John Henson is three blocks shy of setting a new North Carolina single-season record with 121 swats.

He averages 3.2 a game, and so win or lose against Kentucky on Sunday, the sophomore should get the record.

Well, maybe not if Terrence Jones has learned anything.

In the last UNC-UK meeting on Dec. 4, Henson rejected three shots and Jones went 3-for-17 from the field with only nine points.

“When a player has length, you usually have to go right into their chest and shorten their length and make them back up a little bit and I just settled for jump shots,” Jones said after the Wildcats’ 62-60 win against Ohio State in the Sweet 16 on Friday.

“It was a lot of going to me and I wasn’t really finishing. I started off with two bad threes and they should have been drives. I really take the blame for that game. Everyone stepped up. Everybody showed a lot of effort but me.”

Henson’s length disturbed Jones, who was playing in just the seventh collegiate game of his career. The 6-foot-10 Henson surprised the bulkier, 6-foot-8 Jones and altered many of his shots, including his first two 3-point attempts.

Also against the Wildcats, Henson grabbed 12 rebounds to Jones’ six. Not to mention Jones was one of four Wildcats who fouled out in that game.

“Hopefully I’ll have a better night than what I had there,” Jones said. “I’m not going to sleep. Just play my best rebounding and scoring.”

Both players have come a long way since that time, though. Henson played only 31 minutes and was kept out of the final three minutes of the game because of his free-throw shooting woes. As for Jones, he now averages 8.7 rebounds a game and has not fouled out since that December game.

“For me the first thing I see is how each individual player has developed,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Both teams are drastically different — I think both teams have improved greatly since that time personnel changed for us. I think both teams were very young, and still very young, but I think the experiences that we’ve gained have made us both better teams.”

History this season shows that teams playing Henson multiple times in a season doesn’t mean players wise up to his blocking habits. Out of the six teams that UNC played more than once this season, Henson blocked as many or more shots in the next meeting against four of them.

But Henson promises it’s not by design

“I can’t really tell, it’s within the flow of the game,” he said. “I try to block shots and rebound and do what I can defensively and hopefully it works to our advantage.”

Henson said he anticipates Jones attacking him more often on Sunday rather than settling for the jump shot like he did in December. Jones is both four months older and four months wiser.

“I expect him to come back a little harder and have a better grasp of what I can do,” Henson said. “It’s going to be a little tough for me but that’s what you want in the Elite Eight.”

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