Penney at home with the Badgers

By Mark Stewart of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Dec. 10, 1999

Madison -- As Kirk Penney is prone to saying, his American adventure has been "awesome." The University of Wisconsin men's basketball recruit from New Zealand has been practically adopted by his Badgers teammates. He spent his first Thanksgiving with Charlie Wills and his family in Illinois, where the pumpkin pie was so delicious that it still makes Penney smile. Later this month, there will be Christmas in Waukesha with Julian Swartz and his family. The 6-foot-5 freshman guard is more than 8,000 miles away from his hometown of Auckland, yet feels at home with the Badgers. "I thought I would feel out of place, going to Thanksgiving especially, but they really did welcome me, which was awesome," Penney said. Penney's comfort zone on the basketball court is expanding, too.

He spent the first six games of the season on the bench as the team's fourth or fifth guard. That wasn't even in the rotation. But he played so well in practice that coach Dick Bennett was finding it hard to deny him playing time. After Penney hit 2 of 3 three-pointers and scored eight points in 13 minutes of mop-up duty against Rhode Island on Dec. 3, Bennett could deny him no longer. In the two games since, Penney has been the first player off the bench. Perhaps the Badgers' search for another scorer is nearing an end. "His offensive skills are really the best on our team besides, maybe, for (Mark) Vershaw," said Bennett, whose team faces South Florida at 6 tonight in Tampa. "He's very sound. He's got that presence about him, that poise. You can see it when you watch players. It's always been there." Penney's poise is why he is in Madison to begin with.

Tony Bennett, Dick's son, played and coached on the New Zealand club team on which Penney played. The composure Penney exhibited as a 17- and 18-year-old playing with men between 25 and 35 caught Tony's attention. The youngster's game kept it. Soon Tony called home to tell of a possible recruit with big-time offensive skills. Badgers assistant coach Brad Soderberg went to New Zealand for a closer look. He obviously liked what he saw.

"Comparing him, thinking of high school kids here his age, I think he would have torn up the leagues here from a scoring standpoint," Tony Bennett said. Penney jumped at the scholarship.

This was, after all, his dream. Although he has the physique to be a good rugby player (the sport of choice in New Zealand), the game never excited him like basketball. Getting to play in the college game in the United States was his goal. "I really didn't know what to expect," he said. "I'd watched college ball on TV. Seeing I'm going to be that age, I wanted to play in that. But it wasn't until I got here that I saw how really awesome this facility is. And how awesome everything is. "In March, I went to the Big Ten tournament and that's when I got a feel for it. I was like, 'Wow!' Watching the Michigan States and the Ohio States and all those people. . . . It was a whole other deal. Totally different." Instead of playing in front of crowds that were at best 2,000 people back home, he now plays in front of home crowds that average more than 14,000. The brand of ball is also different, predicated on quickness as much as strength. Playing in front of the big crowds is - what else? - "awesome," according to Penney. Defending explosive players is a challenge. Physically, he matches up fine. He weighs 205 pounds and, according to Dick Bennett, is "rugby tough." But quickness is tough to simulate in practice and up until this week, Penney's game experience was limited. Still, he has shown flashes of potential in his new role.

Against Green Bay on Wednesday, he finished with six points, making 2 of 3 from three-point range in 13 minutes. The night before against Texas, he scored five points, making 1 of his 2 three-pointers in 17 minutes. He seems ready-made for the banging of the Big Ten. Plus, he is playing with a three-point line 1 foot closer to the basket than the Olympic distance that is used on the courts in New Zealand. He's a long way from home, but coming to United States has been worth sacrifice.

"I've wanted it for so long that no matter how hard it was, I was willing to go through it," Penney said. "And to tell the truth, it hasn't been too bad. I can talk to my parents, talk to my family. And my brother is coming over. It's going to be awesome to see some family." Awesome, indeed.

Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Dec. 11, 1999