Penn basketball officially added its third assistant coach for the 2014-15 season.
After naming Nat Graham to the staff late in the spring, coach Jerome Allen added Mike Lintulahti as a volunteer assistant coach, promoting him from assistant director of basketball operations.
Lintulahti was a visible presence on the Quakers’ bench last year, working under Allen and his three assistants. And with Scott Pera and Jason Polykoff leaving for other jobs, a spot opened for Lintulahti.
“He’s going to do great,” Polykoff said. “The one thing if you ask anyone about Mike is that he’s just a basketball nut. He lives, breathes and eats basketball. It was really a huge win-win for both Mike and I — and for the Penn basketball program in general — that he has an opportunity to move up.”
The UMass graduate came to Penn in 2013 after working as the Athletic Director and basketball coach for HOPE Charter School in Philadelphia.
“I knew Mike before working at Penn,” Polykoff said. “He was a local high school coach. I was a local high school coach. So we knew of each other already. Once he started helping out and working at Penn, our relationship just grew from there.”
Lintulahti served a number of roles for Penn last season, including helping Polykoff coach the JV team. The assistants’ knowledge of the JV squad helped the team late in the season when Matt Poplawski , also a member of Penn soccer, was called up to play for the Quakers.
The one returning member of Allen’s staff will be Ira Bowman , who has served under Allen for the last two seasons after playing for Penn in the mid ‘90s. The program has nine returning letterwinners, including leading scorer Tony Hicks .
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