Manthey at last makes it on the court

In the Ivy League, it's rare for an athlete to sit out his freshman season. Since there is a ban on "redshirting" in the Ivy League, first-year athletes normally miss time due to injuries.

But Lorenz Manthey sat out his freshman season for another reason.

The Wharton sophomore from Hamburg, Germany, is looking forward to playing his first game for the Red and Blue this year after being declared ineligible last year by the NCAA for his previous experience with professional basketball programs in his native country.

After a letter submitted by the Penn Compliance Office to the NCAA on his behalf and a long waiting game, Manthey got word back last winter that he would be eligible to play this season.

The guard will have to sit out the first seven games of this season as well, but he will be back in time to help the Quakers during their Ivy League schedule.

Manthey did not anticipate taking his skills overseas until he participated in an exchange program with Westchester Academy in North Carolina in 2000. He led the team to a 30-2 record and a North Carolina state championship, earning all-league honors in the process.

Manthey went back to Hamburg to complete his final year of high school, intent on returning to the United States for college.

"I definitely could have played professionally in Germany if I wanted to, especially being young," Manthey said. "But I always wanted to get a good education along with basketball."

Manthey came to Penn with quite a record, being named all-state every year he was in Germany from 1997-2002. He also finished in the top 3 percent of his high school class.

As part of his research on American colleges, Manthey spoke with one of his former teammates on the German national team -- then-Penn sophomore forward Jan Fikiel.

"I spoke to him a few times during the year telling him about the coaches and the program," Fikiel said. "I wasn't surprised that he came here because I told him how awesome it was."

"We've known each other from the time we were 13," Manthey said. "He's a really good guy."

Manthey even altered his playing schedule in Germany to ensure American eligibility.

"I heard about the rules here," he said. "So I didn't play [professionally] anymore and started to concentrate fully on college ball."

However, Manthey just did not learn enough of the rules in time for his first year -- he found out late in the process that he may be ineligible to play when he got to West Philadelphia because of his experience with the German professional team TXU Energie Braunschweig in high school.

He never accepted money from the team, which is what he thought was the only regulation preventing him from playing.

"I knew about the money rules and didn't take any for that reason," Manthey said. "But the NCAA decided that if I competed in that league, that was a problem.

"It is usual practice in Germany, so I didn't know that would be a problem here."

Manthey said that it was most likely his exposure to professional players that made the NCAA declare him ineligible.

"Competing on that level is an advantage valuable to any player," he said.

Manthey still came to campus and spent the entire season practicing with the team, while Penn Compliance Coordinator D. Elton Cochran-Fikes worked on getting Manthey eligible.

"It was fairly straight forward," Cochran-Fikes said of the process of petitioning the NCAA. "He was reinstated as an amateur, nothing unexpected."

Penn teammates and coaches see Manthey's year of practice as being beneficial to his role on the team and development in the offense.

"It helped him out a lot," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "He knows more than the average newcomer would."

"He knew he wasn't going to be playing, so it wasn't easy for him," Fikiel said. "But he stuck with it and practiced the whole year, even though he knew he wasn't going to be able to play."

Manthey struggled through it, but says he felt like a part of the team the entire way.

"The team chemistry was really good, so guys on the team really helped me out in the times that I didn't know what decision [the NCAA] would make," he said.

Fikiel noted that Manthey's role last year was nothing new to the team, as transfers Eric Heil and Eric Osmundson each spent the 2002-03 season practicing but not participating in games due to rules regulating transfer play.

Fikiel also said that Manthey's skills will fill important gaps for the Quakers.

"He's a really good pull-up shooter and can knock down the three really well, which we lost a big threat in Jeff Schiffner" to graduation, Fikiel said. "He is one of the players that will give us some outside shooting and will also do a pretty good job running the point, giving [Osmundson] a few breathers."

Now just weeks away from his first game with the Quakers, Manthey feels he is ready.

"I'm hoping to play a solid game, shoot good shots, get other players involved and filling the role that's appropriate," he said. "I'm excited."

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