The season starts tonight began Friday, and we’re going to be catching up on previews for all six city teams throughout the weekend into the early part of this week. Our first installment was about Villanova. Our second was about Drexel. Our third covered Saint Joe’s. And our fourth, which appears below, is about Your Penn Quakers. Enjoy.

When last we saw the Penn Quakers, it wasn’t pretty. Harrison Gaines, a sophomore guard a year ago, hit the nuke button on his way out the door, telling the Daily Pennsylvanian that he wanted to transfer to “a school where I have confidence in the basketball team’s leaders.” Gaines, Penn’s second-leading scorer a year ago, has since enrolled at UC-Riverside in his native California, and the Quakers are hoping to put last season’s 10-18 disaster behind them.

More after the jump.

On the positive side, Tyler Bernardini and Zack Rosen — the last two Big 5 rookies of the year — are back. The 6-6 Bernardini averaged 13.7 points per game as a sophomore last year, while the 6-1 Rosen led the Ivy in assists (5.0) and assist/turnover ratio (1.99) as a freshman. Also back is 6-8 junior Jack Eggleston, who averaged nearly 10 points and six rebounds per night. Penn also returns 6-4 senior Darren Smith and 6-9 senior Andreas Schreiber, who are working their way back from injuries — and in Smith’s case, that included a two-year layoff, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

There does appear to be some promise in the Quakers’ recruiting class, which includes five new faces. The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that Guard Carson Sullivan was being recruited by “more than 20 schools” before a summer knee injury derailed his senior high school season, while 6-6 Australian swingman Sean Mullan wasn’t recruited heavily because not many coaches were willing to fly all over the world to catch a glimpse, so read into that what you will. 6-7 Brian Fitzpatrick broke a backboard on a dunk recently, so he’s got that. Then there’s preferred walk-ons Tommy Eggleston (Jack’s brother) and Malcolm Washington, who is the son of Denzel, which could, if nothing else, make the Quakers fodder for the gossip pages this winter.

Penn made just 31.4 percent of its shots from 3-point range last season, and it’s going to need someone other than Bernardini to score on a regular basis. In addition, the Quakers’ early season schedule is brutal: They’ve already lost at the Paternos, tonight they’re at Villanova, and on New Year’s Eve they’re at Duke.

OUR PREDICTION: Penn should not fall off a cliff in the Ivy. They were still picked to finish third in the league, which is about right. Cornell beat Alabama on Saturday, so the Big Red look like a lock to win the Ivy for a third straight year. We do think the Quakers have a chance to end their nine-game losing streak against the Big 5, perhaps on Jan. 25 against Saint Joe’s at the P.

Links: 2009-10 Villanova preview [BIG FIVE POST]
2009-10 Drexel preview [BIG FIVE POST]
2009-10 Saint Joe’s preview [BIG FIVE POST]
How bad were things at Penn last season? [BIG FIVE POST]
Seniors Schreiber, Smith not your typical seniors [Daily Pennsylvanian]
A look at Penn’s freshman class [Daily Pennsylvanian]
Denzel’s son to play at Penn! [Philebrity]
Cornell beats ‘Bama [Cornell Basketball Blog]