Steve Donahue bears the burden of Penn’s longest losing streak against Princeton

There are a lot of relics of times gone by on the Palestra’s museum-like concourse, and a fan of Big 5 history could wax lyrical about any of them.

On Friday, the spotlight was on a section of the east side.

If you’re a St. Joe’s, Temple, La Salle, Villanova, or Drexel fan (or a Penn State fan, the way things go these days), you might not think much of the panels that chronicle the Penn-Princeton rivalry.

But if you’re among the ever-fewer number of Penn fans out there — there used to be a lot, you might hear some day — you notice. In particular, the one that counts the all-time record between the Quakers and Tigers.

On Feb. 18, 2009, the day after Penn won a game on Princeton’s floor, the Palestra’s staff updated that board to 122-97 in the Quakers’ favor. The 25-win lead was the largest in a history that started in 1903, nearly a quarter-century before the famed arena on 33rd Street was built.

Thanks to Princeton’s 61-59 win on Friday, the margin is now 126-125. And if the Tigers win this season’s finale at Jadwin Gym on March 8, the series will be level for the first time since 3-3 in 1905.

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Though the two teams jointly ruled the Ivy League for decades, the head-to-head series has only had one leader. The Quakers have never trailed and won nine straight after that one series tie. They held a 23-game lead in 1938, and the margin was double digits until 1969. Princeton cut Penn’s lead to 72-65 that January, then the Quakers won four straight, and the margin stayed in double digits again until 2020.

On Feb. 6, 2018, Penn recorded its last win in the series. Not coincidentally, that season brought Penn coach Steve Donahue the only NCAA tournament berth of his nine seasons in charge so far. Princeton has won all 12 games since then, the longest winning streak for either team.

The burden of that has fallen on a lot of people, but no one more than Donahue. He’s now 2-17 against Princeton since taking the Quakers’ helm in 2015, and both wins were in 2018.

“I give them credit — a lot of games have been kind of like this,” Donahue said. “Our job is to, when we play them again, try to beat them. I don’t want to put that on anybody else, but, yeah, does it bother me? Of course.”

This is not how things were supposed to go when the Delaware County native came home, not just to Philadelphia but to a building where he was a top assistant to Fran Dunphy from 1990 to 2000. Those were Penn’s best times since the 1979 Final Four era, and one of the best in the rivalry: eight straight wins from 1993 to 1996.

Donahue was hired to bring Penn back from the depths to which it fell under Glen Miller and Jerome Allen, with a little stardust from his historic Sweet 16 run with Cornell in 2010. There was a widespread belief he’d restore the Quakers to greatness. That belief was especially strong among a group of his former Penn players who’d lobbied for him. (They lobbied for him to be Dunphy’s successor in 2006, too, even though Miller had a better resumé and got the job.)

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How have things gone? Penn has reached the NCAAs just once, while Princeton and Yale have ruled the roost — not just dancing, but winning multiple games over the years.

Right now, the Quakers are seventh in the Ivy League (6-14, 2-5), a year after a seventh-place finish that was their first failure to qualify for the Ivy League tournament. (The top four teams make the event, which started in 2017.) And with five of the Quakers’ last seven games on the road, this season seems heading toward a second straight miss.

“There’s a real character to this team, and, unfortunately, sometimes you’re judged by your record,” Donahue said. “But I hope, and this is what I told them, that if you continue to do this and grow, then we’re going to find ways to win. And, hopefully, the plan is that you’re better and you win games, and we get ourselves in the Ivy League tournament.”

There were many reasons why Penn lost this one, including Ethan Roberts’ absence because of an upper-body injury. But that alone couldn’t account for Princeton’s 11-0 run to start the game, and the Tigers leading until Penn briefly tied it at the midpoint of the second half.

They led despite shooting 34.5% from the field, and for a stretch, it finally bit them. Penn took its first lead of the night, 57-56, with 2 minutes, 15 seconds to play and led 58-56 with 53 seconds left.

Dalen Davis swung the game back to the Tigers (16-6, 5-2) with a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, then Nick Spinoso made just the first of two free throws with 19.8 left. Princeton got the rebound, and Radnor High product Jackson Hicke drew a controversial foul in the final second to win the game at the other line.

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As rough as the ending was, there were no controversies in the box score. Penn too often relied on three-pointers it didn’t hit, then forced the ball inside for its comeback. At the other end, the Tigers’ poor shooting was the real reason the game was close.

Still, the record stands: 12 straight wins for Princeton, and 28 of the last 32. Donahue has seen a lot of them, and so has his Princeton counterpart, Mitch Henderson. Fourteen years ago, his alma mater hired him to restore its own lost glory, some of which he created as a player. He has done that and then some, with four regular-season titles (including the last three) and an epic Sweet 16 run in 2023.

It need not be Henderson’s business to care about another team, especially the one in question. But he knows what’s happening, as he made clear in recalling his playing days. He lost just six of 57 Ivy League games back then, and four were to Penn.

“We’ve had really good players that have been locked in and have been fortunate to win some close ones,” he said. “We’ve got a nice run here, but I don’t think you want to pat yourself on the back too much. … This game means an awful lot to us.”

Some of the crowd of 3,475 that showed up Friday night — wearing as much Eagles green or Tigers orange as Quakers red — might have wondered if the Palestra’s ghosts would help the home team. They seemed to briefly but didn’t in the end.

Among the living, those with a sense of history can only guess a reason. The ghosts have seen a lot of eras, but none like this.

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