As Penn men’s basketball prepares for a Saturday afternoon faceoff with Princeton, first-year coach Fran McCaffery isn’t concerned with outside noise regarding the Quakers’ 14-game losing streak in the sport’s third-oldest rivalry.
“I don’t pay attention to that stuff,” McCaffery said.
Instead, the 44-year coaching veteran is viewing Penn’s matchup with the Tigers as another chance for an Ivy League win, the kind the Red and Blue will need to string together in order to secure an Ivy Madness berth.
At the halfway point in the league slate, the Quakers sit one game outside the postseason picture after an up-and-down 3-4 start. There have been highs — like its road win over Dartmouth that saw junior forward TJ Power and senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts combine for 52 points — and there have been lows, like a 16-point home loss to Yale in which the Quakers shot under 39% from the field.
But Penn is riding high as the calendar turns over thanks in large part to their 91-81 triumph over Cornell last Saturday. The win was arguably the team’s most complete of the season, with six different players scoring in double figures.
“It just builds a ton of momentum,” senior forward Michael Zanoni said. “Everyone’s mood’s up. Coaches are happy. We’re just trying to hit our stride at the right time, and the right time is right now.”
Saturday’s game against Princeton will be the first of three consecutive home games for the Quakers — they will leave Philadelphia only twice more this regular season. It will also provide another chance to snap the program’s eight-year losing streak in the series, one that was extended by the Tigers’ comeback win on January 5.
In that game, Penn raced out to a 13-point lead before the Tigers regained control behind a stretch of 16 straight made field goals. After the game, McCaffery said he’d never seen anything like it in his career. Now, he’s ready to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
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“You have to be better than that defensively,” McCaffery said of Penn’s execution during the Tigers’ perfect run. “And we were after that. The problem was we weren’t in that stretch.”
Mitch Henderson’s squad received notable contributions from guard Jack Stanton, who led all scorers with 23 points, and guard Dalen Davis, who exerted his will over Penn in the paint en route to 19 points on 62% shooting.
Davis’s dominance down low was the start of a troubling trend for Penn — the Quakers have allowed over 40 points in the paint in four of their seven Ivy League games, including their loss to Princeton. Penn appeared to right the ship in their win over the Big Red, limiting Cornell to 28 paint points and racking up five blocks. Continuing that stinginess will be key against the Tigers.
“We need to do a better job on it, because they have multiple guys that do it,” McCaffery said of Princeton’s post play. “Their offense is tough enough to guard as it is, and then they go back down game. It’s all about intelligent rotations. You’re holding your ground, closing out, know who you’re closing out to.”
Penn’s own offensive style will face a stress test against the Tigers. The Quakers currently rank 13th nationally with a team three-point percentage of 39.2, while Princeton slots second in the Ancient Eight in three-point defense, holding opponents to just 30.8% from beyond since the start of conference play.
For a Red and Blue team committed to scoring from the perimeter, the opponent does not change the approach.
“Just keep doing what we’re doing,” Zanoni, who is averaging 12.4 points per game and shooting 39.8% from three so far this season, said. “I think we have so many weapons offensively, so just stick to our plan, play how we play, and let it take care of itself.”
“Just gotta move the ball,” McCaffery said. “We got pretty good looks when we played up there, we scored the ball pretty well. But for us, it’s always going to be about ball movement, screening, cutting.”
With its win earlier this season, Princeton took the all-time series lead versus Penn for the first time — the Tigers have now won the matchup 126 times to Penn’s 125.
And while the Quakers may not be focused on the rivalry’s past, they are aware of it.
“I wouldn’t say we pay attention to it, but we know it’s a big game and a rivalry; a lot of history in it,” Zanoni said. “So it means a little more to us, and it’s a game we know we need to win.”
