It has often been said that you can't judge a book by its cover, but the person who said that probably never met Patrick Knapp.
The new Penn women's basketball coach has good reason to don the Penn sweatshirt and sweat pants that he was wearing yesterday in his office.
The former Georgetown coach has vowed to get down and dirty in his new job, and expects the same of his new players.
"I like people who want to scrape their knees and their elbows," Knapp said. "I like people who want to run through people. I like people who want to climb over people for the ball -- that's passion."
Knapp likes to speak of passion. It was passion that brought to Penn a man who had spent 18 seasons as a head coach in the Big East.
"It's a confluence of many, many factors," Knapp said of his decision to leave the nation's capital to replace former Penn coach Kelly Greenberg, who left the Palestra to take the head coaching position at Boston University this summer.
Knapp cited aspects of the Georgetown program that he wanted to change. In addition, an interim athletic director and general uncertainty surrounding the athletic department served as other reasons for his departure.
Penn called at just the right time.
"The assistant AD at Penn gives me a call July 12 to review candidates" for Penn], Knapp said. "We were friends. We had gone back a long ways. She asks, 'Patrick, what do you think of these names? Would you be interested?' I said, 'yeah, I would be.'"
According to Knapp, things went very quickly from that point. Knapp was hired July 28, exactly three weeks after Greenberg's departure.
The decision by a coach to leave a Big East program for an Ivy League school struck many as odd. But Knapp is a local product -- he grew up in nearby Abington, Pa. Knapp was attracted to Penn because, as he puts it, "It's one of the three or four best schools in the world. These young women are outstanding ... Plus, Penn is at the top of the Ivy League. We should be competing for first place every year."
That is where Knapp comes in. He has the responsibility of replacing the likable and successful Greenberg, who won two Ivy League championships in her six seasons at Penn.
Knapp admires the job Greenberg did for the Quakers. But he has a message for those fans who miss the old coaching staff.
"Life goes on. Let me tell those who miss anything about the last staff and their regime and success, to just look at our players and see how quickly and how maturely our players have moved forward and embraced what we're gonna do."
The Greenberg era lives on in the players who were recruited by her. Five Penn seniors, Maria DiDonato, Karen Habrukowich, Amanda Kammes, Katie Kilker and Cat Makarewich form the backbone of this year's squad. Knapp has named all five team captains, and is quick to point out that as long as those players are here that some things will stay the same as they were in the past six years.
One thing that Knapp and Greenberg have in common is a tremendous amount of energy for the job. And, as the new kid on the block at the Dunning Coaches Center, Knapp has the attitude that anything is possible.
"I come in with new energy, new perspective, new ideas, and the sky's the limit," Knapp said. "So there is no ceiling for me. Ten or 15 years from now, there might be a ceiling for me. But there isn't right now, and there's no ceiling for these young women either."
For now, Knapp has set the expectations high. Repeating as Ivy League champions, and an even loftier goal, winning the Big 5 for the first time ever, are foremost in his mind.
Make no mistake. These are not the comments of someone who likes to boast. Rather, they tell the story of the man himself, a straightforward, no nonsense, roll-up-your-sleeves type of coach.
"Our expectations are to win" the Ivy League, Knapp said. "I don't think it's bold. I don't think it's out of line. But will it be easy? No. Are there other teams that want to win it? Yes. Are they gonna be out to dethrone Penn? Yes. But these seniors have a lot of pride, so something tells me that we will overcome some of those obstacles."
