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Disappointment, resolve for Penn after NCAA Tournament loss

03/15/2018, 9:30pm EDT
By Sarah Kelly Shannon

Darnell Foreman (above) and Penn came up short against No. 1 seed Kansas in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Sarah Kelly Shannon (@thesarahkelly)
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WICHITA, Kan. -- In a quiet locker room, the sound of Velcro is unmistakable. A “zchick”’ sound cut through the air as Devon Goodman pulled the Penn logo off the wall above his locker at Intrust Bank Arena, and the Quakers’ basketball season was over.

There were no tears -- at least not while reporters mulled around. At one point, senior Darnell Foreman’s voice shook, almost imperceptibly, as he spoke about the end of his Penn career. But the locker room vibe wasn’t somber. It was contemplative.

Sixteenth-seeded Penn, the season’s favorite unlikely upset pick, is headed back to Philadelphia after a 76-60 loss to top-seeded Kansas on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Going into the tournament, Penn’s first since 2007, players kept saying they had nothing to lose. So an effort that put the Quakers within five points of the Jayhawks with seven minutes left in the game didn’t cost them anything.

“Ever since I was a kid, and I know everyone in this locker room, you dream about playing in this tournament,” senior guard Matt MacDonald said. “So to have that come to fruition with all my teammates here is something else. I’ll never forget it.”

Senior guard Caleb Wood tied for Penn’s top scorer of the night with 14 points, and he was the only Quaker who was perfect from the free throw line.

For much of the first half, Penn was able to corral Devonte’ Graham -- the Big 12’s Player of the Year, a Wooden Award finalist, and Kansas’ leading scorer. But Graham, as both his stat line and his growing list of accolades suggest, is good, and this wasn’t his first rodeo.

“He realized what was going on in the game,” Foreman said in a press conference after Thursday’s game. “He has a great feel for the game. He knew, being a senior leader also, that he needed to step up, you know, and force the tone and create, and he did a good job of that. He got our guys in rotations. He was able to finish at the rim.”

The Quakers struggled from the free throw line, shooting just 36 percent (at one point in the second half it was a ghastly 20 percent). Penn averaged 66 percent from the line during the regular season and the Ivy League Tournament. After 35 minutes of keeping up with Kansas’ athleticism, the Quakers looked gassed. But they went down swinging.

“Couldn't be more proud of my guys and how we played and competed and did everything I would hope,” head coach Steve Donahue said in the postgame press conference. “Just thought it was a great college basketball game, in particular for about 35 minutes, and they finished us off.”

For Penn’s talented sophomores and juniors, it’s time to look forward.

“It’s up from here,” said junior Antonio Woods, who scored 10 points Thursday. “Our seniors did a great job this year of getting us back to where we belong, and I expect my class, juniors, to continue like this, and all the way down to freshmen.”

Sophomore AJ Brodeur contributed 14 points and nine rebounds while fellow sophomore Ryan Betley added eight points.

“To just give them a game for 35 minutes was a lot of fun, and I think it’s a game we’ll reference down the road,” Betley said. “We’ll use this to win the Ivy League and get back.”

Penn finishes the season 24-9, its best record since 2001-2002. For fans and alumni of the university, the team’s success augurs a long-awaited return to prominence.

“Tremendous,” said Penn alumnus Allan Bell, who traveled from New Jersey with his wife, Dale Bell, for the game. “No more 11-year droughts. It’s gonna be glory days again, back to where Penn belongs, its rightful place in college basketball in general and in the Ivy League especially.”

MacDonald -- who will be Penn alumnus himself in a few months -- feels comfortable passing the torch.

“The future is definitely bright for Penn basketball,” he said. “It’ll be up to these guys in this locker room to take that next step, keep working as hard as they can, and continue to build this program into a consistent winner.”

As reporters began to file out of Penn’s locker room, the players took down more velcro logos and the velcro name plates above their lockers and packed their sweaty uniforms to leave Wichita. They had two final things to say. The first: “Free Meek.”

The second, specifically from Woods: We’ll be back.


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