Right now, Penn basketball’s Darien Nelson-Henry is the big man on campus. But that's nothing new for him.

Sophomore 133-pounder Caleb Richardson has been under bright lights of college wrestling’s biggest stage when he went to the NCAA tournament as a 12- pound freshman.

As one of the Quakers’ top players, sophomore forward Alec Neumann has been able to focus on his game, but as he becomes an upperclassman, he will try to add ‘leader’ to his impressive list of accomplishments at Penn.

This year, outside expectations are virtually nil for the Quakers. And they like it that way.

Starting in May of this year, there was a new presence around Penn basketball as Quakers alum Nat Graham joined Jerome Allen’s staff as a new assistant coach. And with Graham came a new buzz word: Tremendous.

With several important upperclassmen from last year parting ways with the program, the Red and Blue will count on the underclassmen to produce, and Howard will be looked upon to lead the way.

Mike Lintulahti isn’t one for the spotlight. For him, basketball has always been about the players first and foremost.  And now,  taking over as one of the assistant coaches for Penn men’s basketball, Lintulahti has the chance to shape the players in this program in ways that he never could before.

Luckily for Penn basketball, all the negativity surrounding the program is external. Inside the Palestra, the atmosphere pervading Jerome Allen’s players is one of positivity, optimism and belief. And it starts with two of the four seniors on the roster.

Having lost several key players – either due to graduation or other reason – from last year, the Red and Blue will look to a talented freshman class to help get the program back on track and moving in the right direction.

One of the beautiful things about sports is their universality – you don’t have to speak the same language as your opponents to recognize a fantastic play or a well-fought game.

As the Quakers prepare for Senior Night this Saturday against Harvard, it is natural to wonder who will be filling in for graduating seniors Duke Lacroix, Kamar Saint-Louis, Louis Schott, Jason deFaria and Mariano Gonzalez-Guerineau.

It’s hard to have a freshman season much better than Sydney Stipanovich did last year.

The Quakers’ four seniors – forwards Katy Allen and Kara Bonenberger along with guards Renee Busch and Kathleen Roche – have been named the captains for the 2014-15 season and plan on carrying the torch from last year’s successful group.

This season, the freshman class as a whole will be playing a big role from the opening tip on Nov. 14 in Tennessee.

Alex Tirapelle, the new head of Penn’s wrestling program, won’t be turning any heads with his style of coaching.He wouldn’t have it any other way.

A casual observer at the recent Princeton Invitational may have been a bit confused by the sight of the same Penn cross country runner crossing the finish line twice in a one-second span.

Going to a Penn football practice, everything has a structure. Each player knows where he is supposed to be, when he is supposed to be there and which coach will be working with him.