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 Russ Pennell
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Twists of life don't intimidate PennellArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.26.2008
Dewey Pennell didn't plan it this way. Neither did his son, Russ.
Who could have?
Taking over for a Hall of Fame coach who bowed out just three weeks before the start of a season? Trying to mend the hurt feelings of a team that already went through a tumultuous 2007-08 season with an interim coach? Building trust and camaraderie in the face of adversity?
That is Russ Pennell's job today. He is the new Arizona Wildcats' interim head basketball coach.
"You just never know what life is going to give you," Dewey Pennell said Saturday, after watching his son lead a practice for the second straight day.
A longtime high school and small-college basketball coach with roots in Kansas and Arkansas, Dewey Pennell knew Russ would coach somewhere, somehow, just like he did.
Osmosis said so.
Basketball "was just one of those things he loved," Dewey Pennell, 70, said. "We got him one of those Nerf balls and hoops in his room when he was 2 years old, and he spent hours with it."
By the time he was old enough to walk, Russ Pennell (pronounced PENN-ul) was accompanying his father to high school practices, watching the game's most intricate details over and over. It soaked in.
Talent helped, too. Russ grew up to be an all-state player for his father at Pittsburg (Kan.) High School, then leaped to another coaching mentor when he played a season for Eddie Sutton at Arkansas in 1979-80. He transferred to Central Arkansas in 1981 and was a two-year starter, joining Scottie Pippen in 1983-84, and later graduated from Pittsburg State.
Pennell, now 47, played for his father again in the mid-1980s on the Spirit Express traveling exhibition team out of Memphis, Tenn., and went on to coach under Sutton at Oklahoma State and Rob Evans at Mississippi and Arizona State.
Next, Pennell built his own basketball training and traveling team program, while serving as a color commentator for ASU games.
Now he's here. Taking over for Lute Olson.
"In late March we were broadcasting (ASU's) NIT quarterfinal with Florida together," said Tim Healey, ASU's play-by-play broadcaster. "Now in six short months, he's the interim head coach of ASU's archrival. It's a bizzaro world to me. But I can't help to wish him nothing but success except for the two times the Wildcats and Sun Devils hook up this season."
You could describe it as bizarre. Unprecedented. Difficult. Overwhelming.
But this is the main feeling Pennell said he felt Friday after his first day in the new position: fatigue.
"I was very tired," he said Saturday. "But you know what? I think I feel really more humbled with the opportunity than overwhelmed. When you prepare for something your whole life, you don't find it overwhelming."
While he was exposed to fundamentals with his dad, the motion offense under Sutton, and passion for defense with Evans, Pennell added something else along the way: an easygoing personality.
"He's just a good, all-around human being," said Kyle Dodd, who played under Pennell and Evans at ASU from 1999 to 2003. "He truly cared about us … and in basketball, he's the best basketball mind, IQ-wise."
He was the head coach of the Arizona Premier, an elite youth traveling team based in the Phoenix area, over the past two seasons. Pennell built such a strong bond with star guard Matt Carlino that Carlino initially said Pennell's hiring as an assistant at the UA would influence his college choice. (Carlino ultimately chose Indiana last month.)
Carlino's father knows why players are drawn to Pennell.
"He's a players' type coach in the sense that people respond to him, and he knows how to get to them to play hard," said Mark Carlino, Matt's father and the coach at Gilbert Highland High School.
"Offensively he's got such a large repertoire of knowledge that he's going to get the most out of what he's got."
The Wildcats have had just two days of practice to see Pennell as a head coach, though they have worked with him since August as an assistant.
"On the court he's really outspoken, but at the same time he's a stickler for doing things the right way," senior forward Fendi Onobun said. "And he's about going hard every time."
In other words, you'll hear from him, good or bad.
"He's positive, but he'll get on you if you make mistakes," sophomore forward Jamelle Horne said. "He's patient with everyone — not just the new guys — and he's willing to make changes for the players. I'd say that's his biggest attribute."
This season, Pennell is expected to deploy a motion offense similar to the one Olson promised to bring back after UA ran a much more structured offense under interim head coach Kevin O'Neill last year.
Onobun said he's happy that power forwards such as himself will have even more offensive freedom in Pennell's motion, while the offense is also expected to maximize the talent of standouts such as wing Chase Budinger.
"That's Arizona basketball," said Budinger's father, Duncan. "When you run that type of offense, it's tough to double-team you. When you're running sets like last year, it's real easy to slide (opposing) defenses toward your players and guard them.
"The best thing the coaching staff can do is let these kids play."
When the Wildcats do, Pennell is likely to make it fun.
"With Russ, you feel good around him," said Doug Tammaro, ASU's basketball spokesman. "You have good conversations with him. He listens to you.
"In a strange way, he probably took that job knowing he might not be there for a long time, and now it's a tremendous opportunity. But at the same time he's not going to make it a life-or-death situation. He'll keep it loose."
He always has. Having known her future husband since her freshman year at Central Arkansas, Julie Pennell said Russ has always had an upbeat personality and strong Christian faith that allows him to roll along with anything.
Even now, with a job that is expected to evaporate in five months regardless of his success, Russ Pennell is still rolling with it.
"Everything happens for a reason," Julie Pennell said. "Sometimes you don't know what it is, and what's down the road. We're just going to trust that everything's going to be OK. You could worry about it, but why? We're just going to enjoy this."
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