Fran McCaffery is coming home.
Penn announced Thursday it has named the Philadelphia native and 1982 Wharton School graduate as the 20th head coach in the more than 120-year history of the men’s basketball program.
McCaffery replaces Delaware County native Steve Donahue, who was fired March 10 after nine seasons in charge of the Quakers. McCaffery returns to his alma mater from Iowa, where he was let go on March 14 after 15 years as the head coach of the Hawkeyes.
“I am excited and honored to return to my alma mater and the city of Philadelphia to lead the Penn men’s basketball program,” McCaffery said in a statement released by the university. “It is a program that I have fond memories of from my previous time there as a student-athlete and assistant coach. My vision is to return Penn to prominence in the Ivy League and beyond and bring an exciting style of play to The Palestra. I want to thank President Larry Jameson, AD Alanna Wren, Provost John Jackson and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli for providing me with this opportunity to return home. I relish the challenge and look forward to getting started.”
McCaffery, who turns 66 in May, grew up in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia and played at La Salle College High School. Nicknamed “White Magic” during his playing career, McCaffery spent three seasons in a Penn uniform after transferring from Wake Forest. He played on two Ivy League champions, led the league in assists (105) as a senior in 1981-82 and played in the NCAA tournament twice. The Quakers went 36-6 in the Ivy League and 54-30 overall in his time at Penn.
McCaffery brings a wealth of coaching experience back to his school. He has been a college coach for 43 seasons, 29 has a head coach. He began as an assistant at Penn in 1982-83, moved to Lehigh where he as an assistant for two seasons and then became the head coach for three seasons. He left Lehigh to join the staff at Notre Dame for 11 years and then served as the head coach at UNC-Greensboro, Siena and Iowa.
He has a winning record at every step in his head coaching career, going 49-39 at Lehigh, 90-87 at UNC Greensboro, 112-51 at Siena and 297-207 at Iowa for an overall record of 548-384. McCaffery has been to the NCAA Tournament 12 times and the NIT five times.
McCaffery takes over a Penn program that only has had one winning season in the last four and has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2017-18 when it won the Ivy League tournament title. The Quakers have not captured the regular-season crown since 2006-07.
“I am thrilled to bring Fran back to Penn and Philadelphia as our next head men’s basketball coach,” Wren said. “Fran has had success at every level of Division I and is passionate about restoring our program to glory. His energy and enthusiasm for leading young men was apparent throughout the process and he has proven to be committed to player development and relationship-building with his student-athletes throughout his storied career.”
While Penn has found its coach, Villanova is still looking for a replacement for Kyle Neptune, who was fired on March 15 after missing the NCAA Tournament in all three of his seasons as head coach of the Wildcats.
Mike Nardi is serving as the interim head coach. He will guide the Wildcats in the inaugural College Basketball Crown, which takes place next week In Las Vegas. Villanova (19-14) opens tournament play April 1 against Colorado.
A number of coaches have been rumored to replace Neptune recently. Porter Moser (Oklahoma), Kevin Willard (Maryland), Chris Collins (Northwestern) and Mick Cronin (UCLA) are the names that have been mentioned most often.
Willard is the most interesting. The Terrapins are still alive in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed in the West Regional. Maryland faced top-seeded Florida Thursday night for a spot in the Elite Eight. Willard dispelled the rumors that he is leaving during an interview on the Kevin Sheehan Show on sports talk 980 AM in Washington.
“As of right now, I’m staying,” Willard said. “Everything that my concerns have been about the job – and that was my whole point of the press conference – was that I want to make this program the best. When you have an opportunity to do it, you have to take advantage of it.”
Willard is quite familiar with the Big East. He played three seasons at Pittsburgh (1994-97) and spent 12 seasons as the coach at Seton Hall where he led the Pirates to the NCAA Tournament in five of his last seven seasons. It probably would have been six of seven if the 2020 tournament wasn’t canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Moser just completed his fourth season at Oklahoma where he led the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament this season. He has 20 years of head coaching experience and a career mark of 367-301. He guided Loyola Chicago to the 2018 Final Four where the Ramblers lost to eventual champion Villanova in the semifinals.
Collins, the son of former 76ers player and coach Doug Collins, completed his 12th season at Northwestern. He has a 194-189 career record and has led the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament three times, the only times the team has qualified for the Big Dance. Cronin is considered a dark horse candidate. He has a career mark of 503-235. In eight of his 14 seasons at Cincinnati the Bearcats were members of the Big East.
Whoever takes over has to rebuild the roster. The Wildcats lose all five starters and five of the top six scorers. Also, redshirt junior forward Nnanna Njoku has entered the transfer portal and Dante Allen, the son of former Villanova player Malik Allen and the only high school player to sign with the Wildcats this year has re-opened his recruiting.
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