Quakers add eight to roster

After a dismal 2009-10 season, in what area does the Penn men's basketball team need the most help from next year's newcomers?

“We were a 6-22 team last year,” forward Jack Eggleston said. “We need help everywhere.”

In the Class of 2014 recruits, which were officially announced yesterday, it appears Eggleston got his wish. The class features eight high school standouts, four forwards and four guards.

Half of the incoming freshmen — Fran Dougherty, Casey James, Dau Jok and Steve Rennard — have also been playing alongside Eggleston in the DelCo Summer League for team Trad Jazz and have impressed their soon-to-be senior leader.

“It’s a good group of kids,” Eggleston said. “They work hard in the gym [and] they play hard when we get out there on the floor.”

According to James, strong academics and a storied tradition remain the two biggest attractions of the Penn program. After the Quakers’ rebuilding period, it appears a third item can be added to that list: head coach Jerome Allen.

“When I found out coach Allen was the head coach, that made me want to come even more because he has such great history here,” said James, a two-time All-South Coast League selection at Capistrano Valley High School (Calif.).

Back in February, James’ classmate Marin Kukoc voiced similar sentiments and in March, Jok even suggested that half of the recruits would have decommitted had Allen not been hired.

But while seven of the eight members of the class had been anticipated for months, the group includes an unexpected member in Miramonte High School (Calif.) product Chris Hatfield.

Matadors basketball coach Dave Brown called the six-foot-five, 205-pound Hatfield an “undersized” Division I post player. As a result, few D-I schools showed interest in him, and Hatfield eventually chose Penn over several academically strong D-III schools, including California Polytechnic State University and Swarthmore College.

According to Brown, Hatfield has reached an agreement with the coaches at Penn to be placed on the JV team at the start of next season. But, Brown said, don’t write him off because of that.

“Especially his senior year (18.5 points, 6.7 rebounds per game), he showed that he can score against players much bigger than he is,” Brown said.

Though Hatfield will have to work on his perimeter game to earn playing time at Penn, “he has more inside moves than most Division I college players,” Brown added.

As far as the roles of the other incoming freshmen are concerned, Eggleston said that they will be determined once the team finds out how several of its upperclassmen have recovered from injuries (the coaches could not be reached for comment). And Eggleston’s recruiting class is a testament to how quickly things can change.

The rising senior recalled a day after the Class of 2011 had been announced when he was eating lunch with his five classmates, discussing who would “make it” with the team.

Three of those other five then-freshmen? Harrison Gaines, now at California-Riverside, Remy Cofield, who left the Penn team and Tyler Bernardini, still a junior after redshirting last season.

So three years later, “we’re down to three,” Eggleston said.

A dose of reality on a day that’s all about hope and potential.

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