Pennie is walking on air

After two years of folding uniforms, Umass's Matt Pennie earned one to wear. (UMASS PHOTO)

AMHERST -- Well before basketball practice Monday afternoon at Curry Hicks Cage, University of Massachusetts senior forward Rashaun Freeman finished a conversation with his grandmother on his cell phone, then started chatting with fellow senior Matt Pennie. The topic drifted to tonight's home finale against La Salle.

"You gonna cry, Ray?" Pennie asked.

The fifth-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder in school history considered the question, then shrugged and said, "You?"

"Yeah," said Pennie. "I'm an emotional dude."

Seconds later, Pennie bounded onto the court, summoned by Gary Forbes, the star-on-the-rise junior who has been leading the Minutemen in scoring in league play. Seamlessly, the pair re-created the last-second steal that Forbes made Saturday night against Saint Louis to give UMass a critical win, preserving a share of first place in the Atlantic 10. After relishing the replay, Forbes gave Pennie a playful nudge.

As Matt Pennie, the pride of the small South Shore town of Hanson, broke into a broad smile, one thing was abundantly clear: He belonged.

Tonight will be a sweet farewell for five UMass seniors, each of whom has played a role in the resurgence of a 21-7 team that is in contention for an NCAA Tournament spot for the first time in nine years. Freeman and center Stephane Lasme are both A-10 Player of the Year candidates. Feisty guard James Life is a double-figure scorer with 3-point shooting prowess. Swingman Brandon Thomas is a classy and versatile presence off the bench.

Pennie, though, has a story all his own. A fan favorite, he has lived out a common but almost never realized dream: going from team manager to Division 1 college basketball player -- on the team he loved as a boy, no less. Two years into the transformation, the wonder has yet to wear off.

"To actually put on that jersey every day," said Pennie, pausing to savor the moment, "I look down and start to pinch myself."

When he was 10 years old, he followed the Minutemen religiously during their Final Four season. He was up near the rafters of the then-newly-christened FleetCenter, cheering wildly for Marcus Camby in the first Commonwealth Classic against Boston College. He was out in the driveway shooting hoops, pretending to be Donta Bright. He was studiously sitting at his desk mailing a letter to coach John Calipari, expressing his desire to one day play for the Minutemen.

He got an encouraging note back, coupled with posters of the UMass men's and women's teams. "Those both went up in my room right away," Pennie recalled.

The game and the school were in his blood. Two aunts, Julie and Martha Ready, both played at UMass in the late '70s/early '80s. Julie (Ready) Malvoy, Matt's godmother, is the school's No. 6 career scorer.

Matt's father, Steve Pennie, also had fallen hard for the game. A longtime sales manager in the movie business, Steve had the prescience to buy Celtics season tickets on the day Larry Bird was drafted. He brought Matt to the Old Garden again and again in the waning days of the Bird Era.

Pennie's high school days were difficult. In his sophomore year, he lost his mother to a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Trying to deal with the chasm in his family, he drew closer to his dad, his younger sister, Kelly, and his aunt Julie, who lived in the neighboring town of Halifax.

Basketball provided a measure of healing, though the game was still a struggle for a gangly kid who had not yet developed his coordination. He still played JV as a junior at Whitman-Hanson High School. By his senior year, though, he emerged as a legitimate player, approaching his full height of 6 feet 7 inches and becoming a 15-point-per-game scorer for the varsity.

While he could have played college ball at the Division 2 or 3 level, he chose to go to Division 1 UMass and study Sport Management, knowing that the decision almost certainly spelled the end of his playing days. It was time to get serious about the adult world and map out a career.

That first year, though, was filled with longing. Watching UMass play, he felt the tidal pull and wound up approaching the staff of then-coach Steve Lappas with hopes of becoming a manager.

"I just missed basketball so much," Pennie said. "I had to get back involved. If that involved being a manager, folding towels and doing laundry, so be it, but I needed to be around the game again."

He had the perfect attitude for the job. Plunging into every task with zeal, he stood out with his commitment and efficiency. No part of it felt menial to him. One day, he was placed on "Deli Duty" when 325-pound freshman Jeff "Big Deli" Salovski came to practice feeling sick.

"My job was to carry around a plastic bag," Pennie recalled. "I had Kleenex in one hand and a towel in another. Any time he had to get rid of some phlegm or something, he'd cough, and I'd have to put it in the bag."

His aptitude and attitude were noticed. When Lappas was fired after Pennie's sophomore year, new coach Travis Ford saw Pennie at work and quickly named him head manager. "He was always right there," said Ford. "He's just a relentless worker."

In time, Ford began to see other possibilities. Pennie seemed to be able to hold his own in pickup games around the edges of practice. The team's numbers were down, and knowing that four transfers would not be allowed to travel with the team, Ford realized he would need an extra practice player or two on the road.

The "Rudy"-like idea appealed to a coach who had some Hollywood in his past (he played point guard Danny O'Grady in "The Sixth Man" after his playing days at the University of Kentucky). For Ford, though, this decision was not so much about the big screen as about a guy who could set big screens.

After talking it over with his staff, he approached Pennie the day before the first practice, the much-anticipated "Midnight Madness," to usher in a new era of UMass basketball. The next night, to the astonishment of his friends, there was Pennie in uniform, an experience he recalls as "surreal."

From the beginning, he understood his role as a walk-on. His job was to be a practice player, to push the scholarship guys to get better. If he got any playing time at all, it would come at the very end of games that were long-since decided. He had absolutely no problem with that. He got a couple of minutes against Savannah State, perhaps the worst team in Division 1, so he could tell everyone that he had played in a college basketball game. That was enough for him.

Last Jan. 21, UMass was set to play Temple in a game nationally televised on ESPN. Pennie knew all about the bitter Atlantic 10 rivalry between the Minutemen and the Owls. Like everyone else, he expected a hard-fought game.

The Minutemen could do no wrong that day, and Temple could do little right. UMass was up by 20 or more for most of the contest. In the closing moments, Ford said the magic words, "Pennie, Pennie," and the junior sprang up from his seat and flung off his sweats. With 2 seconds left, he got a pass from Brandon Thomas on the right wing and let fly from behind the arc.

Steve Pennie, seated with 25 family members underneath the basket, watched the drama unfold.

"I saw the trajectory of the shot, and I knew it was going in," he said. "It was just a magical moment."

The swish put the wraps on a 60-34 victory, as well as providing a jubilant moment on the bench, and a DVD that has, according to Steve, gotten plenty of play back in Hanson.

This year, things have been even sweeter. Pennie has been reveling in the team's success, and making the most of his limited playing time. He has added three more baskets to his collegiate résumé, earning more and more respect from those around him.

Ford said that Pennie "does more than hold his own. He could right now probably be a D-2 All-American. He's got a great touch, a great instinct for rebounding. It's not a gimmick by any means. He can really play the game of basketball."

"I don't think people understand what it takes to be a walk-on," added teammate Luke Bonner. "It takes an extreme level of toughness. You're pretty much doing all the hard stuff, without the glory, per se. But obviously he's had his moments. He can play."

Pennie's family continues to provide inspiration, including his late mother.

"I know she's watching down on me," he said. "When I have good things happen to me, I know she has a guiding hand in all of this. I write 'MDK' on my sneakers for 'Mom-Dad-Kelly.' That's who I'm playing for."

He has never outgrown his britches. He is extraordinarily proud of the Whitman-Hanson High School team that just won its first league title in 51 years. He lives with team manager Paul Kavanaugh, one of his closest friends.

He is very tight with his high-profile teammates. In a team vote for various media-guide categories ("Funniest Teammate," "Best Trash-Talking Teammate," etc.), Pennie was the overwhelming winner in the category of "Teammate Who Would Be the Best Head Coach."

That, in fact, is Pennie's goal.

He plans to get there using a formula that has been successful for him in the past.

"Just start at the bottom," he said, "and work your way up."