Jerome Allen on recruiting so far

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The slowdown in the schedule during winter break and exams has allowed the coaching staff some extra time for recruiting before the busy Ivy season picks up. While I had a few minutes with coach Jerome Allen before the break, I asked him his take on the recruiting process so far in his first year as head coach.

"For the most part it’s been going okay," he said. "The great thing is that we got four guys on staff; we’re all road warriors. Everyone’s excited. And that part of our job we all love, just evaluating talent. Really just trying to get involved with the best guys we possibly can, guys that fit our philosophy of solid basketball."

From speaking with the recruits last year before they arrived at Penn, we heard time and again that assistant coach Mike Martin had been integral in bringing many of the freshman to Penn, so Allen appears to be using those talents to his advantage. And since Martin has a bit more experience, Allen is also taking a few lessons picking up on a steep learning curve.

"As an assistant I got my feet wet a little bit, but to be quite honest with you, working with Mike Martin, who’s unbelievable in terms of the amount of contacts he has and his work ethic, and Dan Leibovitz, has made my job a lot easier in terms of helping me through that process — not so much just the eye for evaluating talent, but meeting people, knowing where to go."

While Allen is one of four new coaches to the League this year (Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn), he has the least experience recruiting of the four, having only been an NCAA assistant for one year before his promotion to head coach.

So far, the Quakers have two reported commitments, both from forwards. Will Davis, who committed in mid-November, will come to Penn after taking a postgrad year at the New Hampton school. Greg Louis committed in early November and hails from Dwyer High School in south Florida. The last month and a half have been quiet on the recruiting front, though Patrick Lucas-Perry, a guard out of Michigan, told The Buzz that he was considering Penn and would like to make a decision "very early next year."

With seven seniors on Penn's roster, I'm inclined to think that the Penn coaches would look to pick up a few more players in the coming months, though I doubt it will be as large as last year's seven-man group.