With Penn at the point, Buckeyes are on the rise

Sporting News, The, Sept 7, 1998 by Mike DeCourcy

If you assume Scoonie Penn's transfer from Boston College to Ohio State kept him removed from competitive basketball these past 18 months, you are seriously underestimating the lengths he will go to find a game.

He will go as far as Venice--and not the one m California. He wall travel to Athens--and not the one in Georgia. Penn made more transoceanic flights this summer than Madeleine Albright.

"My grandmother wanted her whole life to go across the ocean and see a different country, and here I got to go twice in one summer," says Penn, a 5-10 point guard. "I'm not the most sightseeing person you're ever going to meet, but I enjoyed it."

Penn's adventurous summer vacation will end in a couple weeks, when classes begin at Ohio State. In addition to visiting Italy with the NIT All-Stars and competing in Greece in the Acropolis Cup Tournament, he spent time in Columbus, Ohio, working to improve his shooting technique and playing in the Worthington Summer League.

On the Italy trip, Penn experienced as many victories (eight) as the Buckeyes did last season. They lost 22 games and finished last in the Big Ten. It was the fifth consecutive losing season for Ohio State, which returns four starters.

Freshman shooting guard Michael Redd averaged a Big Ten-high 21.9 points per game with almost no one to help him. As if he did not prove in two outstanding seasons at Boston College he could liberate Redd from double-teaming defenses, Penn showed how potent the tandem could become by teaming with Redd in Greece to average a combined 36 points.

"There was nothing specific we wanted him to work on--just get out and play," Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien says. "He works on his game very meticulously, and he's improved his perimeter shooting and gotten a lot stronger. He's a lot better player now than he was at BC."

Choosing to transfer was difficult for Penn. He grew up in Salem, Mass., and played in two NCAA tourneys with BC. But when the Eagles' 1997 recruiting class disintegrated because some players were not accepted for admission, the program's future was threatened.

O'Brien left for Ohio State, and Penn agonized before deciding it was best to follow.

One of the college game's most enduring postulates is that the best player in any team's practice is the one sitting out as a transfer or redshirt. It's not often, though, he turns out the best after being reactivated, when the pressure is on.

With Penn, it's for real. He was Big East Freshman of the Year in 1995-96. He led BC to the Big East tourney title as a sophomore, claiming MVP honors in the process. Penn can dominate a game with his speed.

"We're not going to have to spend nearly as much time beating pressure as we did last year," O'Brien says. "He gives us the ability to give him the ball and not be as worried about, 'Are we going to be able to run the offense?'"

Penn was only a 33 percent 3-point shooter as a sophomore. He had a tendency to twist his fight hand clockwise as he released his jumper, which caused the ball to rotate sideways and bounce unkindly on shots that hit the rim.

Buckeyes assistant coach Rick Boyages picked up on it while the two were at BC and promised they would work on fixing the problem when they had time. They had plenty of time this past year, and in Greece, he was 8-of-16 shooting 3-pointers from the international line, which is farther from the net than the NCAA's 19-9.

Even if he is no better than he was, Penn still will represent a dramatic improvement for Ohio State, which is moving into 19,500-seat Schottenstein Center. "I saw a bunch of guys out there who didn't have much experience," Penn says. "I feel like I can help them out a lot. They experienced a butt-kicking like you wouldn't believe. There's nowhere to go now except up."

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