NIL

Five things about Penn men’s basketball in new Fran McCaffery era

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Penn basketball looks a lot different than it did when I last wrote about the program roughly three weeks ago after Fran McCaffery’s hire as head coach became official.

Where to begin? The new stable of assistant coaches? The official return of leading scorer Ethan Roberts? The ex-five-star recruit and power conference transfer who just committed? The new 7-footer coming over from the pros in Norway?

There’s an unmistakable air of optimism around the program right now, and with good reason. In the spirit of the estimable football writer Peter King, here’s “five things I think I think” about the Quakers at this juncture of the offseason:

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 72-71 loss at Yale

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Another week, another gut-punch loss for Penn.

The Quakers were on the verge of pulling the biggest upset in Ivy League play this season before another sequence of late-game disasters sent Penn to a 72-71 defeat at Yale.

Penn (6-15, 2-6 Ivy), after another flat start, used a pair of deep Sam Brown threes to take two late leads on the Bulldogs (15-6, 8-0), but the Red and Blue never were quite able to land the killshot they needed.

Eventually, Yale made Penn pay. With the game on the line and the visitors clinging to a one-point lead, Bulldogs big man Nick Townsend found freshman wing Isaac Celiscar cutting to the hoop for an easy layup with a little more than eight seconds to play. The Quakers ran both their big men at Townsend, and Brown was just a step behind Celiscar.

Penn couldn’t even get a potential winning shot off. The Quakers had a sideout inbounds opportunity on Yale’s end of the floor with six seconds to play, but no one could get open and Ethan Roberts’ desperation pass to freshman Michelangelo Oberti was easily deflected for a game-killing turnover.

The Quakers’ devastating loss brought back plenty of bad memories, starting with how …

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Ivy League opts out out of revenue-sharing provisions

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A Tuesday email from Ivy League executive director Robin Harris addressed to league coaches and student-athletes reported the league would opt out of the revenue-sharing element of a pending $2.8 billion NCAA settlement forged last year aimed at paying athletes a share of the revenue colleges made from their performances.

In May 2024, the NCAA announced a $2.8 billion settlement to cover “back pay” to student-athletes from 2016 to 2024 resulting from lost name, image and likeness (NIL) money.

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Five things I think I think about Penn men’s basketball, post-Ethan Roberts commitment

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The great Peter King, dean of football writers in America, retired earlier this year. I would put King — the longtime Sports Illustrated columnist and reporter — right up there with Lawrence Taylor, my father and Steve Sabol among the people who helped spark my lifelong love affair (obsession?) with sports.

In honor of King, I have a few more thoughts than usual on Penn’s position in the Ivy League landscape — and college basketball at large — after it picked up a high-upside transfer in the form of ex-Drake guard Ethan Roberts, a sophomore, last week.

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Quakeaways from Tyler Perkins entering transfer portal to leave Penn men’s basketball

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New transfer portal occupant Tyler Perkins averaged 13.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in 29.8 minutes per game as a freshman in 2023-24. (Penn Athletics)

Penn’s offseason got off to a depressing start on Monday when standout freshman guard Tyler Perkins entered the transfer portal.

With the caveat that I possess no inside knowledge, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Georgetown fans who have been salivating over the Lorton, Va. native since the summer of 2023 finally got their wish.

The Quakers have now lost their best returning player for two consecutive offseasons. At least Perkins ripped the band-aid off early, hopping into the portal on the first day of its 45-day window. Jordan Dingle entered the portal more than a month later in 2023.

Much of this analysis could be rendered obsolete by the time the portal closes, but here’s a first stab at what Perkins’ departure means in the grand scheme of things for both the Quakers and Ivy League at large:

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Breaking down the NLRB decision finding Dartmouth men’s basketball players are employees

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A National Labor Relations Board director ordered a union election for 15 Dartmouth men’s basketball players Monday in a ruling that found the players are employees of the university.

The result could be the first labor union for NCAA athletes.

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Q&A with Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones

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James Jones’ Yale Bulldogs are 10-6 on the season, including 1-0 in Ivy play. (James Jones’s X page)

Ivy Hoops Online sat down with Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones after a Yale practice Thursday:

Ivy Hoops Online: How is your team performing relative to your expectations before the season started?

James Jones: We are at 80% of where we should be now. At some points during the season, we were at 50%.We need to be more connected.

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Three thoughts on Princeton basketball heading into 2024

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It’s been an extremely successful year for both the Princeton men’s and women’s basketball teams.  As we turn the calendar from 2023 to 2024, here are three reflections on the state of both programs as we approach the beginning of the 2023-24 Ivy League regular season:

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Be thankful for Ivy League basketball

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It’s Thanksgiving, and our cups runneth over with sumptuous Ivy hoops results.  

Last Monday, the Penn men’s team gobbled up a nationally ranked Villanova team at the Palestra.  A day earlier, the Princeton women’s team visited Middle Tennessee State, the defending Conference USA champions, and pulled the rug on the Blue Raiders’ 49-game home court winning streak.  Five days later, the Tigers came within a whisker of upsetting No. 3 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.  

Last Saturday, the Columbia men, picked to finish last in the Ivy League, toppled Temple, 78-73, in an upset that virtually no one even seemed to notice.

But wait, there’s more.  The Brown women’s team, picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League this season, lowered the boom on Providence and Georgetown in back-to-back games.  The Bears may not win the Ivy crown, but apparently they are contenders in the Big East.  

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Inside Ivy Hoops 4-11-23

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Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony and IHO writer Rob Browne discuss memorable postseason runs for Princeton men’s and women’s basketball and Columbia and Harvard in the WNIT, the new “Big 5” (really City 6) Classic, the prospect and potential impact of athletic scholarships for Ivy hoopsters and much more: