Penn basketball recruiting classes are often more notable for what they lack than what they bring to the Palestra. Because the Ivy League does not permit its schools to give athletic scholarships, Quakers coach Fran Dunphy and his staff must regularly compete for players at a disadvantage to schools that have the ability to lessen the cost of a college education for their athletes. Nonetheless, Penn's status as one of the better-known mid-major schools in college basketball is due in no small part to the hard work done on 33rd Street. "It's just a never-ending process," Dunphy said. "You're always looking for the very good player who happens to be a very good student who can afford the education, and hopefully their interest in you is as strong as your interest in them." That process is divided up among Dunphy and assistant coaches Gil Jackson, Dave Duke and Matt Langel in an egalitarian fashion, according to Duke. "We don't divide it up into a certain area, we just do it [by] who we see or who we see the most of," Duke said. "Who happened to call the scouting service, or who happened to see the guy on a website, or who got a tip from a guy they know." Dunphy said that Penn does not usually compete against major basketball powers with strong academics such as Duke and Stanford. "It's more the occasion that we compete against the rest of our league, and maybe some higher level conferences on occasion." That does not mean that the staff does not pay attention to athletes in the area that choose bigger programs. Dunphy was seen at an Episcopal Academy game earlier this season observing, among others, that school's outstanding tandem of Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington -- who will attend Duke and North Carolina, respectively -- and Haddonfield (N.J.) High School's 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek, who will also attend Duke despite close family ties to Princeton. "I think every coach out there says we would like to be involved with that kind of student athlete," Dunphy said. "And you're not afraid to be told no, so you always ask." The sales pitch will not surprise anyone who follows Penn basketball--a quality education, with the Wharton business school featuring prominently, and the chance to play inside one of the most famous arenas in the college game. The Ivy League might not be the nation's best college basketball conference, but it certainly offers other benefits. "The reason why they choose us is the future," Dunphy said. "After basketball ends, they see a great opportunity to be an important part of the world, and we hope that we have a great system in place that allows you to realize your dreams." Duke acknowledged that Penn's roster tends to be comprised more of players from California and the Northeast than from other parts of the country. "If you're not going to Cal or Stanford there's not many that can match up [with Penn] academically," he said. He added that things are different "in the Midwest with Northwestern, or in Ohio with a lot of those [Mid-Atlantic Conference] schools that are good academically." That would make Brennan Votel, a 6-7 forward from Park Hills, Ky., the exception in Penn's recruiting class whose other players hail from San Mateo, Calif., Silver Spring, Md. and two suburbs of Philadelphia: Folsom and Jenkintown, Pa. And although all five come in with impressive resum‚s--such as Votel's "Mr. Basketball" finalist honors in the Bluegrass State or Tommy McMahon's average of 18 points and 11 rebounds per game in his senior year--Dunphy warned that Penn fans should not place excessive demands upon the newest Quakers. "Most times, players are overhyped," he said. "I don't think [fans]take into consideration that [recruits] are going from the oldest person on the team to the youngest person on the team, and how that would impact their ability to play the following year." Of this year's incoming class, Dunphy said that "Brennan Votel and Cameron Lewis would be expected to contribute because of our lack of size, and they would be expected to contribute sooner rather than later." Duke, meanwhile, does not mind the lofty goals that accompany each new season. "Second or third place is not acceptable around here," he said "I like to have expectations like that."
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