Division I basketball saw an unusually large number of transfers this year, and the Ivy League in general seemed to be fertile ground for new players. Penn just didn't get in on the party.
Brian Grimes, a rising sophomore at La Salle and a 6-foot-7 forward, elected to transfer early on in the summer and, Explorers coach John Giannini told the media, had winnowed his list down to Penn and Columbia.
On July 11, the Lions announced his arrival to the program.
A much odder story conspired to send Cem Dinc to Harvard, his third American college in as many years. He becomes Tommy Amaker's first recruit with the Crimson.
Dinc enrolled at Indiana, garnered scant minutes as a freshman, missed a semester, declared for the NBA Draft, exited it, played junior-college ball for a year and will enroll at Harvard this fall after marketing himself to programs up and down the East Coast.
Coupled with the transfer of Dan McGeary from New Hampshire - McGeary must sit out a season, unlike Dinc, who is eligible immediately because of his year in JuCo - the moves underscore the unique stamp Amaker brings to the Crimson as a former Big Ten and Big East coach.
Amaker has been busy shoring up the Class of 2012, too, and recently snagged senior Oliver McNally out of Branson-Ross High School, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Still AWOL: David Whitehurst, the two-sport athlete who left the University for academic reasons last year, is not on this year's men's track roster. Men's track coach Charlie Powell said in the spring that he knew about Whitehurst's future athletic plans, but wanted the former basketball guard/hurdler to reveal the decision on his own schedule. Currently, Whitehurst is listed in Penn's directory as an Anthropology major.
Penn notes: The Journal News reported Friday that senior guard Michael Kach now feels completely healthy after a year of foot problems. . As of now, the only publicly known member of Penn's Class of 2012 is Zack Rosen, a heralded point guard from the New York area. He averaged 10 points and six assists for his high-school team, and will play a prep year at St. Benedict's. . Published reports confirm Penn's slate for the Philly Classic, an eight-team exempt tournament to be held at the Palestra in November. Virginia visits the Palestra on Nov. 23, and if Seton Hall beats Navy, the Pirates earn a matchup with the Quakers a day later.
Scoreboard watching: Ivy League basketball schedules are seeping out, and high-profile opponents are easy to find. Columbia has a possible tournament matchup with Ohio State and a date at Villanova on Dec. 22. Cornell will rekindle its rivalry with Syracuse the same day, along with Duke two Sundays later. Princeton plays the Blue Devils on a neutral floor Nov. 19, either Arizona State or Illinois a day later, and Seton Hall later that month. Michigan revisits Amaker in Boston on Dec. 1, and Yale has three eye-catchers: Stanford, UCLA and Kansas, all away.
