More from The Line

There are two items we learned while hanging out at The Line Saturday night, and though basketball practices won't be open to the media until Tuesday, we've decided to share what we heard and give you more information in the coming week.

Sophomores Tommy Eggleston and Sean Mullan not announced in team line-up

The younger Eggleston and Mullan were not introduced during player introductions. And since this year Allen required all team members to be at the Line and sleep over at the Palestra, it seems unlikely they just missed the event. The Penn Athletics online roster still lists them, but rumor is that they did not make the cut. Without the two, there would no longer be any sophomores on the squad after Brian Fitzpatrick transferred over the summer, Malcolm Washington stepped down from the team and Carson Sullivan left in January to play closer to his Charlotte, N.C., home.

Tommy Eggleston's stats from last season: 9 games, 18 minutes, 0-for-3 fg, 2 rebounds, 0 points

Mullan's stats from last season: 12 games, 30 minutes, 2-for-10 fg, 1-for-3 freethrows, 3 rebounds, 5 points

I've talked a lot about how large Penn's roster is — or was. Without the remaining sophomores, the roster would sit at a manageable 18, just three above the Ivy League travel limit of 15. With injuries, Allen should no longer have any problem taking his team on the road.

Speaking of injuries...

Dan Monckton aiming for January return

I spoke briefly with Monckton in some downtime and he said the knee is recovering well from his offseason microfracture surgery. Since he's no longer on crutches and moves around normally, he told me he's shooting for a January return to play, just in time for most of Big 5 play and to prepare for the Ivy League schedule. Monckton's presence on the floor will surely be missed in the first half; not only did he have a breakout year last season (7.1 ppg; 109 total rebounds, second to Jack Eggleston), but his thunderous dunks got an often hushed crowd into the game.

On a side note, while I was having some trouble shooting threes at the Palestra, I asked Monckton for some tips.

"Confidence, Cal," he said. "Confidence"