Fran McCaffery grew up spending his Friday nights at The Palestra, taking in Big 5 doubleheaders.
Then, after McCaffery transferred to Penn following one season at Wake Forest, he got the opportunity to play in the very building that he grew up in. Now, some 43 years after McCaffery graduated from Penn, he coached in a Friday night game at The Cathedral of College Basketball.
It was a true full-circle moment.
However, with all the fanfare surrounding McCaffery’s return to University City, his sole focus is on winning now that the season has begun.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be back, but once you get to games, it’s total focus on the game itself,” McCaffery said. “It’s not what I did before, that I played here, that I went here. I talked about that at the press conference.”
McCaffery and his team took that business-like approach onto the court Friday night, scoring a program record 119 points in a 119-72 win over Division III Rowan University. The fast-paced, up-tempo style that McCaffery’s teams have been known to play came to fruition in his first game as the head coach of the Quakers.
Senior Ethan Roberts, the leading returning scorer in the Ivy League from a season ago. He dropped what seemed to be an effortless 28 points, making eight of his 11 shots, and four of his five three point shots. Roberts averaged nearly 17 points per game last season, and under McCaffery’s tutelage, could be even better than he was a season ago.
Roberts never put his name in the transfer portal when it was announced that McCaffery would take the helm of the program. He thinks that this is the spot for him to flourish even further, but he’s taking it one game at a time.
“I just want to do my job the best that I can, and I know that Coach will put me in the right spots,” Roberts said. “It’s a dream just to be playing with these guys and this staff.”
Although the Quakers’ opening game against Rowan was more or less a tune-up, there are reasons to be excited for what they could be as the season rolls on. Thirteen players got in the game for Penn, with two big men standing out in particular.
Augustus “Augie” Gerhart, a 6-foot-9 junior who logged six starts a season ago, will be tasked with helping to fill the void at center, which Nick Spinoso held down so well the past couple of seasons. Gerhart’s motor and effort make him a terrific rebounder, and he seems like a great fit to consistently run the floor in such a fast style of play under McCaffery.
That showed early on against Rowan. Gerhart ran right down the middle of the court and threw down a dunk in transition off an assist from AJ Levine at one point. He followed that up with a put-back dunk that brought Penn’s bench to their feet.
Gerhart seems positioned to be the everyday starter, but there are certainly minutes up for grabs behind him. A young freshman emerged Friday night as someone who can play in Gerhart’s place when he’s on the bench.
Freshman Dalton Scantlebury put up a double-double in his first college game. Although Penn played a Division III opponent in Rowan, Scantlebury had himself a night with 17 points, ten rebounds, three steals, and four blocks. He’s got the physicality and strength to play meaningful minutes in his first year. Scantlebury spent this past summer training with Cordell Pemsl, who played in 96 games for McCaffery at Iowa from 2016 to 2020. He credits Pemsl with getting himself in great shape, and he heard how great an experience it was for Pemsl to play for McCaffery.
“[Pemsl had nothing but good things to say about him,” Scantlebury said. “He said that I was going to love playing for Fran and he had no doubt in his mind that I would”
“He helped me get in shape. I lost about 25 pounds,” he added. “I knew this was going to be a very fast paced offense, and I needed to be ready for that”.
So far, so good for McCaffery and the Quakers, after their opening night 119-point barrage. Penn hits to road to play American on Sunday, then hops back on I-95 to play Providence on Tuesday night.
