Former Pennsylvania Gov. and current Penn lecturer Ed Rendell expressed frustration over Penn’s recent firing of Penn men’s basketball head coach Steve Donahue in an exclusive interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Rendell, a 1965 College graduate and avid fan of Penn basketball, told the DP that the school's decision to fire Donahue was “a shame.” Claiming to have only missed five Penn home games in the past 60 years, Rendell sees the leadership change as a sign of “a school that can’t make up its mind."
“Anybody who knows basketball knows coach Donahue did a fine job this year turning a team of newcomers and holdovers into a group that came very close to finishing second in the Ivy League,” Rendell said, referencing several close conference losses during the season. “And he molded it into a team that, by the end of the year, would give any team a scare — including the top teams in the league.”
Donahue was recently let go after finishing his ninth season as head coach of the program, including one NCAA tournament berth in 2018. The Quakers finished this season with a 4-10 conference record, placing them seventh in the Ivy League.
Rendell expressed confusion over the firing in tandem with the Ancient Eight’s recent decision to opt out of House v. NCAA — a settlement that allowed student-athletes to be paid and significantly affected the Ivy League's ability to recruit and retain players.
Rendell sees Penn’s actions as “contradictory,” with the lack of player payment showing the University's disinterest in being competitively viable, while the firing of Donahue over the lack of on-the-court success speaks to the opposite.
“How could you say in one breath: ‘We are not going to do what all the rest of division one schools are doing because we don’t think basketball players should be given any special ability [to earn money]’ and then at the same time fire a coach for not winning,” Rendell said. “If you are not going to allow a player to take some compensation for what they are doing, unlike any other colleges in America, then you shouldn’t fire a coach who hasn’t won enough games. It seems inconsistent.”
“The message this firing sends out is totally contradictory, and shows a school that can’t make up its mind,” he added.
Penn men’s basketball’s struggles in the past two decades have marked a turn for the program. From 1960 to 2008, the program had only one losing record in Ivy League play. In the 16 seasons since, Penn has endured nine losing seasons — four under Donahue.
A far cry from the days of old, Rendell recalled greener pastures — specifically when Penn won the Ivy League a year after his graduation, as well as the program's historic runs to the NCAA’s Elite Eight and Final Four in 1972 and 1979, respectively.
Despite watching some of the best coaches in Penn history, including the likes of Chuck Daly and Bob Weinhauer, Rendell has high praise for the coach that Penn recently asked to depart.
“Everyone in the world can see [Donahue] is one of the best persons in the coaching profession,” Rendell said. “Penn just lost a very good coach and an even better man.”
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