Everybody, that is,
except
Penney gathered the
Badgers in the hushed Spokane Arena and said, "It's cool. It's cool.
There's always a way to win."
And then Penney went
out and showed them how against Weber State in an NCAA Tournament Midwest
Regional first-round game here Thursday night.
Penney fed freshman
Boo Wade for a layup and Clayton Hanson for yet
another, and then banked home a jumper to start an 8-0 run to close out the end
of the half for the Badgers, who took a 41-26 lead at the break.
That sparked a fire
that never went out for the fifth-seeded Badgers, who rolled to a convincing
81-74 victory over the No. 12 Wildcats. The UW next will play No. 13 seed
"That's how we
played to win the Big Ten Conference," gushed UW coach Bo Ryan after the
Badgers (23-7) ended the Wildcats' 17-game winning streak and earned a measure
of respect in the process.
The Badgers, who set a
school record for most wins in a season, were supposed to be the team waiting
to be upset. All they heard was how the Big Sky Conference champion would turn
the Big Ten regular-season champion on its ear behind the scoring prowess of
senior guard Jermaine Boyette.
But it was the Badgers
who frustrated the Wildcats (26-6) by shooting 53.4 percent during the
entertaining game and getting a tremendous defensive effort on Boyette by Wade and Owens.
Penney led the Badgers
with 21 points and nine rebounds while sophomore forward Mike Wilkinson added
15 and nine rebounds. Sophomore point guard Devin Harris had the best stat line
of the night with 14 points, five assists, a career-high five steals, one block
and no turnovers.
Junior forward
Slobodan Ocokoljic led the Wildcats with 26 points. Boyette added 25, with 13 coming in the final three minutes
during the Wildcats' last-ditch comeback attempt.
Freshman forward Alando Tucker, who had 11 points, recalled a moment earlier
this week when he was watching ESPN with Penney and heard what seemed like a
consensus of pundits pick Weber State to beat the Badgers.
"I told Kirk that
if we want respect we have to earn it," Tucker said. "Me and Kirk looked at each other and from that moment on we
knew what we had to do."
Penney enjoyed the
last laugh. "Stick this, right?" he said jokingly.
"But that doesn't
matter to us," he added. "We just want to continue to keep working
and it will take care of itself."
The Badgers certainly
came out with a sense of urgency that was lacking during their 58-50
first-round loss to
The game opened at a
torrid pace as the Badgers made 11 of their first 13 shots to open a 20-16
lead. "That was awesome," Penney said. "We were getting a little
winded and I could tell they were. I felt it. It's great to be in a game like
that with both teams just going at it."
The Badgers led 33-26
with
Wilkinson said Penney
was never better than during that 8-0 run that followed Owens' injury.
"He was the
backbone out there for our team," Wilkinson said. "That's what you
expect from a senior."
The Badgers countered
every one of the Wildcats' runs in the second half and steadily increased their
lead back to 66-51 with
Boyette, meantime, had just
four points in the second half until the game was virtually out of reach.
"I knew after
Freddie hurt his (foot) that I'd have to step up even harder because one of our
best defenders was out," Wade said. "I was just doing the same thing
Freddie was doing guarding him and that was slowing down his penetration."
"That's the
beauty of the NCAA Tournament, seeing all these seniors just working for
everything," Penney said. "I knew that they had five, six seniors and
I knew they'd be tough. And they were. It was great to see our young guys step
up and assume a similar type of role."
