Fran McCaffery, a former Penn player and accomplished veteran coach, takes over at the men’s basketball helm.
Back in the early 1980s, Fran McCaffery W’82 stepped onto the Palestra court expecting to beat everyone, as he once told the Gazette [“Profiles,” Jan|Feb 2011].
About 45 years later, he returned to the Palestra, his college playing days long behind him, but bearing a similar message during an emotional early-April press conference introducing him as the next head coach of Penn men’s basketball.
“The landscape has changed. College basketball is different than it’s ever been,” acknowledged McCaffery, who spent the last 15 years coaching in the Big Ten at the University of Iowa after previous stints as the head coach of Lehigh, UNC Greensboro, and Siena. “Yes, my main focus is on the health and welfare of our student-athletes and maintaining the academic integrity of this institution—but not without losing sight of what the tradition of Penn basketball is and how I want to be a part of it.”
Growing up outside of Philadelphia, McCaffery—hired in March to replace Steve Donahue, who was dismissed after nine seasons in charge—had a front-row seat to the glory days of Penn basketball, watching Big Five games throughout the 1970s with his father (who worked security at the Palestra) and brother Jack (who later became a local sports columnist). McCaffery went on to suit up for the Quakers between 1979 and 1982, winning three Ivy League titles and leading the conference in assists and steals as a senior in 1981–82. (He was also there for Penn’s fabled Final Four run in 1979, though couldn’t play in games because of NCAA transfer rules; he had transferred from Wake Forest, where he played his freshman season.)
McCaffery didn’t expect to get into coaching at the time but credits his college coach, Bob Weinhauer, for “giving me the purpose to enter this business and follow his lead.” Weinhauer joined several of McCaffery’s former teammates in attendance for the press conference, and McCaffery choked back tears when he acknowledged what the 85-year-old Weinhauer has meant to him. “The thing that made him special to me is we knew he loved us,” McCaffery said. “We knew he cared about us, and our health and welfare was at the forefront of everything he wanted for us. Yeah, he wanted to win. He wanted to win badly, and so did we. But it was that example that propelled me to this journey.”
McCaffery’s journey has taken him around the country—and back to the NCAA tournament many times. After starting his coaching career at Penn as an assistant under Craig Littlepage W’73, he went to Lehigh to be an assistant before ascending to become the nation’s youngest Division I head coach there, in 1985 at the age of 26. After leading Lehigh to the 1988 NCAA tournament, he spent 11 years as an assistant coach at Notre Dame. Then he enjoyed enormous success as the head coach at UNC Greensboro (1999–2005) and Siena (2005–2010), taking both mid-major programs to the NCAA tourney and leading Siena to memorable March Madness upsets in 2008 and 2009. Those accomplishments landed him a power conference gig at Iowa, where he became the program’s all-time winningest coach with 297 victories over the last 15 years, including wins in four of seven NCAA tournament appearances.
One of just 14 Division I head coaches to take at least four different programs to the NCAA tournament, McCaffery will now try to bring Penn back to the Big Dance, where the Quakers had been a fixture for decades, with 22 appearances between 1970 and 2007. After a long drought, Donahue worked his own magic to get them back there in 2018 after a dramatic Ivy championship [“Sports,” May|Jun 2018]. But the program fell on hard times amid the pandemic and a shifting college sports landscape, losing top players to the transfer portal and sputtering to 4–10 and 3–11 records in the Ivy League the last two seasons, prompting athletic director Alanna Wren C’96 GEd’99 GrD’15 to make a coaching change.
“Just so you all know, and I hope that you didn’t doubt it, this is a university that’s committed to success in this program,” Wren said at the Palestra press conference. “We have done and will continue to do everything we can to get us back to a place where we’re competitive year in and year out. We’re all excited for a future filled with Ivy League titles and NCAA tournament appearances, and I trust that Fran’s the guy to get us there.”
McCaffery said he wasn’t shopping himself upon getting fired by Iowa four days after Donahue was let go by Penn. But the pull of his alma mater was strong, and he quickly made it known he was interested in the opening. “There’s jobs open every day,” McCaffery said. “This is where I want to be, right here.”
Although it will certainly be a change to move from the Big Ten, which these days more closely resembles professional sports, to the Ivy League, which is clinging to the amateur model, the 65-year-old said he’s up for the challenge. He pointed out that the conference “stands up pretty well” to other leagues around the country—Princeton and Yale have won NCAA tournament games in the last three years—and hopes to return Penn to the top of the Ivy heap. “We have some challenges with regard to being a need-based institution in a world where guys are getting paid,” said McCaffery, acknowledging the fact that the Ivy League declined to join the NCAA antitrust settlement that will allow schools to pay their players directly. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop competing. It doesn’t mean we don’t expect to do whatever we can to beat those teams.”
McCaffery promised to play a fast and up-tempo style, as he has at his other stops, and “encourage my guys to trust their talent and make plays.” With Penn’s returning players looking on, McCaffery also said he believes big crowds will once again pack the Palestra, as they did during his playing days. “We will compete in a way that was expected of us when we played here,” he said, “and we will compete in a way that honors anybody that ever wore that jersey.”
After the press conference ended, as McCaffery mingled with his wife and four children, longtime friends like former Penn head coach Fran Dunphy, and Penn President J. Larry Jameson, Penn’s basketball players looked excited about the transition.
Rising senior Ethan Roberts, who led the Quakers in scoring this past season, decided not to enter the transfer portal in part because of McCaffery’s arrival. “I’m just ready to be a sponge and soak up his wisdom,” said Roberts, noting that when he was coming out of high school, people told him he should find a place with a “McCaffery style” since it suits his offensive game. “It’s crazy how things align, because I couldn’t pick a better coach.”
“This is the best thing ever,” Roberts said, adding that he believes the hiring of McCaffery can start a “chain reaction” that can “ignite” Penn basketball.
How much McCaffery can reignite the alumni base, offset some of the program’s biggest challenges, and recruit national-caliber players remains to be seen. But with the start of a new season—and a new era of Penn basketball—still months away, the good vibes are palpable.
“I could not be more excited, more proud, more emotional to be standing here today, in the cathedral of college basketball,” McCaffery said. “There could be no prouder moment.” —DZ
