There is a lot of excitement around Penn men’s basketball.
After dismissing head coach Steve Donahue, the program made a splash hire, bringing in longtime Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. Within a month, McCaffery added former Duke and Virginia junior power forward TJ Power via the transfer portal. Power, a top-20 recruit out of high school, became the Quakers’ first former five-star recruit in program history.
With all this excitement, though, there are a lot of questions about how Penn’s roster will shake out on the court.
Here’s what to know about an offseason full of change and battles for Penn men’s basketball.
Guards galore
Last year, Penn had little depth to work with at the point guard position. This year is different.
The Quakers have a plethora of players who could be the primary ballhandler for a fast-paced McCaffery offense. The starting spot last season first belonged to then-junior guard Dylan Williams before then-freshman guard AJ Levine took over for the majority of Ivy League play.
Assistant coach Ben Luber, a former four-year point guard at Penn State, has primarily worked with Penn’s guards since being hired to McCaffery’s staff. Luber noted that he came into the program “with a fresh, open mind,” opening a competition for starting minutes.
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“There was a lot of competition on the front end, a lot of guys going at each other, and we had to figure out, ‘Who can we trust in certain situations?’ The number-one thing for us has been, ‘Who can take care of the basketball?’ We don’t like turning it over,” Luber said.
“We were all extremely critical with each other, but at the same time constructive,” Levine added. “But really, all we are doing in the point guard room is building leadership skills. … We’ve all had our shots at point guard, and just making sure that dude is the dude that’s leading the team, no matter who [the starter] is, getting them ready to do that when it's game time.”
Senior guard Cam Thrower, who missed all of last season with a wrist injury, is returning. During the 2023-24 season, Thrower averaged 5.0 points per game and racked up 23 assists in 24 games. McCaffery said he sees Thrower, alongside lengthy 6-foot-4 freshman guard Jay Jones, as combo guards, while Levine and Williams are locked into the point position. Despite an influx of new and returning ballhandlers, one of those two will be the starter again.
Neither Luber nor McCaffery named who that would be yet, though.
“[Levine’s] been really good. He’s worked hard to figure out what we want and has really made great strides,” McCaffery said. “In the beginning, I think he was overly aggressive. [Now] he’s utilizing his speed to develop a really good pace for himself: fast to slow, slow to fast. He’s been really good in ball screen action, been really good in transition. He’s finding people, and that’s what we need him to do, and still playing hard on defense.”
“The same [goes] for Dylan,” McCaffery added. “Dylan can score and he wants to score. What he’s been doing is figuring out ways to set up his teammates and make plays for everybody, and take his opportunities to score when they come.”
New faces in the frontcourt
Penn’s frontcourt has just as many — if not more — question marks around it as the team’s backcourt.
Power is the presumptive starter at power forward, but the transfer is currently dealing with an upper-body injury that could sideline him for the start of the season. If Power is not good to go, the Quakers are looking to lean on junior forwards Augustus Gerhart and Lucas Lueth.
Gerhart made six starts last season, averaging 3.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in 26 appearances. Lueth, a transfer, hails from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At Kirkwood, he averaged 10 points and 4.5 boards, winning an NJCAA Division II championship in the process. He was named the championship tournament’s most valuable player.
“I’m very versatile,” Lueth said. “I can do a lot of things, shoot, get to the basket, pass. I pride myself on making the right decisions. First and foremost, I’m a team player. I’m very team-oriented. Defensively, I’m very versatile — I can guard anywhere.”
“[Lueth] can play pretty much any frontcourt position,” McCaffery added. “Great length, terrific athlete. He can stretch the floor, make threes, [he can] rip and drive. He’s been really impressive.”
Lueth’s versatility may come in handy if the Quakers look to go small at center at some point during the season. Following the departure of 2025 College graduate Nick Spinoso, the center position is seemingly wide open. The team could opt for Gerhart as well, who also played at the five last season.
Another name that Penn fans are familiar with is sophomore center Michelangelo Oberti, who started in four contests last season and made 15 total appearances. Alongside Oberti, the Quakers brought in two 6-foot-9 freshman centers in William Kruse and Dalton Scantlebury. McCaffery pointed out that Scantlebury has been “really playing well,” praising his “high motor.”
Staff “really excited” about Zanoni
One returning player who is looking to have an increased impact this year is senior guard/forward Michael Zanoni.
Last year, Zanoni started to find his groove in a Donahue offense that prioritized three-pointers — his specialty — right before the start of Ivy play. On Dec. 29, 2024, against Big Ten opponent Penn State, Zanoni made 7-of-12 from beyond the arc, notching a career-high 27 points.
After that showing, though, the Mercer transfer would play just one more game before sitting out for over a month after contracting mononucleosis. When he returned, Penn was floundering in Ivy play, and he never regained the momentum he had before falling ill. Zanoni averaged 6.4 points per game last season, shooting 35.8% from beyond.
“I’m really excited about him. He’s a really good shooter. He moves well without the ball,” McCaffery said. “He is not a guy who makes mistakes, veteran guy, smart, tough. … He’s gonna be a really good player for us this year, and I expect him to be. He put the time in this summer to be a guy that we can count on. And I think he’s gonna have a terrific season.”
Zanoni, like the rest of the roster, had to prove himself to the new coaching staff unfamiliar with his game.
“Everyone came in, with a new coaching staff, ready to compete and earn their spot,” he said. “The competition every day was something where you had to come in, be locked in, and really just earn your spot. We did a good job of competing and preparing each other, and it’ll give us a step ahead when the season starts and we go against teams like Providence and Rutgers, we’re going in to win those games.”
