Flashiness nice, but Bucks rave about Jennings' maturity

Keith Russell Jennings, your nickname has been requisitioned. If there is going to be a "Mister" Jennings around the NBA, it is going to be the Milwaukee Bucks' preternaturally good rookie point guard, Brandon Jennings.

No offense to the other guy. Keith Jennings was a 5-foot-7 dynamo who made a name (and nickname) for himself by leading East Tennessee State to three straight Southern Conference championships and averaged 6.6 points and 3.7 assists in three seasons (1992-95) with Golden State.

But Brandon Jennings already has shown the skills and potential to be called a "Mister" -- of the Bucks, of Milwaukee and among the NBA's burgeoning crop of young and younger point guards -- for the next decade and a half. Besides, giving him a nickname has to suffice at this point, considering the NBA doesn't have an official Rookie of The First Two Weeks Award.

"He's going to be one of the top five rookies, if not Rookie of the Year," Bucks center Andrew Bogut said over the weekend, joining in what so far has been a happy rush to judgment. "We had another guard like him for a while, T.J. [Ford], who can get in the lane, shoot the ball ... sneaky-quick, gets to the basket. [Jennings is] still working on his defense and learning the Bucks' system, but the good thing about him is, he works hard every day. He takes criticism. He listens to the coach, and [coach Scott Skiles] being a point guard, I think there's a respect there."

The respect is of the mutual variety. "If you're not careful, you can get lost in some of the great plays he makes, the flashiness he has," Skiles said Saturday, before his team's 87-72 victory at Minnesota. "When in fact, he's a competitor. He likes to win. That's what I like most about him."

Flashiness of plays and gaudiness of stats had gotten Jennings much of his early attention. He came within one assist and one rebound of a triple-double (17 points, nine and nine) in his debut, played out in front of the savvy Philadelphia fans. One night later, he led Milwaukee with 24 points in a 96-85 victory over Detroit. At Chicago last week, in a so-called showdown with last year's Rookie of the Year -- Derrick Rose missed most of the preseason with an ankle injury -- Jennings outscored the Bulls' point guard 25-16 and was a plus-10 (to Rose's minus-6) in Milwaukee's 83-81 loss.

Friday's game in Minnesota ranks as Jennings' individual low point thus far. He scored nine points on 4-for-16 shooting with six rebounds, three assists, two steals and one turnover, to Timberwolves' rookie Jonny Flynn's 20 points. But even that is relative. Tthe Bucks pulled out a 26-12 swing during his 9:46 in the third quarter of that game. Jennings spent the whole fourth quarter on the bench, urging on backup Luke Ridnour and the other Bucks in the comeback win.

"I tried to answer him a little bit but I wasn't going to have a back-and-forth type of game," Jennings said of his matchup with the equally quick and precocious Flynn. "I'm sure that's what everybody was looking for. But I'm not playing for the Rookie of the Year. I'm looking to win and get to the playoffs. He won the battle tonight, I'll give it to him. But our team won the war."

Twenty-four hours later, Jennings' managed minutes paid off with 17 points in the Bucks' 102-87 victory over the Knicks. The rookie was plus-11 in his 26 minutes to New York point guard Chris Duhon's minus-29 in 20.

Rave reviews don't seem to be turning his head either. "So far, in my opinion, just the opposite," Bucks assistant coach Jim Boylan said. "His approach, if anything, has intensified. He seems to be a real grounded kid, with a real level head. He is getting a lot of attention, and it's coming so fast. But I think he's handled himself like a guy well beyond his years."

Like the grizzled old guys that Jennings faced last season while spending his year between high school and the NBA in Italy. That sounds like such a simple step now, in retrospect, playing for Lottomatica Virtus Roma in Rome while waiting for his eligibility to trigger for the NBA Draft.

But it was anything but ; Jennings learned a lot of lessons tougher than Composition 101, averaging 7.6 points and 1.6 assists in 16 Euroleague games, making 27 appearances overall. He wasn't forgotten about -- Milwaukee drafted him at No. 10 overall -- but he came back to the States with more questions about his game than when he left southern California.

The only way to answer them? Do exactly what Jennings has been doing. He showed some positive effects of his Italian stint in the preseason and even more lately. His quickness is precisely as billed, while his jump shot is surprisingly improved. He has been resilient after struggling in one area or another -- twice so far, he's had five turnovers in a game -- and he keeps working.

"Maturity-wise, there's no doubt about it," Bogut said. "He played for one of the toughest coaches in Europe, a guy who takes no flak and doesn't let down against guys who come in with a lot of hype. [Jennings] had no choice but to learn, play the game the European way. He's got that good mix now -- he knows we have to play a half-court game sometimes but obviously, his strength is in the open floor."

The no-nonsense coach in Italy, Jasmin Repesa, resigned during the season. In Jennings' first game under replacement Nando Gentile, he got 23 minutes and scored 12 points.

Said Boylan: "I don't know if people knew that he had a good solid work ethic. I don't know if that was helped along by spending the year in Italy. They practice twice a day almost every day. But I think it was something that probably was already there."

Jennings' gamble is seen by many now as a referendum on Eurpoe not as some joy ride for a semester in a fortunate college kid's four-year curriculum but as a jobs program for aspiring NBA players.

(Maybe, maybe not. It hasn't gone so well to date in Israel for Jeremy Tyler, the 18-year-old from San Diego who skipped his senior year in high school and signed a $140,000 deal with Maccabi Haifa with his eye on the 2011 draft. A New York Times story Sunday reported that Tyler reported out-of-shape and teammates question his work habits and maturity.)

It is an awfully small sample size. But in Jennings' case, it seems to have paid off.

"If kids do want to go over there, I don't think it will be bad for them at all," Jennings said. "You'll come back more ready, I'm telling ya. Everything you'll learn over there, you'll see when you get back over here. I had fun the whole year. It humbled me a lot, too, just to sit on the bench for a whole year and realize, sometimes you've got to wait your turn. A lot of things I learned over there I never would have learned in college."

The best thing about being overseas: Focusing only on basketball, no mid-terms involved. The biggest challenge?

"Not the language," Jennings said. "Not the food, the food is wonderful. And the women are beautiful. It was just being away from home. Being that far, that long ... I didn't get to come back to the United States at all, the whole year. Christmas or anything. It was tough, I grinded it out, but I'm back now."

Jennings carries the usual caveats: He's young. His position demands leadership ability, and that demands a certain sort of courage to take risks and aborb some setbacks. "He's starting to take on that role, to really put himself out there," said Boylan, the Bucks' top assistant coach. "That's going to be great for our team. We want somebody to be a leader and a guy the other players look to."

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him here.

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