PENNEY VALUE IS ON THE RISE THE SOPHOMORE LEADS THE BIG TEN IN 3-POINT SHOOTING, AND ALSO IS MORE AGGRESSIVE GOING TO THE BASKET.
Wisconsin State Journal; Madison, Wis.; Feb 18, 2001; Vic Feuerherd

When Tony Bennett first met Kirk Penney, he wasn't quite sure if Penney was precocious or prehistoric in his approach to basketball.

In that first one-on-one session, a day when a New Zealand junior coach came to a practice of Bennett's pro team to see how his player measured up, Penney, an Auckland teen-ager, split the lip of Bennett and one of his teammates. That left enough of an impression to be invited back. In a practice a few weeks later, Bennett departed the floor with a broken nose courtesy of the kid.

"I didn't know if he was dumb or good," Bennett says now with a laugh. "But I did know he showed an uncanny ability to be poised and shoot the ball."

Now it's a few years later and Bennett is an assistant coach with the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team. One of his prized pupils is Penney, who is maturing into one of the most deadly shooters in the Big Ten Conference.

Penney's poise is evident every time he lifts for a 3-pointer. He certainly is not dumb. He is good. He's getting even better.

"I'm starting to play closer to the way I expect myself to play instead of being so one-dimensional," said Penney, a sophomore guard. "It's a matter of getting a feel out there and trying to do whatever you can do to help the team."

One dimension stands out for Penney, no matter how well-rounded his game is becoming. When he takes the floor at the Kohl Center today for the 19th-ranked Badgers' game against Northwestern, he will go in as the Big Ten's best 3-point shooter in a league play.

Penney dials the right number from long distance at a 48.3 percent clip, a statistic boosted by a 60-percent accuracy rate in his last four conference games (15 of 25). In those games, he is averaging 17.5 points, a much-needed shot in the arm for the Badgers' offense. He is averaging 10.9 overall.

Still, as the season progresses, Penney repeatedly demonstrates that his game is more than just a long-range jumper. In the closing seconds of Tuesday's last-second 68-67 loss at Illinois, just 2 minutes after missing two key free throws, Penney's dribble-drive drew a foul and led to two free throws that gave the Badgers a 67-66 lead with 9.5 seconds left.

"Thankfully, another opportunity came up and I wanted to try and prove myself again," Penney said. "I'm more aggressive because I feel I'm going to make it when I shoot. Maybe it's just my confidence is growing."

His skill, too. Penney recently took a tip from Bennett and translated it into success. He is concentrating on falling forward on his jumper, a sign Bennett says is one of a good shooter. After Thursday's practice, Penney nailed 27 3-pointers in a row. In a similar 30-minute post-practice session Friday, he hit 20 straight.

"I try to make 10 in a row before I leave, and if I feel good, I'll just keep going," he said.

And going and going and going.

In the Illinois game, Penney hit four of six 3-point attempts. Considering his current streak, that is not all that remarkable. But the fact that it came on the road is. Penney always has been good at home, where he has hit 27 of 50 3-point shots this season. But his numbers on the road (25 of 69) did not rise until recently. In the season opener at Tennessee, he missed all 13 of his shots and nine 3- point attempts.

"He's becoming more of a road player and you can't become a great player unless you can do both," UW coach Brad Soderberg said.

You also can't be a great shooter if you can't overcome what happened to Penney at Tennessee.

"I was listening to Charles Barkley the other night," Bennett said of the former NBA great-turned-TV analyst. "He was talking about (Miami Heat guard) Tim Hardaway, who had gone something like 0-for- 17 in a game. Barkley kept calling him a great shooter because only great shooters would be willing to miss 17 shots because they always expect the next one to go in. As I listened to him, I thought, That's Kirk.'"

Penney's intention now is to help the Badgers. He spent much of last year's late-season run on the periphery. This year he is in the thick of things.

"We're coming to the most important part of the season and I want to keep driving toward that finish line," he said.