’ve been kind of having their way with us.”
Long considered one of the fiercest competitions in college basketball, Penn versus Princeton has gone the way of the Tigers as of late. The Quakers have not earned a win since Feb. 6, 2018, when they rolled to a 82-65 victory en route to a 12-2 conference record and an Ivy Madness championship. Since then, the Red and Blue are 0-11, the longest losing streak for either side in the history of the series.
On Friday, Penn will get its latest chance to renew the rivalry when it hosts Princeton at the Palestra at 7 p.m. The Tigers enter as favorites, sitting at 4-2 in conference play compared to the Quakers’ 2-4. But as the Red and Blue prepare for another installment of this storied matchup, their recent history has only added fuel to the fire.
“Absolutely,” junior guard Ethan Roberts said when asked if the Quakers are using their losing streak as motivation. Roberts is playing in the matchup for the first time after transferring to Penn last summer. “Any rivalry or conference game is such a big one, but this is a little bit more knowing the history and the extent of this rivalry and who’s won the last few years.”
This year’s iteration of the Tigers poses a number of threats: At the top of the list is the Orange and Black’s dynamic duo of guard Xaivian Lee and forward Caden Pierce, who were each unanimously named first team All-Ivy last season, with Pierce also bringing home the Player of the Year award.
This season, Lee ranks third in the Ivy League in points per game (18.5) and second in assists per game (4.7) since the start of conference play, while Pierce ranks 14th in PPG (14.5) and first in rebounds per game (9.2).
According to Penn coach Steve Donahue, containing Princeton’s star duo is one of Penn’s top priorities.
“Lee’s such a dynamic scorer in so many ways. It starts there,” Donahue said. “Obviously Pierce, we voted him player of the year last year because he does everything. He’s the heart and soul. … And then they play those two in a lot of the same actions, so you gotta figure out how you’re gonna guard that.”
Penn has allowed an average of 80.3 opposing PPG in conference play, sixth in the league. Opposing stars have also found success against the Quakers this season, with Brown guard Kino Lilly Jr. and Yale guard John Poulakidas each going for over 21 points on 50% field goal shooting or better.
But the Quakers have a dynamic scoring threat of their own: Roberts’ 20.3 PPG in conference play leads the Ivy League, a streak which he attributes to his “having fun and being aggressive.” Sophomore guard Sam Brown has also averaged 17 PPG in the Ivy slate, and the Quakers’ 11 three-pointers per game rank second in the conference.
The only team with more? Princeton.
“We both recruit to that, we’re built to that,” Donahue said of both teams’ three-point shooting capabilities. “They really, probably more than us, take threes as like ‘Hey, you’re open, shoot.’ We’re probably a little more deliberate in our approach, but both of us feel that if you over-help, we’re gonna get an open shot for our teammates.”
Friday’s matchup will be a critical one for the Quakers’ Ivy Madness hopes — Penn currently sits one game behind fourth-place Dartmouth and will need every win it can get to keep pace with Brown and Harvard, both of which also trail the Big Green by one game.
It is far from the first time the matchup has held larger ramifications. Before the advent of Ivy Madness, the duel between Penn and Princeton often determined the Ivy League’s representative in March Madness, further heightening the matchup’s intensity.
“Every time we played Princeton, it was war,” former Penn guard Alan Cotler, who played for the Quakers from 1969 to 1972, said. “We were top 20 teams every year. … In those days, only the league champion went to the NCAA Tournament, so it was even more important to win the league championship. And it was always Princeton or Penn.”
But in recent years, the Quakers have struggled in the matchup’s most pivotal games. In the inaugural game of Ivy Madness in 2017, the clash between the undefeated Tigers and the 6-8 Quakers went to overtime. Princeton won. In 2022, the teams faced off with a share of the Ivy title on the line, and Penn opened up a 19-point halftime lead. Princeton won. Then, less than a week later, the teams faced off in the first round of Ivy Madness for the chance to play in the conference championship game. Princeton won.
The Quakers are aware of the rivalry’s history. But they’re also seeking to rewrite it.
“I know this game means a lot to so many, us in particular,” Donahue said. “We haven’t done a good job. There’s been a lot of close ones, but I think we all feel the weight of that.”
“It’s one of my last two times, maybe three times playing Princeton,” Smith, a senior captain who has never seen a win against the Tigers, said. “So [I] really want to get in there, fight, compete, and win.”
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