David Winfield ’13 will see some familiar faces at the University of Pennsylvania next season, as the center verbally agreed last night to play basketball at Penn, six months to the day after his twin sister Arielle Winfield ’13 chose the Quakers for volleyball.
“It’s going to be great,” Winfield said. “It didn’t have a huge impact as a deciding factor, but being around your sibling, especially your twin, there’s a certain pull that that has.”
On the court, rivals will become teammates as Winfield will join Loyola Cubs guards Julian Harrell and Miles Cartwright at Penn. He will also go head-to-head in the Ivy League against former Wolverine teammate and Harvard-commit Zena Edosomwan ’12.
“It’s not like I have a hatred for anyone from Loyola,” Winfield said. “It’s going to be different. Here we have a rivalry with them in basketball, but it’s not going to be like that because we’re going to be teammates. And it will be fun to play against [Edosomwan]. Can’t wait.”
In a reserve role last season, Winfield averaged five points, four rebounds and one block per game while shooting 66 percent from the field, but towards the end of the season he saw his minutes increase as well as his production. In the final league game of last season against Mission League champion Alemany, Winfield scored 19 points on 82 percent shooting to go with six blocks and 13 rebounds to propel the Wolverines into the playoffs.
Winfield began contact with them right after the high school season ended in February.
In April, the 6-foot-9, 260 lbs. big man fractured his right kneecap, and though doctors first thought it would heal on its own, an August x-ray showed surgery was necessary. Winfield expects to be cleared to play for the start of the basketball season.
Winfield will join a Quaker basketball squad that went 20-13 overall and 11-3 in Ivy League play last season.
“I love the city,” Winfield said. “When I went there for the first time, I could instantly see myself there.”
Winfield also considered Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale before making his decision following an extended phone conversation between Penn coach Jerome Allen and Winfield’s father.
“It feels almost as if it’s not real yet,” Winfield said.
