Ethan Roberts

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s home sweep of Columbia and Cornell

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Penn has a clear path to an Ivy Madness berth after pulling off one of its best Palestra homestands in years.

The Quakers (13-10, 6-4 Ivy) have a tight grip on third place in the League standings after using a late surge to rally past Columbia on Friday, 76-67, and following that effort up with an 82-76 triumph over Cornell in a game that was played within a possession for much of the evening.

Penn, by virtue of its head-to-head sweep over Cornell (12-11, 5-5), is effectively two games ahead of the Big Red with four to play. If the Quakers just go .500 in their remaining contests, they’ll be two steps away from their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

It’s a position that few outside observers expected Penn to be in, given its opening KenPom ranking of 275 and consensus seventh-place pick in the Ivy preseason poll.

But now? The Quakers look like an ascending team in its first year under Fran McCaffery, who has taken a team which consists almost entirely of players he did not recruit and turned it into one of the most improved teams in the country.

How much so? We’ll get into that now, starting with how …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win over Princeton

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PHILADELPHIA — The streak is dead.

After 14 consecutive losses to its most hated rivals, Penn finally — finally — took out hated Princeton at the Palestra on Saturday by the thinnest of margins, 61-60. The Quakers (11-10, 4-4 Ivy) now sit atop a four-team morass in third place in the Ivy League and hold their destiny in their own hands.

It should have surprised no one that Penn needed to extend to its absolute limit to finally take out the Tigers (8-15, 4-4). The Quakers led by as many as 12 points in the second half on the back of some intense defense, but an extended offensive outage let Princeton climb back into the game.

The afternoon came down to a one-on-one defensive stand by Quakers sophomore point guard AJ Levine against the Tigers’ best player, Dalen Davis. Levine poked the ball away from Davis at the top of the key as the game clock wound below 10 seconds, then forced Davis into a difficult contested midrange jumper which caught front iron and bounced harmlessly away.

Levine was mobbed by his teammates as he flexed to the crowd, a moment of catharsis after eight years of frustration of heartbreak.

What did Quakers fans learn from an exhilarating day?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win at Cornell

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NEW YORK CITY — There were sublime stretches of play, infuriating periods of disjointedness and everything in between. In the end, it added up to Penn men’s basketball getting the split it needed to stay in contention for Ivy Madness during its only true road back-to-back of the season.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s loss at Harvard

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Penn men’s basketball fell just a few inches short of holding onto a share of first place in the Ivy League standings Monday after it took a tough road loss to Harvard, 64-63.

The Quakers (9-8, 2-2 Ivy) rallied back after giving up an 11-0 run that spanned the end of the first half and the beginning of the second to take multiple leads.

The Crimson (10-8, 3-1) seized back momentum after their star sophomore, Robert Hinton, delivered a highlight-reel, and-one dunk over Quakers big man Augustus Gerhart with 5:31 to play. Penn rallied back to tie the game twice after Hinton’s one-handed flush thanks to the efforts of sophomore point guard AJ Levine, but surrendered baskets at the rim to Harvard on five straight possessions in the game’s final three minutes.

Despite that interior defensive collapse, the Quakers had two long-shot chances to tie or win the game in the final two seconds. But Levine was unable to intentionally miss a free throw with 1.9 seconds left and Penn down two. Harvard missed the front end of a one-and-one after Levine’s unintentional make, but TJ Power’s desperation heave came up short.

There’s nothing wrong with splitting two games on a tough road trip, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Penn let a big opportunity slip through its fingers.

What did fans learn from a tough afternoon?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball downing Dartmouth

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Penn men’s basketball picked up a critical victory in its first extended road trip of Ivy League play on Saturday, taking advantage of a spectacular second half to down Dartmouth, the last unbeaten team in the league standings, 84-74.

The Quakers (9-7, 2-1 Ivy) overcame a string of early self-imposed issues thanks to dominant halves from their two best players. Ethan Roberts carried the team in the first half while TJ Power was confined to the bench with foul trouble; Power scored nine points in the 12-0 run early in the second stanza which gave the Quakers the lead for the rest of the afternoon.

Power lived up to his last name during that decisive run. He started it off by dribbling into a wide-open three, then gave the Quakers the lead with a spinning drive on Dartmouth (8-8, 2-1) wing Jayden Williams. No one the Big Green threw at Power could handle the 6-foot-9 junior.

Suddenly, the Ivy season looks wide-open for the Quakers, who are now in a five-way tie for the league lead. Monday’s matchup with fellow 2-1 team Harvard looms as a massive opportunity.

What did Penn fans learn from a happy start to the long weekend?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win over Brown

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Penn avoided the dreaded 0-2 start to Ivy play thanks to a pair of sterling performances from its senior leaders.

Wings Ethan Roberts and Michael Zanoni scored 28 and 20, respectively, in an 81-73 win over Brown at the Palestra. No other Quakers player scored more than nine. The win had the added benefit of snapping a four-game losing streak to the Bears (6-9, 0-2 Ivy).

Penn (8-7, 1-1) scored an efficient 1.2 points per possession against a good defensive team. The Quakers badly needed it, given their own defensive struggles. The Red and Blue managed to get to the halftime locker room tied despite an awful start, then seized control of the game with a 13-6 run out of the break.

Zanoni gave Penn a lead it would not surrender with an open three by the right sideline off a nice feed out of the lane by Roberts 50 seconds into the second half. Roberts later capped off the run with a wide-open three from the left wing thanks to a good screen from big man Augustus Gerhart with 16:17 to go in the half.

What did Penn fans learn from a solid win?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s loss at Princeton

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PRINCETON, N.J. — The faces on the court and the sideline were new, but in the end, the result for Penn was the same in its Ivy League opener: a crushing loss to Princeton.

Penn has only beaten its biggest rivals five times since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. It’s a streak of futility that has now spanned four different head coaching regimes.

The Quakers (7-7, 0-1 Ivy), over the past few years, have developed a habit of finding new and unique ways to lose to Princeton (5-11, 1-0). They’ve squandered big leads, been blown out of the water and lost heartbreakers in the final seconds. Monday night had a little bit of everything.

Penn built a 14-point lead in the first half, saw it all wash away thanks to a stretch of atrocious defense and then mounted a furious rally to get one last shot to win the game. The Tigers could only exhale after point guard AJ Levine’s contested three at the buzzer hit back iron, which sealed a 78-76 win.

What did Quakers fans learn from another excruciating trip to Jadwin Gymnasium?

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LISTEN – Princeton men’s basketball squeaks past Penn

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 78-76 win for Princeton men’s basketball (5-11, 1-0 Ivy) over archrival Penn (7-7, 0-1) to open Ivy League play at Jadwin Gym Monday night:

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win over NJIT

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Penn closed out the nonconference portion of its schedule strong, using a 17-0 run early in the second half to power its way past NJIT for an 80-61 win.

The Quakers (7-6) entered Wednesday as 14.5 point favorites, but certainly didn’t look the part in the early stages after a litany of injuries forced coach Fran McCaffery to tap players normally stuck on the bench. It took a buzzer-beating three from sophomore point guard AJ Levine to get Penn into the halftime locker room with a narrow two-point lead.

McCaffery ratcheted down the substitutions in the second half and Levine put together arguably his best half in a Penn uniform. During that aforementioned 17-0 run, Levine put up a personal 8-0 scoring burst and added two steals and two assists, to boot. The Highlanders (5-10) never trailed by single digits again the rest of the afternoon.

What did Penn fans learn from a happy start to their New Year’s Eve celebration?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s loss at George Mason

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For a second consecutive weekend, an undermanned Penn team — again without leading scorer Ethan Roberts — pushed a double-digit Vegas favorite on the road to the absolute limit before submitting.

This time, they’ll have fewer regrets.

The Quakers (6-6) built six-point leads in the second half twice against George Mason (12-1), a contender to win the Atlantic 10 conference. But a 10-0 Patriots run midway through the second half and bad luck on the defensive glass at the worst possible time sent Penn to an 83-79 defeat.

After TJ Power hit an open corner three to trim the George Mason lead to two points with 41 seconds to play, the Quakers got the critical stop they needed to get the ball back with a chance to win the game after Lucas Lueth rejected a wild attempt by the Patriots’ Jahari Long. However, the rebound popped to George Mason, which converted a layup amid a scramble for the ball.

Penn scrapped and clawed in this one against the Patriots, who were favored by 15.5 points heading into Sunday. Unlike last Saturday’s collapse against Rutgers, Penn didn’t give this one away. George Mason went out and took it.

What did Penn fans learn from an encouraging effort?

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