Kirk Penney -- look at that hair!

Last week a fellow named John Rillie emailed me from Australia. A professional basketballer Down Under, John maintains a nice blog and directed me to something he recently did that he thought would be of interest to Badger fans.

It's a podcast featuring an interview with one of our favorite former Badgers, Kirk Penney, now with the New Zealand Breakers. Apparently Kirk is the leading scorer in Australia's NBL, and has been named player of the month multiple times.

I can't get over that hair, and neither can the Australian fans. We saw him several times in Indianapolis at the Big Ten Tournament, most of the time hanging around with Andy North, and he sure didn't look like that. Not sure if this photo is pre- or post-Indy, but in any event that style is really out there.

Give it a listen. The interview with Kirk comes about 13 minutes into the podcast, but the guys rave about him often before then. It's sort of like Flight of the Conchords, if they were basketball fans instead of musicians.

The guys talk about the Badgers' defensive-oriented philosophy under Dick Bennett, and the shockingly low halftime score of our Final Four game against Michigan State. John asks Kirk who his favorite Big Ten rivals were, and he lists Michigan State, Indiana and Michigan. (Michigan?) Also a funny anecdote from Kirk's time with the Miami Heat about "White Guy Wednesday." He also caddied for Andy North at Augusta recently.

Funny side note: while looking for more recent Penney news I found that one of his teammates is Rick Rickert, former Minnesota lightning rod.