GREENVILLE, S.C., March 19 — Penn men’s basketball’s storybook season has come to an end.
On Thursday, the Quakers fell to Illinois 105-70 in the first round of the NCAA tournament, marking the conclusion of a campaign that saw the Quakers advance to March Madness for the first time since 2018. In a matchup with the nation’s tallest lineup, Penn (18-12, 9-5 Ivy) struggled to keep the Illini (25-8, 15-5 Big Ten) off the glass, surrendering 20 offensive rebounds that led to 29 second chance points for Illinois.
“We gave it our best effort to limit them to one [shot],” senior guard Cam Thrower said. “Their size was pretty tough to contend with. … We tried to fight our best, but it just wasn’t good enough.”
The loss came in the absence of Penn’s leading scorer, senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts, who missed both Thursday’s game and the Ivy League tournament with a concussion. Junior forward TJ Power, who scored 44 points in the Quakers’ Ivy championship win over Yale, played in the matchup after being questionable with an illness earlier in the week but was limited to six points on 2-for-8 shooting.
“TJ wasn’t himself,” McCaffery said. “He was sick for two days. We thought he was gonna get better, we put four or five IVs in him to try to get him through it. … They paid a lot of attention to him, but you could tell, in particular on the glass, because he’s an elite rebounder, that he didn’t have quite the energy or the explosion that he normally does.”
“I thought the first half we did a really, really nice job on Power,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “His touches were very hard.”
The Red and Blue held their own defensively in the first half, limiting the Illini to 39% from the field and 27.3% from three. That included Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA draft, who was held to seven points on 3-for-9 shooting in the first 20 minutes. Coming into the matchup, the Illini ranked second in the nation in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric.
Illinois’ typical rotation features just one player below 6-foot-6, and that size showed on Thursday. The Illini rank third in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage and crashed the boards aggressively to generate extra possessions repeatedly. Illinois also outscored Penn 44-24 in the paint and drew 22 fouls to the Quakers’ 10.
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“Balls on offensive glass were just like magnets to me,” Illinois forward David Mirković, who finished the game with 17 rebounds including eight on offense, said. “Because I was crashing, I got a lot of easy points on the rim, and that’s what got me going and the whole team.”
The Quakers competed for much of the game thanks to a series of timely jumpshots. After falling behind 26-13 in the first half, Penn opened a 9-0 run behind a triple of jumpers from senior guard Michael Zanoni, who finished with 20 points, and an open fastbreak three from sophomore forward Lucas Lueth. But that rhythm was mostly absent for a Penn offense that shot just 30% from the perimeter, with many looks contested or outside the typical flow of offense.
Early in the second half, Zanoni hit on back-to-back jumpers to trim Illinois’ lead to nine at 47-38. But on the following possession, Wagler connected on an open jumper, part of an 11-point, 4-of-5 second half for the All-American. The Illini shot 63.6% in the second half, and Penn never got back within single digits.
“Nothing changed. He plays the game at his pace,” coach McCaffery said of how the Red and Blue defended Wagler in the first half in comparison to the second. “I think that’s what makes him really good. He’s not going to force the issue. He’s open, he shoots it. If somebody else is open, he throws it to them. He’s got it figured out. He is a terrific player.”
Wagler shared a similar sentiment.
“I think it was just continuing to play how I was playing. I think I got good shots in the first half, but they just weren’t falling then. I got the same shots in the second half, and they were. So just staying confident,” Wagler said.
This time last year, Penn was embroiled in a search for its next head coach after moving on from Steve Donahue, who led the Quakers to seventh-place Ivy League finishes in 2024 and 2025. Shortly thereafter, they landed on Fran McCaffery. The 1982 Wharton graduate made several key additions via the transfer portal, including Power and sophomore forward Lucas Lueth, and according to players, brought a new intensity to the team’s preparation.
The Red and Blue took major steps forward on both sides of the ball — McCaffery’s fast-paced, motion-based scheme yielded more open opportunities for Penn’s perimeter shooters, yielding a jump from 32.6% to 38.6% in team three-point percentage, while his emphasis on team defense trimmed the Quakers opponent points per game from 77.4 to 73.3. Penn also improved in clutch situations, going 13-7 in games decided by 10 points or less compared to 3-9 last season.
The Quakers are poised for high roster continuity heading into McCaffery’s second campaign. Roberts is Penn’s lone graduating starter, though their ability to keep other key contributors out of the transfer portal will be pivotal. The team will also be boosted by McCaffery’s first full recruiting class, one that includes two three-stars in New Jersey products Ethan Lin and Isaiah Carroll.
