Marching to Madness: Former Hersey star could miss Penn’s NCAA matchup vs. Illini
Illinois drew a very Illinois-centric opponent in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 3 seed Illini will travel to Greenville, South Carolina, to face No. 14 Penn at about 8:25 p.m. Thursday (TNT). Penn has five Illinois natives on its roster, and normally three starters.
The Quakers could be short-handed, though, because leading scorer Ethan Roberts, a 6-5 wing from Hersey High School and Arlington Heights, missed the Ivy League Tournament due to a concussion.
According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn does not expect Roberts to return for the NCAA Tournament. This was reportedly Roberts' second concussion this season. The first happened in a game on Dec. 7 and caused him to miss four games. The recent one occurred in a practice.
“We feel for Ethan,” Penn coach Fran McCaffrey said Friday. “We know he’s really struggling right now.”
Roberts began college at Army, then spent a year at Drake but did not play due to injury. In two years at Penn, he's been one of the Ivy League's best, averaging 16.9 points this season.
Even without Roberts, the Quakers managed to win the Ivy League tourney, capped by an improbable 88-84 victory over Yale in Sunday's title game. Penn trailed by 4 with 12 seconds remaining. T.J. Power hit a quick 3-pointer, Penn fouled and Yale hit both free throws to make it 75-72. Power then dribbled up the court and knocked down a well-guarded 3-pointer to send it to overtime.
Power poured in 44 points while hitting 7 of 14 attempts from 3-point range. Penn's point guard is A.J. Levine, a sophomore from York High School in Elmhurst, who added 9 points and 6 assists. Dalton Scantlebury (Lane Tech) and Niklas Polonowski (Lyons Twp.) are two other Illinois natives who saw action off the bench.
Ivy League teams are traditionally a challenging matchup in the NCAA Tournament. Since 2013, Ivy League teams have gone 5-6 in the first round, despite never being seeded higher than 12. Then three of the six losses were by 5 points or less.
Illinois stumbled a bit down the stretch, going 4-5 over the final nine games, capped by Friday's quarterfinal loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament.
“Now it's not Big Ten opponents,” Illini coach Brad Underwood told reporters in Champaign. “It would be nice to shoot the ball a little better. I think we've got a group that can really do that. We haven't been great the last couple games from 3. I don't think it's a lot. I think we're doing a lot of things really well.”
Underwood called McCaffrey a “great, great friend.” Penn's first-year coach spent the previous 15 years coaching at Iowa, so there's plenty of familiarity.
“We know anytime we face a Fran McCaffrey team, we've got our hands full,” Underwood said. “It's a great opportunity to just let it rip, go have fun.”
The winner of this game will face either North Carolina or Atlantic-10 tournament champ VCU in the second round. The Tar Heels have lost projected lottery pick Caleb Wilson for the season with a broken right thumb.
Whichever team advances to the Sweet Sixteen could meet No. 2 seed Houston at the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets. Florida is the top seed in the South Region.
The United Center will host the Midwest Region finals, where Michigan, Iowa State, Virginia and Alabama are the top-four seeds. Duke is the top seed in the East and Arizona in the West. Nine Big Ten teams made the field.
“It's the best day of the year as a basketball coach,” Underwood said of Selection Sunday. “Obviously 0-0, everybody's got a new start, everybody's a winner. There's a lot of teams that have cut down nets and won championships. They're all very difficult.”