A fortunate friendship and famous father helped Sir Mohammed settle into his new life at Penn

Players transfer all the time in college basketball. But it’s not every day that a player you meet who’s looking to move to your school ends up convincing you to go in the exact opposite direction.

That’s what happened with new Penn guard junior Sir Mohammed and former Penn swingman Ethan Roberts.

Last spring, Roberts was looking for a place to use a fifth year of college eligibility, knowing he had to leave because the Ivy League bans graduate students from playing varsity sports.

A lifelong Notre Dame fan who grew up in suburban Chicago, his eyes turned to South Bend. The Fighting Irish were happy to recruit him. When Roberts visited the campus, he connected with Mohammed, a sophomore at the time.

Roberts knew Mohammed, who averaged 16 minutes, 5.7 points, and 2.6 rebounds last season, was in the transfer portal too. Eventually, they got to talking about that.

“He asked me what I was thinking in the portal — I was like, ‘Oh I’m just trying to figure it out,’” Mohammed recalled.

On the spot, Roberts turned from pitch receiver to pitch maker.

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“Me and Ethan were just sitting there talking, he’s asking me questions about Notre Dame — obviously he’s there now — and without even asking, he just starts talking about how amazing Penn is,” Mohammed said. “He’s like, ‘It’s the best place ever, I love it … You should try to go there.’”

Within a couple of weeks, Roberts told Penn coach Fran McCaffery, and the wheels started turning.

How this would all turn out for both players was not quite so obvious back then as it is today. But the coincidences kept coming.

Last Sunday, Roberts got his first win in three tries against Villanova. He scored 11 points in 32 minutes as the Irish rallied and the Wildcats collapsed in Rome.

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On Thursday, Penn plays its season opener at Illinois (8:30 p.m., FS1), the last team the Quakers faced in an official game. In another world, it would have been a homecoming for Roberts, who didn’t get to play in last March’s NCAA Tournament matchup due to effects from a concussion.

Now it will be Mohammed’s debut, as part of a squad picked first in the Ivy League preseason poll.

All in the wake of one lunch with two basketball players who know their way around hallowed college grounds.

“It was the weirdest thing,” Mohammed said to sum it all up.

But it wasn’t a fluke.

In a way, the ground was laid a year earlier by TJ Power’s transfer from Virginia to Penn. A five-star recruit to Duke who left there after one season, Power then left the Cavaliers after a coaching change. When he got to Penn, he not only took the Quakers back to the NCAA Tournament, but talked openly about how he was enjoying his life more overall.

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Once Mohammed was interested in Penn, Roberts connected him with Power.

“Me and TJ would talk on the phone before I committed,” Mohammed said. “He gave me good advice. We talked about how he felt after Duke and Virginia, and how he had to make a decision. We talked a lot about basketball and how great it would be to play for Fran, get your confidence back, get all that good feel[ing] back.”

At the same time, McCaffery knew he had a blueprint on his hands.

“I think it was a desire for Sir to find the right place, the right style of play,” he said. “He watched TJ, he watched it work for him, and he felt like it would make sense. And he visited, and our staff, myself, connected with him, and so did the players. It’s been an absolutely seamless transition for him.”

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The Ivy League is no different from any other conference anymore when it comes to players transferring in. And there are still plenty of old-timers who complain about players giving up the potential of a famous degree.

Now there’s a new course to offer. When players want to leave power-conference schools with high academics, McCaffery will try to get them to Penn.

“I hope people look at us as the best possible combination of academics and athletics,” McCaffery said. “There are still people out there that think that way, which is the way a lot of people thought for many years. But since pay for play came into being, it’s changed a little bit.”

He was not objecting. Penn plays the NIL game too, at a smaller but still consequential scale.

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“That’s become the focus for a lot of guys,” he said. “But there’s still many who understand the value of an Ivy League education and want that, and they both did.”

Mohammed had another notable voice to listen to. His father Nazr was a two-time national champion at Kentucky, then played 19 seasons in the NBA — the first 2 ½ with the 76ers.

“I’ve been here in passing,” Sir said. He recalled attending Sixers games as a high schooler, and learning a little about the Big 5 along the way.

“My dad, he [was] like, ‘You’re going to play in the Palestra and the Big 5?’” he said. “That’s things guys my dad’s age know about, and [he’s] excited.”

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Before you start checking how much hair you have left, Nazr is 49. He lives in Charlotte now, having raised Sir and two daughters with his wife, and gets to as many of all their games as he can. He was at Penn’s open intrasquad scrimmage last month, and is expected to be in the stands regularly this season.

Now it’s time for the son to make his own mark, with a team full of veterans that seems happy to welcome a major newcomer.

“It’s been a great decision,” Sir said. “Basketball-wise, it’s gotten me back confidence, gotten me back loving the game. It’s been really fun. … Those guys in the locker room have just made this experience great.”