Penn basketball and former Iowa coach Fran McCaffery are going dancing for the first time since 2018.
The Quakers (18-11, 9-5 Ivy League) upset No. 1 seed Yale (24-6, 11-3) 88-84 in overtime on Sunday, March 15, to win the Ivy League championship, earning an NCAA Tournament bid in the process. They were led by Virginia transfer TJ Power, who scored half of Penn's scoring total with 44 points and 14 rebounds.
Power sent the game to overtime on a 3-pointer with one second left in regulation to tie the game at 75-75 after taking the full-court inbounds pass and nailing the shot while smothered by a Yale defender. The 6-foot-9 forward finished 14-of-27 shooting with seven 3-pointers, and his 44 points are the second-most in any men's conference tournament final in the last 30 seasons, per ESPN Insights.
It's an impressive conference tournament run for McCaffery, who took over the program this season after Iowa parted ways with its 15-year coach. The Philadelphia native played at Penn and fielded some strong teams with the Hawkeyes, although he never took the program past the first weekend of March Madness.
Thanks to Power's historic performance, McCaffery has now led five programs – Lehigh, UNC Greensboro, Siena, Iowa and Penn to the NCAA Tournament. He's only the fifth coach to have ever accomplished the feat, along with Rick Pitino, Steve Alford, Lon Kruger and Tubby Smith.
McCaffery last reached the NCAA Tournament in 2023 when No. 8 seed Iowa fell to No. 9 Auburn in the first round. The Hawkeyes failed to reach the big dance in his final two seasons before the two sides parted ways.
Penn entered the tournament with the third-best record in the conference, behind Harvard (10-4) and Yale (11-3), both of which it beat to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Iowa is also projected to reach the NCAA Tournament under first-year coach Ben McCollum, who replaced McCaffery last offseason.
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