Madison - Make no mistake, Kirk Penney appreciates his recent string of good games
The junior, thought to be miscast in Bo Ryan's swing offense, just came off his
most productive three-game stretch as a Wisconsin Badger, scoring 83 points in
victories over Furman, Marquette and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
But the 6-foot-5 guard has experienced lows, too.
And thanks to two-year scheduling contracts, Tennessee, the team against
which Penney experienced his lowest low, is in town this weekend.
The Badgers (6-6) face Tennessee (5-5) at 1 p.m. today at the Kohl Center
with a chance to finish their non-conference schedule above .500. Penney gets a
chance to show the Volunteers he's better than he demonstrated 13 months ago,
although revenge won't be his motive.
"I don't think that is a good attitude to take into the game. It's just
another game and just go out there and play hard and play smart," Penney
said. "You don't want to look back on those types of experiences because
it's not a personal mind-set, it's a team mind-set and we're out there as a
team to win the game."
Good thing Penney's memory is short.
Coming off a solid freshman season and fresh off a trip to the Olympics with
the New Zealand national team, Penney, then a sophomore guard, laid an egg that
still leaves a stench in Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena.
The shots weren't falling but true to the shooters' creed, opportunities
continued to present themselves and he kept firing and missing.
The final tally was 0 for 16, although the final box score was eventually
corrected to read 0 for 13, and 0 for 9 from three-point range.
Penney will be hard-pressed to have a worse game . . . ever.
"When you go through something like that, it's, like, 'Geez, it can't
get much worse than that, so, hey, don't worry about it. Make the next
one," Penney said. "It's just a matter of realizing that."
That philosophy has served him well this season.
Until his latest surge, Penney went through two dry spells this season. He
went 3 for 16 and 1 for 6 from three-point range in losses to Weber State and
Hawaii last month at the Big Island Invitational.
Then after consecutive double-digit scoring efforts against Georgia Tech and
UW-Green Bay, Penney made nine of 28 shots (32.1%), including three of 15 from
three-point range (20%) in the next three contests.
The stretch dropped his shooting percentage to 40% overall, and 31% from
three-point range.
That's what makes this latest run so sweet.
"You try to stay as consistent as you can," Penney said. "And
by working hard you try to make sure that you are consistent."
He made 57.4% of his shots during that three-game stretch (27 of 47),
including 57.1% from three-point range (12 of 21).
The outburst has made Penney Wisconsin's leading scorer for the first time
this season at 14.6 points per game.
He has produced in critical moments.
Thursday against UW-Milwaukee, his three on the wing tied the score at 79-79
with 1 minute 15 seconds left. His three-pointer and drive for a layup helped
keep the game out of reach during the final 5 minutes against Marquette last
week. Against Furman, his consecutive threes broke open a two-point game during
the final 3 minutes.
And by doing it in a variety of ways - post-ups, three-pointers, dribble
penetrations - Penney is quieting some of the talk that Ryan's swing offense
wasn't suited for him.
But Penney has been around long enough to know that hot streaks do end. The
key is to enjoy it while it lasts.
"We can all score, every one of us," he said of his teammates.
"It's been coming my way lately. Great."
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Dec. 29,
2001.
