GREENVILLE, S. C. — At a late-afternoon shootaround inside Bon Secours Wellness Arena, the scene carried a quiet tension: a lone player in a maroon sweatsuit rose into jumpers while teammates stretched at the opposite baseline. That player was tj power, and his illness — serious enough to keep him out of Wednesday’s practice — has left Penn’s plan for Thursday night’s NCAA Tournament opener against Illinois uncertain.
Is tj power playing against Illinois?
Penn coach Fran McCaffery told media on Wednesday afternoon that the team “really won’t know until tomorrow” whether TJ Power will be available for Thursday’s first-round game. McCaffery added that if asked whether he thinks Power will play, he would say yes, while also emphasizing that Power did not practice Wednesday because he “didn’t feel up to it. ”
The game is scheduled for 9: 25 p. m. ET in Greenville, South Carolina, with No. 14 Penn facing No. 3 Illinois.
What Penn is losing without Ethan Roberts — and why it matters now
Penn already knows it will be without senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts, the team’s leading scorer during the season. McCaffery said Roberts will not play against Illinois after suffering a concussion.
Roberts averaged 16. 9 points and 3. 9 rebounds per game this season and was a second-team All-Ivy selection. McCaffery called the situation especially serious because it is Roberts’ second concussion of the season, saying, “When you’ve had your second concussion, that’s not something you mess with. ”
Roberts missed Penn’s Ivy Madness championship run after sustaining a concussion during practice. He had also missed Penn’s final four non-conference games earlier in the season after suffering a blow to the head in the team’s Big 5 Championship loss to Villanova.
In the Ivy League tournament, senior guard Cam Thrower filled in during Roberts’ absence. Against Yale, Thrower scored a career-high 19 points, hitting 4-of-6 from three-point range.
How TJ Power changed Penn’s season — and the stakes of a missed practice
Power’s importance to Penn is visible both in the numbers and in how opponents talk about him. The junior forward scored 44 points in Penn’s Ivy League championship win over Yale, an 88-84 overtime victory that sent the program to its first March Madness appearance in nearly a decade. Power was named conference tournament MVP after leading Penn to overtime wins over Harvard and Yale.
His 44-point performance broke the men’s Ivy Madness single-game scoring record and stands as the second most points in a men’s Division I conference tournament final in the last 30 years. Illinois coach Brad Underwood called it “one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. ” Underwood also noted the uneasy balance teams feel when illness becomes part of the story, saying, “When somebody gets sick, it scares me to death. ”
For the season, Power is averaging 16. 8 points and 7. 9 rebounds while shooting 43. 3% from three-point range. Penn’s roster profile makes that production hard to replace quickly: he and Roberts have combined to account for nearly 34 of Penn’s 76. 1 points per game, and the only other player averaging double figures is senior forward Michael Zanoni at 11. 6 points per game.
McCaffery described the strategic impact in plain terms: “That’s a game changer, because a lot of the things we do are featuring him. ” If he cannot go, McCaffery said, it becomes “next man up, ” pointing to Thrower’s performance in Roberts’ absence and adding that Penn would need someone else to be ready if Power can’t play.
The timing is unforgiving. Penn enters as a 14 seed facing a third-seeded Illinois team that has become a popular Final Four pick among college basketball pundits. McCaffery’s cautious optimism around TJ Power leaves Penn walking a thin line between hope and contingency — trying to prepare for a game plan built around a versatile scorer while also rehearsing what the night looks like if he can only watch.
