Penn aims to replicate NCAA Tournament success of Ivy League predecessors

By Benton Smith     Mar 14, 2018

Nick Krug
Penn guard Antonio Woods (2) drives toward the bucket during a day of practices and press conferences at Intrust Bank Arena on Thursday, March 14, 2018 in Wichita, Kan.

Wichita — A high school student in Cincinnati four years back, Antonio Woods hadn’t thought much about enrolling at an Ivy League school.

It was around that time, though, in March of 2014, that the prestigious conference first caught Woods’ attention. Harvard, a No. 12 seed in that year’s NCAA Tournament, knocked off No. 5 Cincinnati.

“Them beating these high-majors,” Woods, an aspiring college basketball prospect at the time, recalled thinking, “it’s not shocking, but it’s kind of funny.”

Now a junior starter for 16th-seeded University of Pennsylvania, Woods and his teammates aspire to entertain the college basketball nation — those residing outside of Lawrence, Kansas, anyway — like so many Ivy League teams before them.

They don’t just call it March Madness because it’s catchy, and the Quakers, in spite of history towering against them (16 seeds are 0-132 all-time), can reference some results from the recent past for a little inspiration heading into their Thursday afternoon meeting with the Jayhawks (1 p.m., TBS).

Ivy League teams of recent years, though usually on the 12, 13 or 14 seed lines, have found success in the NCAA Tournament’s wildest round. No. 12 seed Yale upset No. 5 Baylor, 79-75, in 2016’s first round. Two years earlier, 12th-seeded Harvard knocked off No. 5 Cincinnati, 61-57. That was the second year in a row an Ivy team advanced to the Round of 32, with Harvard toppling third-seeded New Mexico as a No. 14, in 2013.

Now, in theory, it’s Penn’s turn to shine.

“We take pride in it. We’re from the Ivy,” Woods said on the eve of the first-round matchup at Intrust Bank Arena. “A lot of people don’t really know what kind of talent we have. But there’s a lot of talent in the Ivy League. I feel like we’re here to prove them wrong and let them know what the Ivy League is all about.”

In the 10 previous NCAA Tournaments, the Ivy League holds a 4-6 mark, with the first victory coming in 2010, when current Penn coach Steve Donahue led Cornell out of the opening weekend, and into the Sweet 16.

Each of the last seven first-round games featuring an Ivy League team have been decided by single digits, and five of those margins came by four or fewer points.

The Quakers (24-8) might not look exactly like their Ivy predecessors — unlike Donahue’s wildly successful Cornell team, for example, Penn this season has missed too many open looks to really peak, according to the coach. Still, their perimeter defense, highlighted by the 29.2-percent 3-point success rate of their opponents, gives them confidence.

“We’re a very good basketball team, a unique team in the sense of the Ivies, because we really guard,” Donahue said. “So it gives us a fighter’s chance.”

If Penn (76.4 points per game) has an offensive strength it might be that it doesn’t always rely on the same one or two players for production. Eight different Quakers — senior guard Darnell Foreman (averaging 10.7 points on the year), senior guard Caleb Wood (10.1), Woods (7.6), junior center Max Rothschild (7.8), sophomore guard Ryan Betley (team-leading 14.5), sophomore forward A.J. Brodeur (13.1), sophomore guard Devon Goodman (4.0) and freshman forward Jarrod Simmons (2.4) — have led Penn in scoring in a game this season. What’s more, all eight scored at least 20 points in a game.

Like Woods, Betley looks forward to the Quakers’ crack at the No. 1 seed in the Midwest, KU (27-7).

“Coming from the Ivy League we feel like we’re underdogs,” Betley said. “I think the league as a whole will probably be rooting for us. I know I was rooting for Yale (in 2016) and the other teams. You want to see your league do well.”

The Quakers won’t be satisfied by just giving blue blood Kansas a scare. The idea is to continue the new Ivy League tradition of March upsets.

Foreman said, just like any other mid-major program playing on this stage, the Quakers want to represent their league in the best way possible.

“On the national landscape you have to show that we’re a really good conference, a tough conference,” Foreman said. “We might not get a lot of respect from other leagues, from other players, but we’ve still got to come out there and play as hard as we can play.”

Border thinks recent tournament wins by Yale and Harvard are a reminder of the Ivy League’s improving status in college basketball. He also knows those marquee postseason moments won’t help the Quakers slay the goliath that awaits them, in KU.

“We’re going to be playing a really tough team tomorrow. Throughout our non-conference schedule and in-league schedule and just how long and brutal it is, I think that’s what’s preparing us most,” Brodeur said.

Ivy League teams in NCAA Tournament

First-round results from past 10 postseasons

2008: No. 14 Cornell lost to Stanford, 77-53

2009: No. 14 Cornell lost to Missouri, 78-59

2010: No. 12 Cornell beat No. 5 Temple, 78-65

2011: No. 13 Princeton lost to No. 4 Kentucky, 59-57

2012: No. 12 Harvard lost to No. 5 Vanderbilt, 79-70

2013: No. 14 Harvard beat No. 3 New Mexico, 68-62

2014: No. 12 Harvard beat No. 5 Cincinnati, 61-57

2015: No. 13 Harvard lost to No. 4 North Carolina, 67-65

2016: No. 12 Yale beat No. 5 Baylor, 79-75

2017: No. 12 Princeton lost to No. 5 Notre Dame, 60-58







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