W. Hoops | McLaughlin all in the Penn family

After graduating from Holy Family, new women's basketball coach Mike McLaughlin spent three seasons with the Washington Generals - the long-time nemeses of the Harlem Globetrotters - where he served as team captain and played in over 50 countries.

Although McLaughlin described his time with the Generals as "a phenomenal experience," he now sees coaching at Penn as "the opportunity of a lifetime."

"It's a great opportunity, great city, unbelievable university, perfect fit for myself [and] my family," McLaughlin said. "My goal was to coach in the Big 5, so it was extremely important to me to stay in the Philadelphia area."

Juniors Caitlin Slover and Sarah Bucar - who ran the team's offseason workouts in the interim period following the departure of former coach Pat Knapp - and sophomore Erin Power were involved in the interview process once the finalists were decided.

Slover said that while they were all impressed with McLaughlin's on-court resume from his 14-year tenure coaching at his alma mater in Northeast Philadelphia, they were sold by his "genuine" personality and interest in coaching at Penn and in the Big 5.

"He's from around here so we know he'll be able to get some good recruits in," Slover said. "He talked about his family a lot which just made him very appealing to us. . Someone that has that passion for their family, it kind of rubs off on everybody."

McLaughlin had a brief meeting with the team at Franklin Field last Thursday and will likely have individual meetings with each of the players this week.

"I told them I want to embrace this challenge and embrace the team," McLaughlin said. "I think the excitement level seems very high [with] very positive feedback."

The newcomer to Penn built a dynasty in his 14 years at Holy Family. He set the record as the fastest coach in Division II history to reach 400 wins.

But he realizes that the jump to a Division I program will be challenging.

"I just think that recruiting nationally will be at first a little bit of an adjustment," he said. "But we're going to reach out to every possible resource that we can try to get, and we're going to work endless hours to establish new bases all over the country."

McLaughlin has also had great success off the court, as last year his team averaged a strong 3.43 GPA. He attributed that accomplishment to identifying "players that were the true student-athletes," something which will surely be a priority at a school like Penn.

The Quakers have struggled in recent years - and that may continue since seniors accounted for 61 percent of the team's scoring last season - but McLaughlin might have what it takes to turn the program around.

For what it's worth, he already has impressed at least one Penn legend.

"There are a number of great college basketball coaches in the city of Philadelphia, and Mike McLaughlin certainly falls into that category," former men's basketball coach Fran Dunphy said in a Penn Athletics press release.

"In my dealings with him, I have found him to be personable, passionate about basketball and someone with outstanding leadership qualities."

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