Analysis of hoops schedule

Now that Penn Athletics has finally released the men's basketball team's schedule, becoming the last Ivy League team to do so, we finally know once and for all what the season looks like.

And boy, are there some intriguing matchups.

I've already mentioned that the Princeton games have been switched from a game at the Palestra in February and one in March at Jadwin to the opposite. Now we have confirmation of that. Will anyone even be at the Palestra for the game during spring break? What about the away game at Jadwin?

Starting the season at UNC is going to tough. It'll be really interesting to see if coach Glen Miller uses his highly touted freshmen class against the Tar Heels at all.

The biggest non-conference home game, at least outside of the Big 5 games, is clearly the game against Penn State. Not only would a Penn victory make up for all of those times uneducated people have said "Oh you go to Penn. When do you think Joe Paterno will retire?" but it's actually a great chance for the Quakers to beat a major conference team, even if the Nittany Lions are consistently the joke of Big Ten basketball. Plus, if everyone wears their "Not Penn State" shirts the Red and Blue Crew would look pretty impressive in a single color. (Of course, we'll still have the Taco Guy.)

But the biggest "huh" of the schedule is the Drexel game. First, it's at Drexel, for the first time ever. Clearly, Dragons coach Bruiser Flint is happy. But even weirder, it's at 10 a.m. On a Tuesday.

It's part of ESPN's November 18th hoops marathon, which includes 14 games in 23 hours, and will be nationally televised on ESPN. That's pretty cool, but I wonder if anyone actually will go to the game. And so much for the Ivy League and its athletes missing as little class as possible. But at the same time, Penn getting a little extra exposure can't hurt.