Who will step up?

Big Ten waiting for this year's best guard to emerge

Kirk Penney spurred the Badgers to their first share of the Big Ten title since 1947. Danny Moloshok/Allsport

By Brian Hamilton, Special to CNNSI.com

It was at Wisconsin’s Steak Fry, the team’s dinner to celebrate the official start of practice, that Bo Ryan realized that he had a phenomenon on his hands. The Badgers’ second-year coach had seen Kirk Penney and the New Zealand national team take this summer’s World Championships by storm, doing their traditional Haka dance and then waltzing into the semifinals.

But when Ryan’s senior guard was introduced to the Steak Fry crowd earlier in October, it was clear how this Penney’s value had appreciated in Madison: He received a standing ovation from the assembled mass of boosters and fans.

“He could be mayor,” Ryan said earlier this month. “Maybe even governor. But we’ll stick with mayor, because the governor’s race is tight.”

Maybe the rest of the Big Ten’s guards should follow suit and tackle politics -- it might be the only way they make it into the national spotlight. While other leagues can celebrate All-American candidates from the backcourt, the Big Ten has at least two guards on its preseason all-conference whose absence on the postseason team wouldn’t shock anyone.

The talent isn’t horrendous -- it’s just not overwhelming. Gone are surefire All-America candidates like Marcus Taylor and Frank Williams. Enter ... Brent Darby?

The best of the Big Ten’s backcourt crop are consummate “glue” players, hardscrabble veterans who punch the clock -- players like Penney, Ohio State’s Darby and Indiana’s Tom Coverdale.

Among them, Penney is most poised for a breakout. A year ago, he spurred the surprising Badgers to their first share of the Big Ten title since 1947, scoring 15.1 points per game. Then, he spent the summer against the world’s finest, averaging 16.9 points in the World Championships for New Zealand. It was sort of like swinging a bat with weights attached -- the Big Ten rigors won’t seem quite as heavy now.

“You’re going to gain confidence in experiences like that,” Penney said. “So when you come back to college, there are some great players, but you’re not going to be overawed.”

CNNSI.com's Top Guards: • ACC: Julius Hodge, N.C. State • Big 12: Kirk Hinrich, Kansas • Big East: Brandin Knight, Pitt • C-USA: Dwyane Wade, Marquette • Pac-10: Jason Gardner, Arizona • SEC: Rashard Wright, Georgia More from CNNSI.com: • Mandel: A feel-good season • Button: Guard play key to title

Coverdale sailed along with Indiana’s run to the NCAA title game a year ago, and he was the second-leading scorer to NBA-bound Jared Jeffries with an 11.9 average, finishing third in the Big Ten with 4.81 assists per game. He’ll have a bigger role on a guard-dominated team that’s without Jeffries this year. But it’s still not the stuff of All-Americans.

Just ask him.

“I think every guy would like to think they’re one of the best guards, but my job is just to be a leader,” Coverdale said. “And I think I’m a pretty good leader as far as getting everybody in the right position and trying to run a team. I don’t really think about how I compare with other guards in the league -- I just worry about what I have to do to make my team better.”

Darby, the Buckeyes’ boxy senior point guard, feels much the same way. Ask him if he thinks he might be the league’s best guard, and he says he wouldn’t pay attention to it if he were. He averaged 12.8 points per game a year ago, but steadying the Buckeyes during their run to a share of the league title was his most important task.

Indeed, once Darby returned to full-time training this summer after spending a couple months focused on his newborn son, he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t leave the court this year.

“I did a lot of running, like four miles a day, just trying to get my wind up,” Darby said. “I never want coach [Jim] O’Brien to look out there and be like, 'I have to give Brent a blow.'”

O’Brien, meanwhile, doesn’t envy the position Darby is in: He must score like an off-guard while still getting teammates involved like a point guard.

“I want him to become more of a complete guard, where he does a little bit of everything,” O’Brien said. “So he’s in a tough situation. He has a lot more responsibility, and he was able to not have as much a year ago.”

And all this doesn’t even include unstable or unproven backcourts at Michigan State, Minnesota and Illinois -- all of whom were picked to finish among the top three in either the coaches’ or media polls announced at Big Ten media day.

No, the league isn’t as guarded as others. Though you might give the guards that are here some points for good defense.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily dominated by inside players,” Penney said of the Big Ten. “But being a guard, I’m going to say that.”

Brian Hamilton covers the Big Ten for the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.

 

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