Jack Eggleston headed for Germany

Penn star forward Jack Eggleston is bound for the German pro basketball leagues, as he's signed with the Bayer Giants Leverkusen, according to a tweet from @Pennbasketball. The 2011 graduate politely declined to comment until the deal is announced early next week.

The Bayer (as in aspirin) Giants are in Germany's Pro B (3rd) division. The team was actually in Germany's Basketball Bundesliga until 2008, when Bayer shifted its focus toward soccer and moved the restructured club to the 3rd division.

Eggleston has planned to head to Europe for some time. He played the past two summers in New Zealand and China, so he'll now add a fourth continent to his basketball resume. When I interviewed him for a profile I wrote earlier this spring, he told me he saw the Euroleagues a way to avoid the 9-to-5 for a few years.

"I think it would be a short term thing, maybe a couple years, just make a little money, see a different part of the world, not sit behind a desk for however many hours of the day," he said in February. "I just think it would be a really cool experience." However, he didn't rule out spending more time across the pond of the situation were right.

Earlier this summer, the DP's Ethan Alter wrote about Eggleston's desire to play in Europe after graduation. At Penn he was a 1,000 point scorer, a four-year starter, and the team's captain his senior year. He averaged 10.9 points per game, 6.1 rebounds, and developed a smooth outside shot that confounded opposing defenses. Last season he shot 45.1 percent from three, and 50.4 percent overall.

According to the Bayer Giants' website, Eggleston will fill out the 2nd (of two allowed) Americans on the team. He'll join Casey Robinson, also a power forward, who played for the University of Alaska, Anchorage. The rest of the roster is German. The Giants' first game is September 3rd.