If you told me one year ago that Penn men’s basketball was headed to March Madness, I wouldn’t have believed you. Honestly, I would’ve chuckled. This time last year, the program was reeling — its head coach was dismissed, the conference leading scorer entered the transfer portal, and the team finished seventh in the Ancient Eight for the second-straight season.
As DP Sports editor at the time, I was there for it all for every sport: the victories, the heartbreaks, and everything in between. But I could not blame others for struggling to do the same. Other than the athletes themselves, people don’t come to Penn for the sports culture, and a flagship program struggling doesn’t help boost morale.
This past weekend, though, that same program completed a conference run for the ages and defied the odds to earn its first NCAA tournament berth since 2018.
Ahead of the season, the preseason poll projected Penn to finish seventh in the conference. After a strong non-conference performance — including a trip to the Big 5 championship game — Penn shook off a 2-4 Ivy start to go 7-1 in its last eight regular season games.
The doubts remained, though: Ahead of the Ivy tournament, Penn had the lowest odds of winning it all. It didn’t look promising when coach Fran McCaffery revealed that senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts would not play in the tournament due to a concussion. Roberts, a second team All-Ivy player, led the team in points per game this season. But the doubt and adversity did not stop the Quakers in their path to a chip — winning two overtime games in less than 24 hours to punch their ticket to the Big Dance.
While much has changed since last year — from the roster to the coaching staff — to make this happen, now is the perfect time for everyone to rally behind Penn men’s basketball.
To put it plainly, this is historic. It does not happen every year, especially for Penn. The team’s Ivy Madness title is Penn’s first championship in a flagship sport in eight years.
And now, Penn has earned the right to play in March Madness. Yes, that March Madness, with the bracket that over 24 million people from celebrities to the governor fill out, buzzer-beaters, and thrilling back-and-forth matchups under the national spotlight. Penn is being talked about in the same breath as the biggest names in college basketball, like reigning national champion Florida, Duke, or Michigan.
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The team as a whole has had an emotional, hard-fought journey to get to this moment. This is a team that was doubted from the start and now proved its worth. It’s time to rally around them during this postseason run on Thursday.
If that collective team perseverance doesn’t make you want to cheer for them, the players’ individual stories will.
In the semifinal of the Ivy tournament, sophomore guard AJ Levine made the game-winning play for the second time this season. The feisty, leave-it-all-out-there floor general made a tough layup and then immediately successfully defended Harvard’s last-second three-pointer to get one step closer to fulfilling his big promise from the end of last season. The play epitomized his huge individual two-way development this year after being as a mainly a gritty defender last season.
“I knew there’s no way I was missing that to send us to a chip, so I just attacked the rim and went and finished,” Levine said after the semifinal.
Then there’s junior forward TJ Power, who transferred to Penn after stints at Duke and Virginia spent fighting for minutes. His journey to Penn was an emotional one that left him in some tough times. But,with the Quakers this season, he finally found family and home — becoming the most consistent scorer of Penn’s triple offensive threat and leading the team on the court for most of 40 minutes every weekend.
“That journey, it can beat you down. I'm not really trying to live in that moment right now. I'm trying to live in this one, but I'm just so grateful for [McCaffery], taking a chance on me and letting me be myself,” Power said after the championship game.
On Sunday, Power was nothing short of a legend on the court. He racked up a record-breaking 44 points and 14 rebounds while shooting over 50% from the field and beyond. During his career at Virginia, Power notched 32 total points. In crunch time, Power hit back-to-back triples — the second ne over the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year — in the final seven seconds of regulation to send the game into overtime.
Someone with a completely different college basketball journey also had a career day. Senior guard Cam Thrower, who stepped into the lineup for Roberts, put up a career-high 19 points and had multiple clutch plays down the stretch. After missing all of last season due to injury, his performance helping nab a title that brought his career full circle — he is the only player who was part of Penn’s 2023 Ivy Madness appearance. His journey is defined by resilience and staying ready for your moment.
It’s also a beautiful personal full-circle moment for McCaffery as a Philadelphia native and Penn graduate who spent Saturday nights in his childhood at the Palestra.
But if all of this doesn't convince you, this is only the beginning for a team that’s only growing next year and maybe for years to come.
And after all, everyone wants to say they knew the team back when.
VALERI GUEVARRA is a Nursing and Wharton senior and former DP Sports editor from Wyckoff, N.J. studying nursing and healthcare management. All comments should be directed to dpsports@thedp.com.
