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Miles Cartwright was the impact freshman for men’s basketball last season. After playing with incoming freshmen Greg Louis and Patrick Lucas-Perry this summer, he said they will be contributors as well.

Credit: Pete Lodato , , ,

Each year, Penn basketball players get a taste of their newest incoming class by playing against or alongside the freshmen in Philadelphia summer leagues.

And in some cases, they watch current teammates rebound from injuries.

Sophomore Miles Cartwright and senior Tyler Bernardini ushered in Patrick Lucas-Perry and Greg Louis to Penn basketball on the Delaware County Pro-Am summer league’s Trad Jazz team. It was Cartwright and Bernardini’s job to welcome these newcomers and make them feel as comfortable as possible.

Cartwright believes many of the freshmen will make significant impacts in their upcoming rookie campaigns.

“Greg [Louis] is going to be phenomenal,” Cartwright said of the West Palm Beach native and Florida state champion. “He’s athletic, he likes to bang inside, and I think he’s going to turn a lot of heads.”

Cartwright also mentioned Louis’ strength and athleticism at forward and said he is the “perfect addition,” especially given Penn’s strong non-conference schedule against powerhouses like Pittsburgh, Duke and UCLA.

“I think he’s going to make a huge impact right away,” Cartwright said, a reasonable prediction considering the losses of Jack Eggleston and Conor Turley in the paint.

Lucas-Perry, who led his high-school squad to a Michigan High School Athletic Association state title in 2009, took the first few games this summer a bit slow as he was “finding his way and … learning what to do,” Cartwright said. Throughout the learning process, however, the guard remained “very composed.”

“He’s quick — can shoot it. He’s just a heady point guard,” Cartwright said.

The remaining freshmen — guard Camryn Crocker, swingman Simeon Esprit and forwards Henry Brooks and Keelan Cairns — did not play in Philadelphia this summer.

Brooks, who had received offers from several high majors prior to his commitment to Penn, is still rehabbing from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that he suffered during his senior year. His injury may sideline him the entire season.

Cairns and Esprit, who hail from Belfast, Ireland, and London, respectively, arrived at Penn in late August. Esprit was a key player on England’s U-18 team in the European Championships.

Outside the DelCo league, several other Quakers played on various teams across the Hank Gathers league in North Philadelphia.

After spending two weeks in Rwanda with teammate Dau Jok and another six weeks interning at Goldman Sachs, Rosen returned to Philadelphia to see Jok had “blown up” after putting in significant time in the weightroom. He joked that Jok “looks like a professional bodybuilder.”

Sophomore Marin Kukoc — son of former NBA player Toni Kukoc — also enjoyed a healthy summer after missing essentially his entire freshman campaign with a nagging back injury .

“The name of [Kukoc’s] game is health,” Rosen said, and added that Kukoc and Jok, if healthy, will both “add a lot of threes to the board.”

Cartwright said the entire team — from seniors down to freshmen — senses the urgency to win an Ivy championship.

“We all really want to win for ourselves, but we really just want to win for Zack and Tyler and the rest of the seniors,” he said.

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