UW's Fab Three

Dany Heatley, Kirk Penney and Nina Smith step onto the UW campus as freshmen with great expectations.

10/4/99

Andy Baggot Sports reporter

 

[Note:  This article has been condensed to the parts containing Penney]

 

They come from different countries and upbringings. They have wide-ranging burdens and skills. They harbor diverse dreams and expectations for the future.

But this is a story about all that they share, how Dany Heatley, Kirk Penney and Nina Smith came to pose for a photograph on a pristine autumn afternoon in a place far from home.

They are 18-year-old student-athletes at the University of Wisconsin, celebrated freshmen we can expect to hear a lot about in the coming months.

Penney is a curiosity to followers of the UW men's basketball team, a long-range shooting specialist from Auckland, New Zealand, who averaged 32 points per game for his country during the under-20 Australian Championships earlier this year. The next time Penney returns to his homeland, it will be to try out for the Australian Olympic team.

The three came to Madison under different circumstances and for different reasons. But in the coming years, Heatley, Penney and Smith can expect to travel many of the same paths. Their lives will be scrutinized and discussed by thousands of strangers. Their efforts will be celebrated as well as criticized. Their thoughts will become news. Their comings and goings will be chronicled on videotape and in print. Their horizons will be broadened.

They know all this. And they can hardly wait.

A bright, shiny Penney

The first time Kirk Penney came to Madison, which was early this summer, his first stop was University Hospital. Seems he embarked on the long flight from his homeland shortly after playing in a tournament and was quite dehydrated. His condition worsened during the 30-plus-hour journey to the point Penney needed to have fluids administered intravenously as soon as he touched down.

Despite the inauspicious start, Penney got huge benefits from the month-long visit because he became familiar with the campus, the city and those associated with the Badgers. It made coming back here in late August a lot easier.

"If I (had) come in in August for the first time and had everything thrown at me, it might have been too much," Penney said. "I knew what routine I would be getting into."

Penney, who is 6-5 and 205 pounds, is advertised as a tremendous outside shooting guard who could help fill the perimeter scoring void created with the departure of guard Sean Mason. Penney played in New Zealand for Tony Bennett, the son of UW coach Dick Bennett. Since Tony Bennett was a terrific three-point shooter while playing for his father at UW-Green Bay, the sense is both men would have a good idea of what Penney can bring to the table.

Penney, armed with a breezy personality and an imitable Down Under accent, has a hard time believing he has been given such an opportunity. "I appreciate everything so much," he said. "It's been a dream of mine since I was 10 years old."

Growing up, Penney was active in rugby, cricket, tennis and volleyball. But he eventually fell in love with basketball and developed a knack for its demands while at Westlake Boys High School. "As time went on, I just wanted to come to the states -- the big America -- and see what it was like to live here," he said.

First impressions have been good.

"It's like back home," Penney said. "The people are really nice, at least the ones I've met so far. Everything about it has a real homey feel to it."

Penney wants to major in landscape architecture. He also wants to see what it will be like to play before 17,000 fans at the Kohl Center because the largest crowd Penney has seen to date was the 4,000 that showed up for a tournament game in Taiwan.

"Oh, it will be awesome, mate," he said.

Penney said his mother, Marie, is in charge of keeping the lines of communication open between Madison and Auckland.

"Mom calls me," said Kirk, the baby of the family behind brother Rodd and sister Lara. "I can't afford to go home, simple as that. I miss home dearly, but I can't dwell on that."

There has been talk that his father, Paul, might come to the U.S. to see Kirk play this year. "I hope he can because I'd love to share it with him," Kirk said.

UW opens the season Nov. 6 with an exhibition game against the California All-Stars at the Kohl Center. Between now and then, Penney will look to assert himself. "I have my own goals," he said. "If it goes my way, it does and I'll try and make it happen. But you never know. I'm working as hard as I can and we'll see where it takes me."