City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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In the span of a month, Ethan Lin’s college plans changed rapidly. 

The Montgomery (N.J.) rising senior had been a Division I recruit for a couple years, a dozen scholarship offers in his pocket from various high-academic schools in the Northeast, several emerging as leaders for the 6-foot-4 guard’s services, including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Holy Cross, and Marist. Then, just ahead of the May live recruiting periods, Penn assistant Ben Luber reached out. 

A month later, Lin became the new Quakers staff’s first commitment, making his pledge public on social Monday night. He actually called up Penn coach Fran McCaffery last Wednesday night, June 11, after arriving home from the school on an official visit, knowing immediately he’d found his future school. 

“I think Penn was just overall the best fit for me, especially with the new hire, the new coaching staff,” he told CoBL. “Especially Coach McCaffery. His system of play just helps me get to my full potential and I feel that it’s probably the most comfortable, probably the best situation I can put myself in.”

Lin was a known commodity amongst Ivy league and Patriot League types since the end of his freshman year at Montgomery, a high-academic public school which has produced a number of D-I recruits under 20th-year head coach Kris Grundy. 

He didn’t pick up any offers until this spring but had a dozen by the time he made his decision. There were official visits to Marist and Brown earlier in the month, and he had planned to go to Holy Cross for an official visit the day after returning from Penn. 

That visit never happened. 

Two days in Philly, touring around the Palestra and University with the new Quaker staff and taking in meals at White Dog and Franklin’s Table, were all Lin and his family needed to see to be convinced he’d found the right spot. Lin already had a positive impression of Philadelphia basketball, having played in a number of events in the city with both his grassroots and high school teams, and the idea of going to college in the City of Brotherly Love was a big appeal as well.

“I really liked Penn and I really liked Philadelphia, and I feel like Philadelphia basketball is somewhere where I really want to be,” he said. “I think the Palestra’s a great place to play. It’s one of the most historic and famous arenas in basketball history. Hanging out with some of the guys on the team when I was visiting helped me get a feel with Penn, and the Big 5 is super-amazing and I’m super-excited to play in that.”

Born in Sweden to Benny Lin, a former professional tennis player from Taiwan, and Sinna Pang, an interior designer whose family was originally from Hong Kong, Lin moved to Hong Kong when he was just a few months old, spending his first few years there. He then moved to Orange County in California, spent his eighth grade year in Madrid, Spain and then finally arrived in New Jersey, a barely-six-foot-tall ninth grader with a love for hoops and an international flair. 

“Benny’s very humble, he was just like ‘my kid’s really into basketball’ [...] he wasn’t saying ‘we have an all-state player coming in,’” Grundy recalled. “He was the first one to say ‘I don’t understand basketball, basketball’s not my thing.

“To say that I envisioned everything he became the first time I laid eyes on him, I would say no.”

Lin (above, in 2022) started his freshman year at Montgomery after an injury to an upperclassman. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Before too long, though, Grundy figured out he had something good in the young guard. Due to a preseason injury, Lin was a starter as a freshman, and never gave that spot up. He passed the 1,000-point mark as a junior despite missing half of his sophomore year due to injury.

It took a couple years of Lin’s continual growth as a player and up to his current height for Grundy to see the potential he currently sees in his latest D-I player, who’s following in the footsteps of Ryan Curry (West Point), Chris Rubayo (Lafayette) and others to come out of Montgomery in recent years. This past season, he averaged 19.7 ppg and hit 90 3-pointers as Montgomery went 25-6, losing to Plainfield in the NJSIAA Group 4 state championship game.

According to Grundy, Luber initially reached out to him to inquire about Curry, who had been in the transfer portal in April before electing to return to West Point. It was Curry who told Luber about Lin; Luber followed up with Grundy, who sent him tape from the past season. 

Luber was immediately interested. The Penn staff watched Lin play with the NJ ShoreShots at the Under Armour stop in May, and clearly liked what they saw. 

“He’s an unbelievably shifty guard,” Grundy said. “Those fast-twitch muscles that people talk about, that’s what he has. He changes speeds and tempo so well. To have that kind of size as a point guard is really impressive. He shot 40% from ‘3’ last year [...] he’s just a tremendous player, tremendous leader. Penn definitely got a good one.”

“I think having lived in a lot of places, it just helps me learn how to adapt and how to adapt quick and embrace change and stuff,” Lin said. “I think that year when I played in Spain helped me develop a lot as a player, especially as a point guard, because European basketball is very different but it’s also fundamentally sound.

“A big part of why I committed so early is so I can just work on my game and not have to worry about any of this recruiting stuff and just prepare to be able to contribute my freshman year,” he added. “A big part is just getting in the weight room, gaining some weight, getting a lot stronger for college.”

The first member of Penn’s 2026 class, Lin is a good first sign for a staff that’s hoping to get Penn back to its winning ways. 

The Quakers were long one of the Ivy league’s powerhouses, going to 22 NCAA Tournaments between 1970 and 2007, but have only been once in the 17 seasons since. Former coach Steve Donahue got off to a strong start, winning 24 games and an Ivy League title in 2018, but lost momentum since then, the program trending downwards to finish with just eight wins this past season.

McCaffery, a La Salle College HS alum, who was part of two different NCAA trips after transferring to Penn from Wake Forest, arrived at his alma mater this season having taken all four of his previous head coaching spots — Lehigh, UNC-Greensboro, Siena and Iowa — all to March Madness. 

“He was really, really excited for his new spot and he was really excited bringing in new players and just to kind of prove Penn basketball is back,” Lin said. 

Lin’s hoping he’s the first piece to help bring them there.