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Report: Jerome Allen out at Penn after regular season

03/07/2015, 2:00pm EST

By Jeff Neiburg

Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg)
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The University of Pennsylvania has decided to let go of head coach Jerome Allen.

As first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Goodman, the university has informed Allen that his time as coach will come to an end following the regular season, which ends Tuesday night at the Palestra against Princeton. CoBL has since confirmed that report.

The Quakers are 8-18 on the year after last night’s win against Columbia, and are dead last in the Ivy League at 3-9.

Allen, a graduate of Penn’s 1995 class, took over at his alma mater in December of 2009 after Penn fired Glen Miller.

In a little less than six seasons, Allen led the Quakers to just one winning campaign, a 20-13 record (11-3) in the Ivy League, but the Quakers finished second that year to Ivy champion Harvard. That was the only season under Allen in which the Quakers finished above .500 in league play.

Alumni have been calling for this change to be made for the last few seasons, but it was thought around the area that Allen would get the opportunity to last another year or two – especially when considering the recruiting class he was bringing to campus next fall.

Penn has Cherry Hill East’s Jake Silpe and Lower Merion wing Jule Brown both coming to University City next year. There’s also Jackson Donahue and Colin McManus, an inside-outside duo from New England. Tack on three others to that class to join the likes of Sam Jones, Mike Auger, Antonio Woods and Darnell Foreman, and the Quakers have a talented group of underclassmen.

They’re also returning leading scorer Tony Hicks and starting big man Darien Nelson-Henry, without losing any significant contributors.

But that roster will be left for someone else to inherit.

Goodman speculated that former Cornell and Boston College coach Steve Donahue would be a candidate for the opening. Two other former Penn players who are now coaching at Division I schools and could end up in the mix are Robert Morris’ Andy Toole and Colgate’s Matt Langel.