Penn men’s basketball’s rematch with national title contender No. 3 Illinois went about as well as round one.
The Quakers (0-1) started off their Ivy defense with a 112-70 defenestration at the hands of the Fighting Illini (2-0).
For the game’s first 10 minutes, Penn looked like a team ready and willing to compete in a difficult true road environment. The Quakers briefly led in the opening minutes and were down just one point, 23-22, after freshman guard Ethan Lin drilled a three-pointer from the left corner.
Illinois — which might be the best offensive team in all of college basketball — responded with an immediate 22-3 killshot run over the course of five minutes which effectively ended the competitive portion of the contest. The visitors missed 10 straight shots from the field during the backbreaking run.
The Fighting Illini added runs of 10-0 and 18-2 in the second half to balloon the final score even further. The Quakers were extremely fortunate to see their KenPom ranking drop only five slots to 134th in Division I after the beatdown.
It was obvious the second this game was scheduled that winning was going to be an almost-impossible task for Penn. What lessons did fans learn from a rough opening night?
Lucas Lueth looks like he has taken his game to another level.
If there was one true silver lining on Thursday, it was that Lueth looked like a player capable of matching and occasionally even exceeding Illinois’ superior athleticism.
The junior forward scored a career-high 14 points on 10 shots while putting up a team-high KenPom offensive rating of 138 points per 100 possessions. Lueth added three blocks and was effectively Penn’s only rim protection the entire evening.
Lueth also delivered the single biggest highlight for the Quakers late in the first half when he posterized Illinois big man Zvonimir Ivisic with a one-handed power dunk. Lueth gave up seven inches in height to the 7’2” Ivisic but had the Fighting Illini center hanging off him like Chris Dudley on prime Shaquille O’Neal.
Lucas Lueth just BODIED Zvonimir Ivisic.
The 6-7 Penn forward looked like Mr. Fantastic on this poster https://t.co/xz6SWgcgJV
— TJ’s Basketball Takes (@TJsBballTakes) November 6, 2026
After shooting 22.6% from deep against Division I opponents last year, Lueth hit two threes on four attempts on Thursday. He logged two assists and frankly should have had several more if not for a series of bad misses at the rim by teammates.
Lueth’s athletic ability has never been in doubt. If he really has become a multi-dimensional offensive weapon, then he will terrorize Ivy opponents come January.
The Quakers’ best players took far too many inefficient shots.
If there is a downside to roster continuity in college basketball, it is that a team’s biggest flaws carry over on a year-to-year basis. The Quakers were a bad team at the rim last season and Thursday night looked no different.
None of Penn’s bigs had much of a chance at creating shots for themselves against the Fighting Illini, who do not have a player below 6’4” in their rotation. As a result, it felt like the Quakers were playing with half an offense when the game was still competitive.
Star forward TJ Power and highly-touted transfer Sir Mohammed both settled for lots of long twos and contested shots. The duo shot a combined 5-for-31 from the field and 0-for-8 from deep.
Penn as a whole shot 29.4% from two-point range, which just isn’t good enough to beat anyone, let alone an elite team like Illinois. According to KenPom, the Quakers took their two-point shots an average of 8.9 feet from the rim; by contrast, Illinois shot 71.7% from two and took its two-point shots from an average of 3.1 feet away.
Several newcomers looked like contributors.
Mohammed may have had a bad shooting night, but the junior wing’s athletic ability was readily apparent on Thursday. He grabbed three offensive rebounds before the game’s first media timeout and added two steals.
Three members of the team’s freshman class got meaningful minutes on Thursday, as well: Ethan Lin, Isaiah Carroll and Chase Geremia.
Lin, who is vying for point guard minutes, acquitted himself the best out of his classmates. He finished with a KenPom offensive rating of 102 points per 100 possessions and made a pair of three-pointers, including the aforementioned shot from the corner which proved to be Penn’s high-water mark.
Geremia flew under the radar in preseason but wound up playing 11 minutes. The guard entered college with a reputation as a sharpshooter and put up five shots from deep, making one.
One new face who was absent was Caltech transfer Dorian Glogovac. The 6’6” sophomore did not play on Thursday and has a walking boot on his right foot. The specific nature of his injury was not clear.