Madison - Whoever is on the floor with Kirk Penney this season is bound to
get some good looks at the basket.
As the lone scoring threat returning to the University of Wisconsin men's
basketball team, Penney, a 6-foot-5 junior guard, will be the focal point of
most defenses.
But when those double-teams and traps come, first-year coach Bo Ryan sees a
player who is more capable of finding the open man.
"He finds people better now than what I remember from all the films
last year," Ryan said. "And it had nothing to do with the coach last
year, so don't read that into it. I'm just saying last year, it didn't seem
like he was looking for the open guy as much."
Penney's improved passing gets its first test tonight when the Badgers play
host to the EA Sports All-Stars in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. at the Kohl
Center.
Penney, who is Wisconsin's leading returning scorer at 11.2 points per game,
averaged 1.1 assists per game last season. In Big Ten games, his scoring rose
to 12.8 points per contest but his assists dropped to 0.9 per game.
With the Badgers made up of young, inexperienced players, that statistic
will have to rise this season.
"I'm trying to still have him think as a shooter but also I'd like to
have him keep distributing the ball the way he is when he starts getting people
cheating on him," Ryan said.
Overall, Penney is having good practices, picking up where he left off last
season when he averaged a team-high 14.3 points per game during the final 11
games. Noticeably bulked up, he is consistently hitting three-pointers while
displaying more strength to get to the basket.
Appeared in the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 10, 2001.
