Roundtable: What will be the biggest factor on Penn basketball's senior day?

Penn basketball’s Senior Day is coming up this Saturday against Yale, which will mark the final games for Cameron Gunter, Miles Jackson-Cartwright, Fran Dougherty, Steve Rennard and Dau Jok on the Palestra hardwood. At the same time, the Elis will be fighting for their Ivy title dreams after dropping a crucial contest with Columbia last weekend. With no shortage of story lines, our editors discuss what they’re looking forward to seeing most on that evening.

Sports Editor Ian Wenik: I’m going to have to argue in favor of seeing Jackson-Cartwright leave it all on the floor for one final evening. Jackson-Cartwright has a commitment to winning, a deep, internal drive that you don’t see too often these days. Who could forget him shouting, “We ain’t going nowhere!” at the top of his lungs towards press row in the midst of that huge season-opening rally against Temple?

MJC is one of the biggest fighters on this Penn roster, and is an unquestioned leader. The Quakers will have plenty of work to do next year to make up for the absence of his scoring touch and tenacity on the ball.

Senior Sports Editor Steven Tydings: Watching this team for a while, it is hard not to admire the effort that this senior class puts in, from Jackson-Cartwright, Dougherty and Rennard in the starting lineup to Jok and Gunter off the bench. The moment I am looking forward to the most over the weekend is when the starting lineup is announced on Saturday night, and we get to see all five that came into the program together get recognition from the Palestra crowd for the final time.

With underclassmen dropping like flies with injury after injury, these five guys have stood steady, playing game in and game out and not missing a beat. While Dougherty said that this isn’t how he imagined his senior year going after losing to Harvard on Friday, the team has a chance for redemption in an important way, looking to close things out at home and get revenge on a Yale squad that beat them in New Haven, Conn.

And to that final point, with postseason hopes all but gone, the Quakers have to relish the opportunity to play the role of spoilers. What better way to go out than to take down some rival foes with you?

Sports Editor Riley Steele: I couldn’t agree with you more Steven; Saturday is going to be an emotional day when all five seniors take the court together, and it would be fitting to send the group out with an upset over Yale.

But I think it’s impossible not to focus in on Dau Jok in his final home game with the Red and Blue. While not a superstar nor a player who gets as much court time as fellow seniors Jackson-Cartwright and Dougherty, Jok has represented Penn basketball off the court better than anybody else on the roster. Jok is a humanitarian, somebody who has been rewarded multiple times over the past several months for his community outreach to children in his native South Sudan. He’s overcome plenty of obstacles to get to this point in his career, and it’s difficult not to root for Jok to succeed.

Jok was never able to capture an Ivy title during his four years at Penn. As a result, the basketball program’s fan base never got to applaud and commend Jok the way he deserves. Hopefully, someone as genuinely humble as Jok will be honored on Saturday, and I look forward to the Palestra crowd giving him a warm embrace.