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Penn announces guard Tony Hicks leaving team

10/30/2015, 4:45pm EDT
By Stephen Pianovich

Tony Hicks (above) is leaving Penn's basketball team, but staying in school and graduating in May. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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In an unexpected move, Penn announced senior guard – and returning leading scorer – Tony Hicks will not be playing basketball for the Quakers this season.

The 6-foot-2 guard from Chicago, a team captain this year and the Quakers' leading scorer the last two years, is staying at the school, however.

"After speaking with Coach (Steve) Donahue about the best situation for Penn Basketball and myself, I have decided the best decision for me will be to take a break from basketball," Hicks said in a statement.

"I plan to graduate from Penn in May, and then take my next step as a basketball player next year. This is a personal decision, and I wrestled long and hard with it because I have thoroughly enjoyed playing for Penn the last three years and wearing the Red and the Blue. I want to wish the guys on the team and the coaches all the best for this season and future seasons, and I will definitely be backing them in The Palestra during these next several months."

Multiple sources close to the program said the news came as a complete surprise. Hicks played in last weekend's Red & Blue Scrimmages and appeared to be in good spirits both during the exhibition as well as before and afterwards.

Hicks scored a team-best 13.2 points per game under former coach Jerome Allen last season, and he averaged double figures in all three seasons with the Quakers. Hicks had 1,060 points in 83 career games and also averaged 2.5 assists and 2.9 rebounds in his career.

The move will make first-year coach Steve Donahue have to shuffle his rotation with just two weeks until the season gets started. In a statement, Donahue said he and Hicks had some talks about this possibility in recent days and said he respects the decision.

"I wish him well, and we will continue to do all that we can to help Tony advance his game for his next step,” Donahue said. “As for this year's team, we will move forward and continue preparing for the upcoming season."

Hicks’ departure will open up plenty of minutes in the backcourt and could allow for larger roles for returning guards Antonio Woods and Darnell Foreman. It should also have an impact on the playing time for first-year players Jake Silpe and Jackson Donahue, who are part of Penn’s five-man freshman class.

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