MATT MALONEY: Right on the Money

It was the fall of 1991 and John Amaechi was living alone at Vanderbilt University. Amaechi, who hails from England, had arrived early to prepare for college and basketball in America. As school approached, the freshman was anxious to meet his new roommate and teammate. When Matt Maloney got to campus, though, there was a slight communication problem. He hadn't made many British friends at Haddonfield High in New Jersey. Amaechi had never heard a Jersey accent before. So the odd couple fell back on their one common thread -- the game itself. The point guard and the center played day after day and night after night, practically moving their dorm room to the campus gym. As time passed, basketball paved the way for a close friendship. Both players felt isolated in Memphis, however, and they eventually decided to pursue their degrees and their hoops elsewhere. Maloney transferred to Penn and Amaechi to Penn State. But the friendship has remained intact. "We really were a perfect match," Amaechi now says. "Matt's just a great guy. I had never had a friend like that in basketball, and I haven't found another one since." Almost a year after that first Amaechi-Maloney encounter, Penn forward Shawn Trice sat on the Palestra bleachers on a warm summer afternoon. He was watching star shooting guard Jerome Allen play. Allen is a truly gifted talent, and it was always a learning experience for Trice to watch him. On this day, as Trice watched, Allen was going one-on-one with the new guy, the transfer point guard named Matt Maloney. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' because I'd never seen anyone handle Jerome defensively like that," Trice recalls with a sheepish grin. Since that summer, Trice has spent three years with Maloney. He, too, has learned to look past basketball and see more than just a point guard. "Matt is not just a terrific player. He's a terrific person," Trice says. That seems to be the way with Matt Maloney. What you notice first is the game -- the tenacious defense, the deadly jumper and the deceptive quickness. Only later does one get to know and appreciate the person behind the player. "He's a very likeable guy," says Lou Carnesecca, who coached Maloney on the Foot Locker-NIT All-Star team in Europe last summer. "He did such a great job handling the team, working with the rest of the guys, and setting an example for everyone. Matt was a fabulous representative of his team, his school and the USA." Maloney seems, in many ways, to have been destined for such success and high praise. After a year at Penn Charter he returned to Haddonfield, where he played baseball and soccer in addition to basketball. But the house had a hoop in the driveway, and his father, Jim, was an assistant coach at Temple. So basketball came first. Coming out of high school he was swamped with recruiting offers. Looking for a strong academic school in a strong basketball conference, Maloney narrowed it down to three choices: Stanford, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. His father knew Eddie Fogler because they had coached in the ACC together, and now Fogler was coaching at Vandy. That connection started the ball rolling, and soon Maloney signed on to join the Commodores. Things were fine, but it was simply too far away. He thought about playing closer to home. "At Vanderbilt my dad never got to see me play, so it was mainly a matter of proximity," Maloney says. The decision to transfer was thus made mainly for geographical reasons. Fogler, now the head coach at South Carolina, remains understandably disappointed and a bit skeptical about this explanation. "He made an intelligent decision, and then he changed it," Fogler says. "Matt's a great player. He's very unselfish and he has great strengths. I still don't know the truth [about the decision to leave Vanderbilt], but if that's what Matt says, then I'll take his word for it." Once he decided to transfer, Maloney had to begin searching again. Princeton was an option, as was a trip to Penn State along with Amaechi. Then his father made a call to Penn coach Fran Dunphy, and soon Matt was thinking hard about playing in West Philly. "I think the reason to choose a school like Penn is what it can do for you," Jim Maloney says. "Penn is a place with a warm feeling for its student athletes, and it's a school with a strong reputation for academics. It seems like a place where you make friends for life. That's important because basketball only lasts four years, but values last a lifetime." The list of advantages at Penn was indeed a long one. An Ivy League education. The Palestra and the Big 5. A chance to play close to home. And a program that was clearly on the rise. The choice was an easy one, and after a semester of community college Maloney enrolled. "When I got here that first summer, I thought it was just a great atmosphere," he says. "The academics, Coach Dunphy and especially my teammates. It seemed like a place without a lot of pressure. Guys like Jerome and Shawn are great because they just accept you right away for who you are." Penn and Maloney soon proved a perfect fit, and he has prospered. The 6-foot-3 guard can beat you with his dribble, his passing, his shooting or his defense -- he has beaten many Ivy League guards with all four. Maloney has been Penn's leading scorer the last two years, and this season he leads the team with almost 15 points per game. Nicknamed "Money," he has left countless fans and defenders in awe of his perimeter shot. He owns every three-point record in the Penn books. Penn forward Tim Krug recalls the first time he played with Maloney, a pick-up game in Gimbel Gymnasium. "I was impressed then, as I still am now, with the range on his shot," Krug says. "It basically seems endless, or at least within a halfcourt setting. He's just a great shooter." But many, including Dunphy, are quick to point out his less glamorous skills, like finding the open man and taking care of the basketball under pressure. "Everything has gotten better for this team since the first day Matt was here," Dunphy says. "In that regard, I have a lot of respect for what he has done while still realizing that he is part of a bigger picture." Practice at the Palestra has just ended. Maloney is asked what, above all else, he will take from college basketball when it is over. He looks at Allen, Trice and the rest of the Quakers still on the court. "My teammates and everyone I've been involved with in the game," he says. "I've learned so much from them all." Maloney may not realize it, but he has done plenty of teaching himself. To those who know him, he is much more than a fantastic point guard. He is a friend. Just ask the center from England who was there when it all started. "Every day, I go buy all of the Philadelphia papers," Amaechi says. "Just so I can see how Matt is doing."

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