He's comfortable in his new role at Grand Canyon U.
Patrick Finley Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:00 am
PHOENIX - Russ Pennell didn't need to be reminded of the Arizona Wildcats' streak of 24 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.
Every time he left his McKale Center office last season, he passed a plaque for each one of the teams.
Whenever he was greeted by fans, they'd ask about it.
Fans treated it as their birthright, and with good reason - many, in their time on Earth, had never spent a March without the Wildcats in the Big Dance.
"Coach O created a monster down there," he said, "and it's a good thing."
Nearly a year ago, Pennell's Wildcats became Team No. 25.
He became a national sensation after replacing Lute Olson. And Pennell now coaches at Grand Canyon University, a 61-year-old Christian school in a low-income neighborhood off Camelback Road near I-17. His office walls boast autographed photos of John Wooden and Dean Smith, Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill.
He smiles easily.
The Antelopes ended the season winning 10 of 13 and finished .500; last year, the Wildcats "leaked oil" heading into the NCAA tournament, he said.
"This time, this year, I've got so much more hope," he said.
He called his past and present jobs "polar opposites." Pennell coached his last UA game in a football stadium; the Division II Antelopes play alongside Academy of Art and Notre Dame de Namur in Pacific West Conference.
His family is happy to be back in Phoenix; last year, they had just bought an Oro Valley home when Olson retired.
The job pressure is the same, but different. Like last year, he embraces it.
"The benefits of last year," he said last week, "are now."
• • •
Pennell led a campus chapel service a few weeks ago. Students sat, rapt, while the coach sang and spoke.
"He's as comfortable in his own skin as anyone I've ever seen," GCU CEO Brian Mueller said.
The 49-year-old Pennell tends to shrug off compliments with a self-effacing joke. Introducing guests from Tucson before a film session, he joked that "they're building a statue for me down there."
His players laughed. Message sent - Pennell doesn't think he's a big shot.
"We used to just rib him a lot about (being famous)," said his wife, Julie Pennell. "I'm like, 'You're such a big deal.' But nothing really changed."
When Pennell left Tucson, the UA asked if he wanted to take a poster of himself from the practice facility. He did - "so it wouldn't be up on eBay as some joke," he said. It sits now, almost life-sized, on the floor in his garage.
"I asked, 'Do you want me to make a card table out of it?'" Julie joked.
Pennell doesn't tell many old Arizona basketball stories to his roster of brand-new players.
He doesn't berate them, either. At practice last week, he corrected them for going "90 percent, not 100 percent," and for taking a "good shot, not the better shot."
His players are starting to speak like him now, and that's a good sign.
Pennell is comfortable at his new home. He can practice in the morning and then see his family before going out to recruit at night.
His best friend, Mark Nelson, is his lead assistant. Another coach played for him at Ole Miss, and a third worked for Pennell at his Premier Basketball Academy. Graduate assistant Matt Brase worked at the UA. Pennell's father, Dewey, wanted to be a GCU assistant, but Pennell didn't want to rob his mother of her well-earned retirement time with her husband.
"The thing I told Russ and all of my kids was, 'Enjoy where you are,' " Dewey Pennell said. "I kept telling him last year, 'Enjoy this while you're going through it.'
"He probably enjoys it more, now, than he did at the time."
Russ Pennell is still wowed that fans stop him.
Coaching the UA was like renting a Lamborghini, he said. "You want drive it as fast as you can," he said, "until you have to give it back."
• • •
Pennell isn't just at ease at GCU. He's got a sweet deal.
The school will spend the requisite $1 million to apply for Div. I-A status in 2011. If the Antelopes are not admitted, they have the money to be a Div. II monster.
A brand-new GCU practice gym and locker room will be ready in time for next season. The campus's jewel, a 5,000-seat arena, will be completed by October 2011.
Pennell employs three assistants, a Division II rarity, and a full complement of scholarships. The team flies for every road trip.
While neither Pennell nor GCU officials would detail his salary, this seven-year deal is believed to be among Division II's most lucrative.
A few Division I-A schools called last year - including Washington State - but Pennell was intrigued by GCU.
"There's not a lot of frontiers left anymore," Pennell said.
The school's historic athletic investment - GCU fields 22 teams - comes with a purpose.
Pennell could be the public face of a school that needs a unifier.
"We want be good at every area," GCU's Mueller said, "but there's nothing you can do as an institution to get national visibility quicker and faster than men's basketball."
Privately owned and for-profit, GCU features online courses. In 2008, after hiring University of Phoenix executives, GCU had an initial public offering under the NASDAQ name LOPE.
In the next two years, GCU wants to grow its on-campus enrollment from 1,800 to 5,000. About 38,000 online students will mushroom to 50,000.
Mueller, a former University of Phoenix boss, said ties to a campus - physically and emotionally - gives GCU's online community an edge. Even online students can latch onto a basketball team.
A one-time basketball coach, Mueller first kept his idea of Pennell a secret at first. He was worried investors wouldn't go for it, or that Pennell would get a more high-profile offer.
"I wanted them to make the NCAA tournament for national exposure," he said, "but then I wanted them to lose."
Pennell's appeal transcends wins and losses, Mueller said.
He is well-liked and trustworthy - crucial when the coach explains the school's lofty goals to groups around Phoenix.
"If the university does well, we'll do well," Pennell said. "If we do well, I think the university will do well.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen."
• • •
Fifty weeks after the highest-profile moment of his career, Pennell is content - even if some haven't heard of his school or appreciate its financial future.
Last week, he took daughter Morgan to the state high school basketball championships in Tempe.
A few folks asked about the Antelopes, which made him smile. They're getting more popular. He chatted with friends, including UA coach Niya Butts. He put his arms around one losing high school coach, telling him his day would come.
Then he went back to sit with his daughter to simply watch a game.
"If you talk to certain coaches, they'll say, 'He's not driven,' " Pennell said. "No, I'm driven. I'm driven to be the best I can be, but not driven to do it at all costs.
"That's where the line needs to be drawn."
See more photos of Russ Pennell at Grand Canyon University at azstarnet.com/gallery
"I'm driven to be the best I can be, but not driven to do it at all costs. That's where the line needs to be drawn."
Russ Pennell,
Grand Canyon University men's basketball coach and former UA interim coach
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