Former Buckeyes player Penn is interested in head coach job
Former Ohio State team captain Scoonie Penn is interested in the school's men's basketball head coach job, The Dispatch has learned.
Penn is in his fifth year as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies. Before that, he spent two years on Chris Holtmann's staff as the director of player development before joining the Grizzlies and coach Taylor Jenkins in 2019. Holtmann was fired last week.
Prior to that, Penn began his college career at Boston College, where he was Big East rookie of the year in 1995-96 and first-team all-league in 1996-97 before following coach Jim O'brien to Ohio State. After sitting out 1997-98 due to the transfer rules at the time, Penn was Big Ten player of the year in 1998-99 as Ohio State went 27-9 and reached the Final Four for the first time since 1968. Penn was a captain in each of his final two seasons with the Buckeyes and finished with 1,076 points (15.8 per game). He was named a consensus second-team all-american in 2000 before starting an 11-year professional career.
He was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013 and joined Holtmann's staff prior to the 2017-18 season.
It is not clear if Penn's interest in the job is or will be reciprocated by Ohio State. Newly hired athletic director Ross Bjork will officially start with the university on March 1, and he will lead the coaching search with some assistance from the man he's replacing, Gene Smith. Former Ohio State assistant coach and four-year player Chris Jent is also interested in the job.