They say you will always remember your first, and men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery had a first season at Penn for the ages this past year.
McCaffery joined the Quakers as head coach in April 2025 after serving as head coach of Iowa for 15 years. The new gig was a homecoming for McCaffery, as he is a program alum and had a brief assistant coaching stint with the Quakers in the 1982-83 season. McCaffery said there was “no prouder moment” than getting the job. Over one year later, he has made the Penn community proud in how much he’s accomplished in his first season at the helm.
McCaffery and his staff got to work immediately, making strong connections with the players and cultivating a family-like culture. McCaffery also recruited high-profile transfer players, including junior forward TJ Power. Recruiting was previously a major weakness of the program and those investments, among others, have fruited great success.
The program made a leap from seventh place for the past two seasons to third in the conference standings this year. At the end of the season, the team won the Ivy League tournament and made its first NCAA tournament appearance in eight years. The future looks even brighter with more new recruits and many of the team’s starters, including Power, returning next season.
Honorable mentions: swimming and diving coach Mike Schnur; women’s squash coach Jack Wyant
Check out the rest of the end-of-year awards for the 2025-26 season here.
