Penn’s Ethan Roberts is out of the Ivy League tournament due to a concussion
Roberts is not expected to recover in time for any potential postseason games, whether Penn reaches the NCAA Tournament or NIT.
Penn’s Ethan Roberts won’t play in the Ivy League tournament due to a concussion he suffered in recent days.
The league and Quakers coach Fran McCaffery announced the news Friday while McCaffery met with the media at the tournament, which this year is taking place at Cornell’s Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.
Penn is the No. 3 seed, and plays No. 2 Harvard in Saturday’s semifinals (2 p.m., ESPNews).
Roberts suffered the injury in a recent practice, a source with knowledge of the matter said. It was his second concussion of the season; his first came in the Big 5 Classic title game in December.
“We feel for Ethan,” McCaffery said. “I know he’s struggling right now.”
The senior forward is not expected to recover in time for any potential postseason games, whether Penn reaches the NCAA Tournament or NIT.
(A third postseason tournament, the College Basketball Invitational, has been canceled this year, though Ivy League teams haven chosen to not play in it in the past. The CBI’s organizers, the Princeton-based Gazelle Group, said in a statement that it happened “due to circumstances beyond our control” and hasn’t commented further.)
Roberts came to Penn in 2024 after previously playing at Drake and Army. The suburban Chicago native has a year of NCAA eligibility left, but can’t use it at Penn because the Ivy League bars graduate students from playing varsity sports.
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That Roberts will play elsewhere has been well-known, though this transfer is not the same as a player leaving by choice. The Ivy rule has been around for decades and has roots in students’ efforts to avoid the military draft during the Vietnam War. The league granted an exception in the 2020-21 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic but went back to the old ways afterward.
Roberts averaged 16.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.9 assists this season. Though he didn’t always play well after suffering the concussion, he scored 21 in a win over Harvard on Senior Night at the Palestra that clinched Penn’s Ivy tournament bid – its first since 2023. He then tallied 18 at Brown in the regular-season finale, his last game as a Quaker.
If Penn beats the Crimson on Saturday, it will face either No. 1 Yale or No. 4 Cornell in Sunday’s tournament final at noon (ESPN2). The Bulldogs-Big Red game is Saturday’s first semifinal, at 11 a.m. (ESPNU).
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