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When Henderson Goes, So Goes Duke

By Jake LLoyd

Mar 22, 2008

Two words come to Brian Zoubek's mind when he's asked about the first time he saw Gerald Henderson on a basketball court.

"Freakish athleticism."

Both players were participating in the Eddie Griffin Challenge, a high school all-star game during their junior year of high school — Zoubek was on New Jersey's team while Henderson led Philadelphia's squad.

"(He also had) the will to take over the game," Zoubek said. "He demanded the ball when he knew he could score, and it's carried through obviously."

Zoubek was referring to Duke's 71-70 victory over Belmont in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's West Regional at the Verizon Center Thursday night. With 15 seed Belmont threatening to pull off the upset, Henderson carried the Blue Devils (28-5) to the win.

Two seed Duke will take on No. 7 West Virginia (25-10) in the second round at 2:10 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Henderson scored Duke's final eight points, including the game-winning finger-roll layup — after grabbing a defensive rebound and dribbling the ball the length of the court — with 11.9 seconds remaining.

The sophomore guard finished with 21 points, including 17 in the second half, on 8-for-14 shooting. He also grabbed seven rebounds and tied his career-high with five steals. It's safe to say, Duke would be back in Durham if not for his performance.

"He had a great second half for us," Greg Paulus said of Henderson. "He really took over down the stretch for us. And the more he does that, the better off we are as a team."

While Duke has great depth when injury-free — with as many as 10 players taking the court during a given game — it is clear that the Devils have a hard time winning when Henderson doesn't assert himself on the court.

Duke is 18-1 when Henderson, who averages 12.6 point per game, scores 12 or more points. The shooting guard struggled in all but one of the Devils' losses, scoring 17 points when Pittsburgh gave Duke its first loss in December.

In recent defeats, Henderson has shot extremely poorly — he scored six points on 1-of-4 shooting at Wake Forest; he had eight points on 1-of-10 shooting versus Miami; he scored 10 points, but shot just 3-for12 against North Carolina; and in the Devils' ACC Tournament semifinal loss to Clemson, he managed just seven points on 2-of-5 shooting.

This coming from a player who is referred to by his teammates as the Duke player with the most potential.

"Gerald has an upside that a lot of kids don't have," freshman Taylor King said. "And that athletic ability, the strength, the shot — he's got a lot of good aspects to his game. And when he wants to, he can play some defense."

An informal poll of a trio of players in Duke's locker room revealed that they think:

Duke's best midrange player is Gerald Henderson.

Duke's best finisher at the basket is Gerald Henderson — with DeMarcus Nelson also getting a vote.

Duke's best dunker is Gerald Henderson.

Obviously, these are just a few offensive traits, but every Duke player thinks Henderson is capable of doing what he did Thursday night on a consistent basis. And they all say that he makes the Devils a much more difficult team to defend because of his plethora of abilities.

Henderson's eight field goals against the Bruins included two alley-oops, a couple midrange jumpers, a runner in the lane off the backboard, a 3-pointer and, of course, the game-winner.

"The types of things he can do with his athleticism, his strength (are) — creating his own shot, or he can take it inside, post up and then hit it (the open shot) on the outside," Paulus said.

"So he can do a number of different things for him and for us that not many guys can do."

The problem at times for Henderson, the son of former 13-year NBA player Gerald Henderson Sr., has been that he doesn't bring his explosiveness every game. At this time of year, that's not something the Devils can afford.

During mid-February, his lack of production could be partially blamed on a right wrist sprain, which he suffered in Duke's Feb. 6 victory over North Carolina (and will be surgically operated on after the season). Now, however, Henderson said, "It's been fine."

In other words, no excuses.

"Last night is the player I need to be," Henderson said while sitting in front of a large throng of reporters Friday afternoon.

"For me, consistency is the biggest thing."

At halftime of Thursday's game, even with Duke leading 42-35, Henderson was upset with himself — and so were his coaches. His teammates also realized he wasn't playing up to his potential.

"We don't want to let anybody fall into accepting mediocrity," David McClure said. "And at one point in the first half, Gerald was kind of just accepting (what was happening), letting the game come to him, and he can't do that for us to be successful.

"He needs to go out there and attack the game and really take the game into his own hands."

After getting encouragement first from coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff and then from the other players, Henderson took the court and played one of the better halves of his Duke career. Jon Scheyer said Henderson played "angry."

"It was just that I didn't want to go out like that," Henderson said of the possibility of losing in the tournament's first round for the second straight season. "We weren't down, but I felt like we could have been up more, played better defense, especially myself.

"I could have done a lot better job defensively. You know, the offense will come, but I took an attitude out to the second half just to play more physical, more aggressive and assert myself more."

And that's what Henderson did, making plays on both ends — the defensive rebound followed by the layup — at the end to quiet the rowdy, pro-Belmont crowd. King said there are times, like Thursday, when Henderson's game reminds him of a certain NBA MVP candidate.

"When he plays with an edge and he plays angry, I guess — if you want to call it (that) — he's just stronger than everybody else," King said. "He can get to the hole whenever he wants. And if you back up, he can pull up for the midrange jumper, and people underestimate his 3-point jump shot, too.

"He's a Kobe-esque-type player, I think.

"He's one of the best players I've ever seen."

And Henderson is a player the Devils will need to put forth a similar performance to Thursday's if they're going to advance past the Mountaineers in front of what promises to be a blue- and yellow-clad crowd.

West Virginia features a pair of players — 6-8 Joe Alexander and 6-7 Wellington Smith — who have blocked more than 50 shots, and it averages more than five rejections a game. Henderson had no problem softly laying in the winning shot over the undersized Bruins, but it will likely take a workmanlike effort to score against the bigger Mountaineers and get them into foul trouble.

"I think it's going to be big because one of the things is, the guys can't rack up blocks if they get in foul trouble," McClure said, "and one of the best ways to do that is to have someone like Gerald or someone like DeMarcus really drive in there and take it to them and hopefully put them in the position to pick up a couple fouls.

"Also, if they're coming over to block and we can get it (the ball) up there, we have a chance to get offensive rebounds, so that's what we're gonna be looking for."

Whatever the Devils do Saturday, if they're successful, Henderson will likely play a large role. As he showed Zoubek four years ago, he can take over a game in the wink of an eye. And at this point in the season, having a player who can do that is essential to moving on.

"If I'm playing (worse) than that, I'm letting my team down," Henderson said of Thursday's second half.