With two weeks already elapsed since the conclusion of the Penn men’s basketball season, the hype surrounding the search for a permanent successor to former coach Glen Miller is intensifying.
While interim-coach Jerome Allen has emerged as a popular choice, the Penn Athletics department has remained quiet about other possible candidates.
However, two coaches that have been speculated upon as logical contenders, Robert Morris assistant coach Andrew Toole and Hartford head coach Dan Leibovitz have confirmed that they are not actively being pursued for the job.
As former Penn students who have turned to coaching, both Toole and Leibovitz entered the discussion based on their extensive ties to the basketball community.
Upon Miller’s dismissal, Athletic Director Steve Bilsky emphasized the role of the next Penn basketball coach as a community builder.
“I think of us as a community-building activity,” he said in December. “[It’s] an important quality to have, to generate enthusiasm and hope and faith and goodwill and do all of those things.”
In three seasons with Northeastern conference powerhouse Robert Morris, Toole was part of a coaching staff that compiled a 73-31 record and reached the NCAA tournament the past two seasons. As a No. 15-seed this season, the Colonials took Villanova to overtime in their first round game before losing 73-70.
But according to Toole, a co-captain of the 2002-03 Quakers team that went 14-0 in Ivy play under then head coach Fran Dunphy, he has not been approached regarding the head coaching job.
“I haven’t been contacted by anyone. I don’t plan on being contacted by anyone,” he said.
Meanwhile, rumors about Hartford coach Dan Leibovitz surged last weekend when he was seen around Weightman Hall and the Palestra.
Leibovitz became an assistant coach at Temple in 1996 but left the Owls in April 2006 to take his current job at Hartford.
However he referred to rumors that claimed he was in Philadelphia to interview for the position as “ludicrous.”
“It’s ridiculous — I was wearing a sweatsuit,” he said.
Instead, Leibovitz insisted that he he came to Penn to see assistant coaches John Gallagher and Mike Martin. Gallagher was a former assistant coach with Leibovitz at Hartford.
Once a teammate of Allen’s at Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, Pa., Leibovitz fully endorsed Allen as the best choice for the head coaching position.
“I want Jerome to get the job,” he said.
This article was changed to reflect that Dan Leibovitz was not a teammate of Allen's at Penn, as the original version stated.
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