Last year at this time, nobody was worrying about Kirk Penney's shot.
All that mattered was that the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team
was 8-1 and nationally ranked.
Penney was an integral part of the Badgers' puzzle, but not the main focus.
If he missed some shots, Roy Boone or Ricky Bower was there to pick up the
slack.
It wasn't until later - once the Big Ten Conference season began - that
Penney actually started to warm up and gain notoriety as the conference's best
sniper.
This year, everybody seems to be worrying about Penney's shot. It seems to
some that he is one of the reasons why the Badgers have struggled to a 3-6
record heading into this afternoon's nonconference game against Furman (6-1) at
the Kohl Center.
There's no question that Penney is out of sync trying to find his niche in
the Badgers' offense. He was held out for the final minutes of regulation and
two overtimes against Temple when he scored just 5 points and missed all five
of his 3-point attempts.
Including that game, he has scored just 23 points, made just 3 of 15
3-pointers and committed 11 turnovers in the past three games.
But here's a surprise: Statistically, Penney's numbers are not that far off
from the numbers he was putting up last year at this time.
The 6-foot-5 junior guard is averaging 10.2 points through nine games this
season. Last year he was averaging 9.8 points through nine games.
He has taken 90 shots and made 36 of them (40 percent). Last year, he was 31
of 83 (37.3 percent) overall.
UW coach Bo Ryan has dismissed all the attempts from those who are trying to
paint a "What's wrong with Kirk Penney?" picture this season.
He said Penney is no different than any of the other players.
"It's hard to have consistency in a group that is learning about one
another right now," Ryan said.
Ryan believes the reason Penney has been singled out is because he's the
team's leading returning scorer. Because of that, some automatically think he
should be the go-to guy this year.
"Expectations sometimes become something that isn't reality," Ryan
said.
The reality of the situation is that Penney's game isn't necessarily suited
for a go-to player role.
Gunners like Penney fill a significant need for teams. But they can create
problems if they don't stick to what they do best, particularly when defenses
set up to stop them.
"So I want Kirk to play to the standards that he is establishing with
himself with the team and not try to go outside of that," said Ryan.
"Just play within our system and the shots will come."
Penney wholeheartedly agrees and said he had no real preconceptions of what
his role with the team would be when the season began.
"I just wanted to come in and do what I could. I'm not disappointed at
all," Penney said. "There's a lot of season left. I want us as a team
to get off ... If we get some wins, it'll be fine."
But Penney admits playing within Ryan's system has been a struggle at times.
He has taken more shots, but he still looks uncomfortable posting up defenders
and has missed some easy shots. That has taken a toll on his long-range game.
He has made 13 of 42 3-pointers this year (31 percent), compared to 18 of 52
last year (34.6). And those numbers last year included an 0-of-13 performance
in a season-opening loss to Tennessee.
Also, Penney has committed more turnovers (26) than he did last year at this
time (16).
"I'm fairly comfortable with the system," said Penney, who also is
getting used to losing more than winning for the first time in his career.
"I was thinking about it and I can play in this offense. It's different
than what I'm used to, but it suits me like it suits all of us.
"It's just a matter of understanding it and not being so
methodical," he added. "It's reading the defense and going out and
playing. That's all we worked on this week."
Penney is always positive and that will never change. He said his problems
have nothing to do with defenses stepping up their games to stop him. He said
he understood why Ryan held him out of the end of the Temple game.
If Penney is in a funk, he wasn't showing it.
"It's going to come my way pretty soon, like it is for all of us,"
said Penney. "I just want to get out there against Furman, just like I do
every game, and wait for us to explode."
Published: 5:51 AM
12/15/01 Capital Times
