Following the departure of Penn top assistant coach Chris Sparks to coach his alma mater, Wilbraham & Monson Academy, in Massachusetts, Glen Miller has hired John Gallagher to take Sparks’s place on the staff. Gallagher is a 1999 graduate of Saint Joseph’s and has assistant coaching experience at La Salle, Lafayette, and — most recently — at Hartford.
Slant: The loss of Sparks and his recruiting contacts and ability is a blow, but Miller had added a key assistant with major local connections. Fran Dunphy had a long list of Philadelphia-area recruits who went on to star at Penn, and Miller hasn’t recruited in his own backyard quite as much. Gallagher assisted two head coaches with Penn ties — former Quaker assistant Fran O’Hanlon at Lafayette and Penn alumnus Dan Leibovitz at Hartford.