Solomito headed to Penn

After losing two young standouts to Princeton, the Penn basketball team secured one top recruit. The scene walking into the Penn basketball office on Tuesday, May 12 starkly opposed the senior gala outside. Assistant coaches Steve Donahue and David Hooks sat quietly with Penn basketball coordinator Mick Keelan. Assistant Gil Jackson sat to the side, clipping his nails. Donahue and the Penn men's basketball program had been near to landing a recruiting class that that would have solidified the Quakers' frontcourt for the next four years. However, it never materialized as two of the three Ivy League blue chip prospects -- Chris Krug and Chris Young -- passed on the Palestra, opting to take their basketball talents north to Princeton's Jadwin Gym. What the Quakers staff was left with as a recruiting class was the least heralded piece to that jigsaw puzzle -- Dan Solomito. While he can't slam dunk a basketball with Krug's authority or power past an interior defense like Young, the 6'7" scoring threat may prove a steal for the Red and Blue. Mention of the New Jersey native was enough to raise the spirits in the Penn basketball office. A well-traveled eighteen-year old who left his Montclair, N.J., home as a junior to board at Boca Raton, Fla., basketball powerhouse St. Andrew's, Solomito has made a career of turning coaches optimistic. "I have confidence in him," Solomito's basketball coach at St. Andrew's, John O'Connell, said. "He's a straight arrow. He's not into smoking, drinking, partying." Penn's plan was to secure a frontcourt trio that would spend a year apprenticing seniors Jed Ryan, Paul Romanczuk and George Mboya before taking over. Krug, the most highlighted prospect, was sought after to sign as Penn's center. Donahue's No. 2 prospect, the 6'10" Young, was supposed to succeed Romanczuk at the four position. The Highland Park, Texas native averaged 15.2 points and 12.3 rebounds per game en route to First Team All-Texas honors. But on May 5, Young followed Krug's lead to Old Nassau -- surprising a Penn coaching staff that thought if Young didn't go Quaker, he'd accept a scholarship from Boston College . That left Penn with just the third member of the recruiting class -- Solomito, the least-known of the prospects. At 6'7", Solomito was All-Boca Raton, averaging 19.0 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while playing all five positions on the floor. But sitting out the required year to transfer from Montclair, N.J., to St. Andrew's cost him in the recruiting process. "The reason he went to the boarding school is he originally is from Florida and did not like the basketball here," Steve Ricciardi, Solomito's AAU coach in New Jersey, said. "His father was transferred to New Jersey as a production director for ABC, so the family moved." Until he went north with his family, Solomito played for St. Andrew's middle school program under the eye of O'Connell. After leaving the program, Solomito stayed close with his future coach, who invited Dan to stay with him when his former teammates made it to the state finals in 1995. A week with his old friends in the glory of basketball success ultimately impacted Solomito's return to St. Andrew's, a move that not only brought back nostalgia, but at the same time provided him with a better basketball future. In the interim, however, Penn, Princeton, Yale and William & Mary were the only schools to give The Boca News Player of the Year much of a look. And the Quakers were the only program that treated Solomito like a player in their future plans. "He actually felt wanted at Penn," Ricciardi said. "He just felt it was a more comfortable situation. He liked the setting and education and hit it off with the coach." Another plus in joining the Red and Blue was it allowed Solomito to fulfill a promise he made to his parents -- that he would one day return home for college, so they could watch him play. Solomito's parents never saw him play at St. Andrew's. While the Penn coaching staff may have missed the ball on Krug and Young, most East Coast programs lost sight of the Solomito when he left home. Recruiters that followed him in Florida could not find him in the summer leagues since he returned home to play for nationally renowned St. Anthony's coach Bob Hurley. But perhaps the fear that Krug and Young would slip away helped Penn maintain a careful eye on the elusive sharpshooter in Montclair, where he worked out with Hurley over the summer between junior and senior year. Under Hurley's instruction, Solomito showed auspicious signs and more than just a basic understanding of the game. "I think he's going to be an asset for the program in the team version," Ricciardi said. "He understands the coaching of the game, not just the playing of it." Penn's plan is to groom Solomito for a starting forward position in the year 2000, easing the void of Romanczuk, Ryan and Mboya's upcoming departures. Krug and Young's decision to join Princeton should impact Penn when the current trio graduate. It will not be an easy loss to overcome. But all of Solomito's former coaches have only positive things to say about him. If his past is any indication of the future, the landing of Solomito should ease the difficulty of facing Princeton's top recruits.

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