Know Your Iowa Basketball Opponents: Penn

The University of Pennsylvania has a rich basketball history.

For one thing, the Quakers played in one of the most-famous Final Fours ever, in 1979. Penn and DePaul were semifinal losers to Michigan State and Indiana State, who featured Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Penn has 25 Ivy League championships, including two during the playing career of a tall guard named Fran McCaffery, who was the Ivy's leader in steals and assists in the 1981-82 season. He was called "White Magic." Whatever happened to him?

Fran Dunphy coached the Quakers to 310 wins between 1989 and 2006. Forward Fran Dougherty is averaging 10 points a game for this season's Penn team. What is with that program and Frans?

McCaffery graduated from Penn's prestigious Wharton School of Business. Other Wharton alumni include Donald Trump and Warren Buffett.

Penn plays its home games in the Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball. Built in 1927, the 8,722-seat arena has hosted more college basketball games than any facility in the nation. McCaffery's father,  John "Jack" McCaffery, was a Philadelphia policeman for 28 years. He was familiar to many Philadelphians as a security officer at Veterans Stadium and the Palestra. When he died in 1998, the Philadelphia Daily News published this obituary. Sounds like an interesting man.

Penn basketball has fallen on hard times the last few years. Fourth-year Quakers coach Jerome Allen, one of the top players in Penn history, has a 49-67 record. They were 20-13 two seasons ago, but slipped to 9-22 last season with a very green squad. Penn did beat league-champion Harvard, which went on to knock off New Mexico in the NCAA tournament.

A media panel picked the Quakers to finish second behind Harvard in the Ivy League this season. Columbia was picked to finish last. It led Michigan State for most of the second half in East Lansing last Friday night before MSU pulled away for a 62-53 win.

Penn is 1-2. It lost at home to Penn State last Saturday at the Palestra, 83-71. In the first row of Penn's student section, a fan wore a shirt that said “Not Penn State."

Steven Tydings of the Daily Pennsylvanian noted "... it was clear that the Quakers were indeed “Not Penn State.” But on Saturday, that wasn't something that made Penn fans proud."

"Defensively, we couldn't do anything with them," Allen said. "They got what they wanted."

If Penn State got what it wanted against Penn, it's a safe bet Iowa will do likewise tonight in Iowa City. And so ends the five games before the Hawkeyes go to the Bahamas to find competition at their own level.