Grand Master’s Flash Refuses to Rap : Basketball: Penberthy plays guard with panache but trash talk is not part of his game.

He can walk the walk, but don’t expect Mike Penberthy to talk the talk.

The Master’s College point guard exudes confidence on the basketball court and has plenty of flash in his game, but refrains from talking trash to the opposition.

That’s not his style.

Penberthy will frequently dribble the ball between his legs or behind his back during a game, and he likes nothing better than making a spectacular pass to a streaking teammate for a layup--or better yet, a dunk--but he doesn’t put down his opponents.

“Since I was younger, I’ve always wanted to try and make the difficult play because I view it as a challenge,” Penberthy said. “When I play, I play to win, and I play to glorify God, obviously. But I also like to get the fans involved. I love to make the spectacular play on the break.

“I don’t do it to show off or to show up someone else. I just like the challenge of making the difficult play.”

The 6-foot-3 sophomore from Hoover High in Fresno has produced plenty of scintillating moments this season for Master’s (27-4), the top-seeded team in the NAIA Far West Region Independents tournament, which begins tonight at Chapman University.

The Mustangs play Patten (11-17) in a first-round game at 8 p.m. If victorious, they will play the winner of the Western New Mexico (18-8)-Bethany (16-15) contest in the championship game at 8 p.m. Monday.

Although Master’s won last year’s tournament and advanced to the NAIA championships for the first time, there were questions about the team’s chances this season because two talented players had been lost to graduation.

The first was Emeka Okenwa, a powerful 6-8 center from Lagos, Nigeria, who averaged 17.1 points and 9.8 rebounds.

The second was point guard Andy Thompson, who averaged 10.2 points and 7.3 assists.

Replacing Okenwa, the focal player in the offense the previous two seasons, might have seemed like the more-pressing need, but Coach Bill Oates knew that finding a competent replacement for Thompson was equally important.

Enter Penberthy, who averaged 9.9 points a game as a freshman reserve.

Though he hadn’t played point guard in high school, Penberthy frequently brought the ball up the court in his team’s offense and his favorite players--Mark Price and Magic Johnson--are point guards.

“It really hasn’t been a big change,” Penberthy said. “It’s just less shots. It’s not as much a scorer’s attitude.

“It’s more than just getting the other guys the ball in a position where they can score. . . . It’s different, but I like it. When you like all the players on your team, you’re happy to see them score.

“I’m excited for (James Mosley) and (Doug Leaman) when they have big games.”

That doesn’t mean that Penberthy has failed to contribute to Master’s high-scoring (90.6 points per game) offense.

In addition to 6.3 assists per game, he’s averaging 17.3 points--second on the team to Mosley’s 18.4--and has scored 28 points or more five times.

In typical Penberthian humility, however, he takes little credit for his scoring outbursts.

“Most of the time, teams will keep their eyes on James or Doug and that kind of leaves me open,” he said. “So the only reason I have those big games is because my teammates are being watched more closely than I am.

“It wasn’t like I was clicking more on those nights. I just had more open shots.”

Penberthy’s words are the product of a humble personality, but they also reflect what Thompson preached to him last season: Take the blame when the offense is sputtering and distribute the praise when it’s lighting up the scoreboard.

“He kind of took me under his wing and he showed me a lot about being a leader on the floor,” Penberthy said. “I didn’t say much last year because I was new and I’m kind of a quiet person.

“I just sat back and tried to observe and learn as much as I could.”

Playing point guard has forced Penberthy to become more vocal this season, but Oates said he’s handled the transition with the same aplomb he uses directing a three-on-two break.

“I think he realizes that the point guard has to be a leader,” Oates said, “that he’s the quarterback of the offense.

“So he’s taken it upon himself to be more vocal.”

Penberthy’s exhortations on the court contrast sharply with his demeanor off it.

He reads the Bible to relax and is a “very quiet, soft-spoken guy,” according to Oates.

“Away from everything that happens on the court, the Bible kind of calms me down,” Penberthy said. “It’s like my oasis. I just kind of go to that and it relaxes me.”

Ron Moore, Penberthy’s high school coach, said that beneath the player’s quiet exterior lies a tremendous sense of humor and uncanny ability to imitate others.

“He is a master of mimicking people’s body language and their movements,” Moore said. “He could do every one of his teammates in high school.

“And it wasn’t a case of there being some similarity between him and them. It was exactly the same.”

Leaman and assistant coaches Len Bone and David Humphreys are Penberthy’s favorite subjects to mimic at Master’s.

“Doug’s fun to imitate because he’s so fundamentally sound and he doesn’t mind it,” Penberthy said. “Some guys are harder to do because they’re so athletic and their movements are hard to duplicate.”

Penberthy’s ability to imitate others also has constructive value.

He spends a lot of time viewing tapes of the top point guards in the NBA and NCAA--analyzing everything from their footwork to their shooting techniques--and tries to incorporate what he observes into his own game.

“I’ve still got so much to learn,” he admitted. “I’m definitely not above watching some of the best guys in the business and seeing how they do things.”

The unrelenting desire to improve is one of the qualities Oates finds so admirable in Penberthy, who is shooting 91.1% from the free-throw line and 44.8% from three-point range.

“He’s a very competitive person who has improved a lot from last year to this year,” Oates said. “That’s nice to see with a player of his caliber.”

Especially when the player lets his game, not his mouth, do the talking on the court.