Fanaroff | Patience is a virtue in selection

It’s been nearly three weeks since the men’s basketball season ended, and the head coach job is still vacant.

And you know what? I’m okay with that. Steve Bilsky, take your time.

While some Penn basketball fans have grown frustrated that interim coach Jerome Allen has not yet been officially hired, the Penn job demands a thorough, detailed search, and all options need to be explored before a decision is announced.

Sure, there are implications of not having a head coach in place, not the least of which has to do with recruits.

But would missing out on Kevin Panzer or an equally talented 2011 recruit truly make-or-break the program the same way as hiring a head coach will?

Look at the way Tommy Amaker has transformed the Harvard program. In just three years — before his first recruits have even become seniors — Amaker took a floundering Ivy program and created a culture of winning.

The Crimson may not have won the Ivies, but they do have consecutive wins over the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Boston College.

I don’t want to belittle the job interim coach Jerome Allen has done, nor do I want to rule out the possibility that Allen will be hired.

He far exceeded anyone’s expectations when he took over as interim head coach in December. No one expected Penn to beat Cornell this year, and few even thought the Quakers could win six games.

But there’s no way to know if this team performed as well as it could have under the perfect coach. The Quakers did, after all, lose three Ivy contests that were close in the final minute under Allen’s leadership.

While Allen’s support among the players is a major advantage, it should by no means be a deciding factor. Sophomore co-captain Zack Rosen may be the team’s best player now and a vocal supporter of Allen’s, but he will only be at Penn for two more years. A coach will hopefully last much longer.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a search — and I’ve done a lot of searches — where the team doesn’t support the incumbent or an internal person,” Bilsky said.

Last week, The Daily Pennsylvanian wrote an editorial supporting Allen if he’s chosen for the job. I, too, will support Allen if he’s chosen. But if Bilsky determines there’s someone else, I’ll throw my support behind him as well.

Allen may be the right guy for the job; I don’t know enough to say otherwise. But not taking the time for a complete process would be a folly. Only after a thorough process should anyone have faith that the appropriate person is leading the Quakers onto the court next season.

NEIL FANAROFF is a senior economics major from Potomac, Md. and is former Design Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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