Henson seizes challenges of a rocky season and overcomes own adversity

In a season that’s been big on expectations and short on experience, John Henson exemplifies both sides of the Tar Heels.

The 6-foot-10 freshman, who came in as the No. 3 ESPNU 100 recruit in the country, once blocked two layups by Duke’s Jon Scheyer on the same possession and sent the Smith Center into a frenzy. But the inexperienced Tar Heel was so pumped that he didn’t chase down either of the loose balls, and on the third try, Duke finished with a basket.

It’s hard to blame him. In his first year, the 195-pound Henson — for whom “lanky” is an understatement — hasn’t had much stability.  He switched positions at the start of the season, only to switch back later.

And he’s been everywhere in coach Roy Williams’ rotation, from first off the bench to finishing games with the walk-ons. Now he’s a starter, taking opening tip-offs while eye-to-eye with the ACC’s best.

And with North Carolina on the tail end of an underachieving season and eyeing a difficult ACC Tournament challenge ahead, Henson’s development is a major concern for the Tar Heels — both present and future.

Don’t expect to be able to tell it by talking to him, though.

“He’s goofy, joking around, laughing,” sophomore Larry Drew II said. “You walk around, you see some of the guys smiling in here. He’s part of the reason why.”

Henson has been a bright spot on the court and an even brighter one in the locker room. And even in one of the more trying years for North Carolina basketball, he still says he enjoys the atmosphere.

“You can’t be pessimistic, because then things really won’t go your way,” Henson said.

Swapping roles

In what Henson said was a “mutual decision” between himself, his family and Williams, Henson agreed to switch from his natural power forward to small forward at UNC. He didn’t expect the move to be easy, but given his build and his skill set, they all thought it was the right move for his future.

But for someone who had spent most of his playing career in the paint, being a small forward in Williams’ offense required a lot of changes.

Not only was it a different offensive role, but it was one that was often totally antagonistic to his instincts. Perimeter scorers need to stretch the defense out, so they need to move to open spots on the 3-point line — while Henson was used to crashing the boards and going right into the middle.

“It was difficult, just learning the offense and learning what to do as a perimeter player,” Henson said. “My mentality is to run to the front of the rim.”

The result was inconsistency. Given limited minutes to get a feel for his new position, Henson went back and forth between old and new. He’d lurk in the paint one possession, then circle around the outside on the next.

“He had a difficult time remembering the plays, knowing when to be in certain spots,” Drew said.

Sometimes he would even start out a play in one role and finish it playing another. Against Georgia Tech, he once ran out to the 3-point line, received a pass, then gave up a wide-open look and drove back into traffic for a dunk.

Taking refuge on defense

While his play is far from polished, it’s hard to underestimate Henson’s impact on defense. His long reach and jumping ability have been on showcase all season, providing spectacular highlights for fans and nightmares for opponents.

It’s been good for his mental health, too. His furrowed expression relaxes into an easygoing smile when the subject switches from offense to defense.

“I love blocking shots,” said Henson, who’s averaged the most blocks per minute of any Tar Heel. “I’m going to try to go get anything that’s thrown up there soft.”

In front of a crowd of nearly 40,000 against Texas, the easily excitable youngster clearly benefitted from a rush of adrenaline. He swatted a 3-pointer within 10 seconds of entering the game, and had two more blocks by the time he sat back down on the bench.

“An opportunity”

The announcement that Davis would miss six weeks with a broken wrist was grim and sudden news for the Tar Heels. Henson didn’t have time to dwell on the negatives for the team — he had to get ready to fill Davis’ spot and move back into the position he’d being trying to unlearn all season.

Since he’s entered the starting lineup, Henson has looked much more comfortable while playing at his old position, power forward. He’s also shown immediate promise: he averaged 10.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and 52 percent shooting in his first five games after moving into Davis’ spot — numbers comparable to some of the better players in the conference.

More importantly, playing long minutes shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Gani Lawal of Georgia Tech and Al-Farouq Aminu of Wake Forest has given Henson an idea of the work it takes to be successful in the ACC.

“He didn’t have a lot of experience at getting into that game-type mentality,” Tyler Zeller said. “So he’s gained a lot.”

Not all the results have been good, though. His inexperience in crunch time has sometimes hurt the team, like in a road loss to Boston College. As the Tar Heels cut the lead to single digits in the closing moments, Henson missed three crucial free throws — including the front end of a one-and-one opportunity — and got called for goaltending when trying to block a layup.

Still, that’s to be expected for a freshman who doesn’t even have a dozen starts under his belt.

He undoubtedly would have rather gotten big minutes to get a feel for his role back in December, when the stakes weren’t quite so high. And maybe it would have been easier if he could have stayed at power forward instead of trying to switch to the outside.

But Henson isn’t the type to have regrets. He’s happy to have playing time, eager to keep learning and motivated more than ever to improve his game — and his muscle — during the coming months.

“I can’t even explain how much more appreciative I am of the opportunity,” he said.

“Nothing was given to me here … and I pushed through, had my rough days, things started turning around a little bit and hopefully we can start winning and getting back to the Carolina way.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.