Penn’s win over St. Joe’s a throwback to the enduring spirit of Big 5 rivalry that its coach still cherishes

Penn won Fran McCaffery’s Big 5 coaching debut Monday, and Quakers’ leader addressed meaning of intracity series with his players before facing Saint Joseph’s. (Photo by Penn Athletics)

PHILADELPHIA — Fran McCaffery is no stranger to the Big 5, having competed in the storied Philadelphia round robin as a University of Pennsylvania student-athlete some 40-plus years ago.

But here stood the well-traveled McCaffery Monday night, leading his alma mater into battle as its head coach as the Quakers opened Big 5 play against a Saint Joseph’s program that had won each of its last seven intracity contests. Competition can bring out the full emotional spectrum, especially in a battle as heated as a Big 5 game, and with McCaffery bringing his own personal history with him on Monday, the stakes may have been amplified. So did it come full circle for the coach, experiencing something familiar from a different lens?

“I think the full circle moment came the day I was hired more so than what happened tonight,” he shared. “Standing at the podium in The Palestra, having come to this building so often with family and been a coach on the other bench. To coach here is incredibly special. To know that I have the support of the administration and our alumni, former players — they supported me and a lot of them were here tonight. A lot of my teammates were here, my coach (Bob Weinhauer) was here, and that’s something that was pretty emotional.”

Emotions ran high on Monday, and so too did Penn as a team. The Quakers engaged in a 40-minute dance that represented that from which Philadelphia basketball made its bones, playing team offense through its set plays and fundamentals, and complementing that with a help defense that was instrumental in cutting St. Joe’s off at the pass in a game that was a two-possession battle either way until the final seconds. And even as tempers flared moments before the buzzer, when St. Joe’s guard Derek Simpson and Penn point guard AJ Levine got into extracurricular activities, the Quakers kept their cool and held their heads high. Their reward was an 83-74 victory that brings Penn one step closer to playing for a de facto city championship that underscores the intrinsic value of representing a storied area at an even more fabled institution.

“Amazing,” was how senior guard Ethan Roberts described it. “I don’t really know how to put the words to it yet, but I’m just grateful I did it with this group and Coach McCaffery. I would just emphasize how much we all love playing for him and how proud we are to be here at Penn. It was just a fun experience, probably my favorite college game ever. I love this team so much, and it almost brings me to tears how special this place is to me. It means the world.”

“This being my first time experiencing it, I now understand how much it means in the city,” forward TJ Power added. “I’m definitely keying in on these games, and we want to take home that Big 5 championship for sure.”

In a time where rivalries and history are depreciating rapidly each day given the logistics within the sport and the proliferation of NIL agreements and the transfer portal, the core values of what defined the game become harder to distinguish. That was part of McCaffery’s pregame message to his players, urging them to recognize the added circumstances as Penn defended its home floor.

“I just talked to them about what it means,” he said. “The Ivy League is a terrific conference, but you come here because you want to play in the Big 5. That’s different. It means something. There’s tradition, there’s history, and a lot of these guys know each other. It’s been like that since the ’50s and ’60s, and the fan bases know each other. The games are right here at The Palestra…they’re not always here, but they were for many years. Trust me, it’s something that we addressed and it was not something that a lot of coaches talk about.”

Penn played Monday as if something more was on the line, never letting St. Joe’s get too far ahead as Power set a tone in the first half with his size advantage, eventually finishing with 23 points and 15 rebounds in the Quakers’ victory. The second half belonged to Roberts, who recorded 24 of his game-high 31 points after halftime. But the night as a whole was owned by the residents of University City, with a coach returning to a familiar haunt as his road home takes on a more comfortable feel.

McCaffery had one more message to his players before the ball was thrown into the air, instructing them to merely enjoy the moment and never lose sight of the simple parts of the game, for they can — and will — still bring joy to all its participants.

“This game has to be fun,” he emphasized. “Walking out onto the floor tonight in a Big 5 contest at The Palestra with a great crowd, that’s why you work hard in the summertime. That’s why you spend hours in the gym, why you shoot 1,000 (shots) a day. For this moment. And I never want that to be lost on our guys. You have to enjoy the journey, and it’s my job to make sure they enjoy the journey.”