GREENVILLE, S.C. — Undermanned and outgunned, No. 14 Penn men’s basketball put up a fight against No. 3 Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the better part of a half.
But that was all the Quakers could muster in what wound up as a 105-70 defeat.
The Quakers (18-12) entered Thursday night’s matchup against the Fighting Illini with its two best players compromised. Leading scorer Ethan Roberts had been ruled out earlier in the week after suffering his second concussion of the season, while TJ Power, the hero of last week’s Ivy League Tournament, fell ill in the days leading up to the game and needed what coach Fran McCaffery estimated were four or five IVs to even be able to play.
“TJ wasn’t himself,” McCaffery said during a postgame press conference. The junior forward — who rarely comes off the floor — went back to the locker room twice during the game and was too ill to join his teammates as they showed their appreciation to a strong contingent of Quakers fans.
“When I took him out that last time, I was not going to put him back in the game,” McCaffery said of Power. “It would not have been fair to him.”
As for the action on the court itself? It was no surprise that the size of Illinois, the nation’s tallest team by average height, dictated the game. Penn actually outshot the Fighting Illini in the first half but entered the locker room down 10 points because Illinois had racked up 16 second-chance points and a plus-14 rebounding margin.
The Quakers cut the deficit to nine with about 16:45 to play after wing Michael Zanoni bounced in a straightaway three, but Illinois immediately responded with a 14-2 run which effectively ended the game.
For Penn, the book is officially sealed on its 2025-26 season. What did Penn fans learn from its final chapter?
Michael Zanoni is a uniquely valuable asset in games against power-conference teams.
Zanoni was the biggest bright spot for the Quakers on Thursday evening, dropping in a team-high 20 points on 18 shots.
The Fighting Illini entered Thursday night with a reputation as a team bad at defending off-ball screens and certainly lived up to it, freeing Zanoni up for a host of his trademark midrange jumpers.
While Ivy teams who see Zanoni twice a year know to focus on denying him those kinds of shots, Penn’s nonconference opponents are not quite as astute. Thursday was a repeat of the same game dynamic which allowed Zanoni to pour in a career-high 30 points back in November against Providence.
Penn fans got a pleasant end-of-season surprise when Zanoni did not walk on senior night against Harvard and McCaffery acknowledged that he’ll be expected back next season.
As for the kind of role Zanoni will have after new transfer portal additions and freshmen hit campus? We’ll explore that in a future story.
Fran McCaffery put on a great coaching display, just maybe not the way you’d think.
With Roberts unavailable and Power clearly ailing, McCaffery had to get ultra-creative to generate any semblance of offense or defense against Illinois. The Quakers had 10 different players take the floor in the first half as fouls accumulated up and down the roster.
There were moments where you could see sparks — such as an early 9-0 run which pulled the Quakers back in the game after Illinois had shot out to a 26-13 advantage — but it was obvious that Penn wasn’t going to be able to physically match what the Fighting Illini had to offer.
McCaffery’s finest moment on Thursday came after the final buzzer sounded. He helped gather up his players to give love to the team’s fans after a final rendition of “The Red and Blue” and then had an extended heart-to-heart with guard Cam Thrower, the other graduating senior member of the Quakers’ rotation.
Thrower acquitted himself well in his final game in a Penn uniform, putting up 14 points on 10 shots.
“I always make sure they enjoy the ride,” a reflective McCaffery said of his players postgame. “I feel so blessed to have been doing this for as long as I have and I’m going to keep doing it because I love these guys.”
Just making it to the NCAA Tournament won’t be good enough next year.
That subhed seems a little harsh at first glance. After all, this was a tremendously successful season for Penn.
The Quakers pulled off one of the best single-season turnarounds in college basketball this year and by all objective predictive metrics, were one of the most improved teams in the sport. The team dug deep and displayed a special level of resiliency when it made it through the Ivy League Tournament without Roberts.
All of this success, as unexpected as it may have been, sets a new floor for the Quakers under McCaffery, who has professionalized this program. Penn should — “should” being the operative word in the transfer portal era — return four starters next year, including the Ivy Player of the Year favorite in Power.
The Quakers will bring in three-star recruits in Ethan Lin and Isaiah Carroll who look capable of contributing from day one.
And it’s fair to assume that there will be some transfer portal activity as well. Fans’ initial focus should be on coach McCaffery’s son, Jack, a stretch “four” and ESPN top-100 recruit who is leaving Butler after his freshman season following a coaching change.
Given all of that talent and McCaffery’s coaching acumen, fans should expect Penn in 2026-27 to be a team in or around the KenPom top 100 capable of winning the team’s first NCAA Tournament game since 1994.