Cardinal O’Hara’s Molly Rullo commits to Drexel, following family’s legacy

Molly Rullo was raised in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The daughter of Jim and Maureen (Michaels) Rullo, both former Drexel hoopers, has been around the school’s gym since before she could walk. Her early memories were at age 6, when the Dragons won the 2013 WNIT as Hollie Mershon lifted Drexel past Utah for the program’s first major postseason title.

She watched Bailey Greenberg dominate the then-Colonial Athletic Association from 2016-20, and celebrated when Hannah Nihill and Keishana Washington led the way to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021.

As she grew up, developing into one of the area’s best ballplayers, with more than a dozen schools extending scholarship offers, her parents made sure she knew that her college decision was her own. But all roads led back to 34th and Market. The Cardinal O’Hara standout junior announced her commitment to Drexel on social media Thursday evening.

Quinnipiac, St. Joseph’s, and Bucknell made the strongest push of the schools that offered her. But they couldn’t overcome all the built-in intangibles that Drexel held.

“Ultimately, what set Drexel apart was being closer to home,” Molly said. “The environment, the city that they play in, the history.”

Jim and Maureen emphasized that they encouraged their oldest daughter to keep her options open for as long as she could.

“They made me really open my eyes to a lot of other schools besides Drexel,” she said. “They made me go out and visit a couple of schools where I didn’t think I was interested at first; they allowed me to see the whole process for what it was and I’m very happy for that.”

While Molly narrowed her list of schools, taking visit after visit, Drexel stayed at the forefront. Eventually, that front-running status became too much to ignore, and Molly told her parents she was ready to call head coach Amy Mallon and make it official.

They, obviously, weren’t complaining.

“I just told her that I had a great experience at Drexel, your dad had a great experience there, but this is your experience,” said Maureen Rullo, who scored more than 1,200 points in a Drexel uniform from 1996-00. “All along, my only goal was that she went through the entire recruiting process and she was open-minded about it. At the end of it now, we can say that she was, and the fact that she kept coming back to Drexel, it makes me excited for her.”

“I’m sure the familiarity with being around the program a number of years helped, but they still recruited her hard and showed that they wanted her,” added Jim Rullo, who played at Drexel from 1990-94, averaging 11.4 points and 4.2 assists as a senior, and is the head men’s basketball coach at Neumann University. “She handled it very well; she has a work ethic and ability to see things and appreciate opportunity.”

The 5-foot-10 wing has established herself as one of the better two-way players in the area during her underclassman years of high school.

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Molly burst into the scene as a freshman as a consistent starter for a Lions team that won the Catholic League and PIAA Class 5A championships in 2021. Playing alongside future Division I players in Maggie Doogan (Richmond), Sydni Scott (Marshall), and Annie Welde (Villanova), Rullo didn’t need to be the star but was plenty productive.

Her sophomore year, she became the on-court leader, averaging 17 points and six rebounds. She also expanded her game to the three-point arc, knocking down 38% of her shots from deep. O’Hara didn’t win any titles, losing in the Catholic League semifinals (to Archbishop Wood) and PIAA 6A semifinals (to Archbishop Carroll), but Rullo earned First-Team All-Catholic honors.

Drexel was the first school to offer her after her freshman year. More schools followed this spring after seeing her with Comets Basketball, an AAU team, on the Under Armour circuit.

“Coach Mallon told me from the start that this was my [recruitment], she wanted me for me, not because of my parents,” Molly said. “She wanted me because she liked how I played as a player and a person, and she made that clear from the start.”

At Drexel, Molly said she’s looking forward to being teammates with a couple of former high school foes. Grace O’Neill, a sophomore point guard, is a Comets alum who played at Archbishop Carroll. Laine McGurk, a West Chester Rustin product, played against O’Hara the last two seasons. Nihill, another Comets and O’Hara alum, is on the coaching staff.

Next year, the Dragons are joining the Big 5, one season behind the men. Winning a Big 5 title, Molly admitted, would “be pretty cool, because [her parents] didn’t get to play in it. I’d be the one Rullo to be able to do that.”

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Rullo is one of the preseason favorites for PCL Player of the Year. O’Hara is also a team that’ll be in the mix for Catholic League and state titles with four starters returning, including senior guard Joanie Quinn (committed to La Salle) and talented sophomore point guard Megan Rullo, Molly’s younger sister.

Megan also holds an offer from Drexel. Similar to how her parents approached playing at the college level, Molly is going to let her younger sister go through the recruiting process without any influence.

“I still have two more years of high school with her, my sister’s — my sister, and I’m not going to force her to go to Drexel or this and that, I’m going to let her have her own process,” Molly said. “But if she does end up choosing Drexel, which I know she loves, I’m totally in for it.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.