Turn Back the Clock: Powerhouse at the Palestra

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The Quakers’ near upset of Temple on Monday night calls to mind another near upset of an even bigger powerhouse back when Fran Dunphy manned the sidelines. Though knocking off Temple would have been sweet, such a win wouldn’t compare to an upset over a school like Pitt — the Big East school, currently No. 9 in the country, comes to town over Thanksgiving break. This week’s segment turns back the clock to when nationally-ranked Big 12 power Kansas visited the Palestra back in 1998.

On this day in Penn sports history …

November 17, 1998: Led by future Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams (Naismith inductee, 2007), the Jayhawks visited the Palestra for Penn’s season opener and entered the game ranked No. 8 in the country. Williams had chosen to add the Quakers to his team’s schedule — not worrying about the travel time or strength of schedule hit from playing an Ivy team — because he wanted his players to experience the Palestra (according to the DP’s 1998 article). Little did he know that the Palestra, with its crowd of 7,852 Red and Blue supporters, would not only get to his players, but also to him.

Penn had lost to Kansas the previous year, 89-71, at a neutral site and were coming off a decent season, finishing 17-12 overall, 10-4 Ivy. Though the Quakers entered the year favored to win the Ivy League, they had missed the NCAA Tournament for the previous three years — the longest such streak during Dunphy’s tenure. To prepare his team for both the Jayhawks dynamic offense and the primetime tip-off time, Dunphy had his team practice at 8pm the night before and had the reserves wear Jayhawks’ blue in practice and run Kansas plays.

Dunphy’s tactics paid off, as Penn held the Jayhawks to 25.6% shooting in the first half, and the Quakers led at halftime, 26-19. But the big moment of the first frame was when the raucous home crowd got to Williams and the Kansas coach drew a technical foul for arguing a referee’s call. Naturally, the fans went even crazier after the call was made. “Seven technicals in 11 years of coaching, and that was the cheapest one I ever had,” the Kansas coach reportedly yelled to the referee shortly after the call.

But at halftime, Williams must have given an inspiring speech, because his team came out firing. The Jayhawks went on an 11-2 run to start the second. With 8:37 to play, Penn clung to a 47-45 lead, but it would be its last. The Quakers had a chance to tie the game late, as they possessed the ball down three with 23 seconds remaining. But Jed Ryan forced up a three-point attempt with 1.9 seconds to go, which missed and rolled out of bounds. Converting both ensuing free throws, Kansas managed to escape the Cathedral of College Basketball with a win, 61-56.

Frank Brown led all scorers with a career-high 17 points, going 7-for-9 from the field and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. Dunphy was most impressed, however, with his senior forward’s play on ‘D’ :

“I am most pleased about [Brown’s] defense. The fact that he shot so well was no surprise. As a matter of fact, he will be alerted to that come Thursday when we practice. I’m tired of watching him not do the best job defensively because now I know — he’s exposed himself.”

“I know he was hurt last year, but he made two three-pointers all season, and one was against Kansas … He’s been driving us crazy, so I just want to ask him what he’s got against me.”

“I don’t think it was a moral victory because we felt we should have won the game. You never want to be second best, and today we were second best.”