TJ Power just put up the best individual performance in Quakers history. His 44 points just led Penn to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years. pic.twitter.com/QfnBWFsIlo
— Ian Wenik (@IanWenik) March 15, 2026
ITHACA, N.Y. – Penn men’s basketball is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years after outlasting Yale in overtime, 88-84, in one of the greatest games in recent Ivy League history Sunday at Newman Arena.
The Quakers (18-11) needed a transcendent performance from forward TJ Power to pull off the Ivy League Tournament final upset with leading scorer Ethan Roberts back in Philadelphia, sidelined with a concussion.
Boy, did Power deliver. The junior had a 44-point detonation, which matched Hassan Duncombe for the program’s single-game scoring record since it joined the Ivy League in 1954. Power personally erased what was a four-point Penn deficit with 12 seconds to play by simply dribbling into three-pointers on consecutive possessions.
The last of those threes, a contested shot from the right wing, tied the game at 75 with a second to go in regulation. Yale guard Trevor Mullin (who had hit two clutch free throws to extend the lead to three before Power’s heroic shot) nearly sank a three-quarter-court heave as the buzzer sounded, but it clanged off the back iron.
In overtime, Power — whose free-throw shooting struggles this season have been well-documented — put the Quakers ahead for good with 3:02 left in the extra session following two makes from the charity stripe. He got a ton of help from senior guard Cam Thrower, who had a five-point scoring burst in a 40-second span to give the Red and Blue some critical breathing room.
In his first campaign running his alma mater, coach Fran McCaffery has pulled off one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in recent college basketball memory.
What should Penn fans hold onto from an afternoon of unbridled joy?
Power is a transcendent talent.
Well, duh.
There are few transfers this season that have had a bigger impact on their new teams than Power. Recruited over by Jon Scheyer at Duke and set up to fail by Tony Bennett and Ron Sanchez at Virginia, Power has proven his five-star recruiting pedigree out of high school was well-deserved by reuniting with a coach in McCaffery who has believed in him since his AAU days.
Yale threw everyone it had at the 6-foot-9 Power. Ivy Player of the Year Nick Townsend. Ivy Defensive Player of the Year Casey Simmons. Mullin.
None of it worked.
Power got to his spots both inside and outside at will and finished with a 14-for-26 shooting performance.
Critically, Power finished a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line. You can credibly argue that’s a sign of this team’s growth. There was a game earlier this season which does not bear further repeating that was lost after Power missed two free throws which would have sealed a victory.
The Power who stepped to the free-throw line twice in overtime was a different player, a young man who knew how much his teammates were depending on him and was determined to lift them up.
Power should be the odds-on favorite to win Ivy Player of the Year next season. Who knows? Maybe All-American is on the table.
Thrower played his heart out.
Thrower was the next man up in Penn’s backcourt after the news emerged Roberts was out this weekend. The senior played like a man who didn’t want to see his season come to an end on Sunday, following up Power with 19 points and a team-high KenPom offensive rating of 154 points per 100 possessions.
There were several moments throughout the game where Thrower steadied the ship with clutch shots after it looked like Penn was starting to take on water. After Yale delivered an early 5-0 punch to the face to start Sunday’s contest, Thrower capped off an 8-0 response with a straight-on three.
In addition to his overtime scoring flurry, Thrower tied the game at 44 in the second half with an assisted three from the left of the key.
Thrower also played a critical role at the top of a Penn defense that did just enough to slow the Bulldogs’ hyper-efficient attack down. Yale shot 46.8% from inside the arc, which is a relatively average number in a vacuum but infinitely better than the 60% interior shooting showing Penn surrendered to Yale in the two teams’ prior matchup.
Penn’s win could be the start of something special.
Plenty of virtual ink has been spilled here on how much McCaffery and his assistants have done to bring the Penn program — especially its recruiting — into the modern era.
That McCaffery was able to deliver a moment like this, with a roster composed virtually entirely of returning players and recruits he inherited from Steve Donahue, is nothing short of incredible.
The next few days are a massive opportunity for this program, not only to deliver immediate results on the court in the NCAA Tournament, but to show players all over the country what you can accomplish if you come to Penn.
Assuming no transfer portal shenanigans, the Quakers will enter the 2026-27 season with four starters returning and several three-star recruits ready to immediately step in and play. Continuity is a scarcity in today’s college basketball landscape.
This time next year, we could be talking about Penn as one of the best mid-major programs in college basketball.