In a season marked by one low after another, Penn took what may have been its biggest body blow yet in a humiliating 90-62 defeat to Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.
Even that final score is generous to the Quakers (7-18, 3-9 Ivy). Penn went into the halftime locker room down 63-27 after allowing the Big Red (15-10, 7-5) to drain 15 three-pointers in the first half.
By night’s end, nine different Cornell players had made a three-point basket, tying an NCAA Division 1 record.
There’s only one meaningful takeaway from Friday night’s disaster:
It’s hard to see how coach Steve Donahue survives this.
What may ultimately be Donahue’s undoing is his recruiting. For the past few years, star power has helped paper over Penn’s lack of depth.
There is no transcendent player around anymore to bail the Quakers out the way Jordan Dingle would, time and again. Penn looked totally physically overwhelmed on Friday night. Defenders frequently seemed a step too slow, leaving Cornell shooters free for wide-open looks.
Penn also had no answer for Cornell’s physicality and defensive pressure on the other end of the floor. The Big Red sped Penn up and generated 19 turnovers. According to KenPom, the Quakers gave the ball away on 26% of their offensive possessions; their season average is a turnover on 16.6% of their possessions.
There hasn’t been a single lineup combination which has stuck, either. Penn rolled out its 14th different starting lineup of the season on Friday night.
What’s scary is that the talent gap between Penn and the rest of the Ivy League only stands to get worse next year once the team’s only credible frontcourt option, Nick Spinoso, graduates and junior swingman Ethan Roberts likely enters the transfer portal.
There are some nice pieces on Penn’s roster, with Sam Brown in particular coming into his own in conference play. The sophomore notched a team-high 19 points on Friday and has scored in double figures in every Ivy game this season. All three of the Quakers’ incoming recruits — Ryan Altman, Dalton Scantlebury and Jay Jones — have performed well this year, too.
But that’s not enough to make serious headway on a team like Yale. Like Penn, the Bulldogs lost their best player to the transfer portal last spring in Danny Wolf. Even without Wolf, Yale is undefeated in Ivy play and will likely be a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament if it can avoid a slip-up in the Ivy League Tournament.
It’s a testament to the consistent recruiting efforts from James Jones and his assistants.
Donahue did a lot of great work to bring Penn back off the mat and delivered the program its best wins since Fran Dunphy was on the sidelines. He’s assembled a group of young men who play hard for one another and are excellent representatives of the university.
But as the on-court results deteriorate, it may be best for both sides to move on.