Posts tagged GeraldHenderson at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

There will (most likely) be no coaching changes in the ACC this year. There really aren't many of those "one-and-done" guys that other conferences will see leave. So what are the major themes of the ACC's offseason?

-Olympic Games: I must admit that I was surprised that Mike Krzyzewski had his Duke team blazing out of the gate this season. I honestly felt that his Olympic responsibilities would have some sort of effect on the Blue Devils to start this season. Instead, they shot out of the gate and were the #2-ranked team as late as February.

But this July and August will see K's commitment to the Olympic squad hit the highest level. After finishing a pretty good season at Duke and looking towards bigger things in '09, he must go to Beijing and deal with a volatile and thankless job.

If Team USA comes back with the gold, everyone will just say it was because there were better players this time around and the program was more focused. If they don't win it all -- God, help them.

-UNC's Main Men: The Tar Heels were a horrible 12 minutes from getting to the National Championship game this year. If everyone comes back, they could be the favorite to bring home the title.

Over the last few years, West Virginia has found a niche of being the NCAA tournament darlings. In 2005, we were Kevin Pittsnogle-d into a surprising Elite 8 team (they went to the Sweet 16 the next season). In 2008, they are the ones who knocked Duke out of the dance.

West Virginia, who couldn't throw the ball in the ocean in the first half, hit 4-of-their-5 three point shots and scored 44 in the second half. Joe Alexander led the way with 22 points, Alex Ruoff added 17 and 6'2 guard Joe Mazzulla came off the bench to give the Mountaineers a huge, huge effort (13 points, 11 boards).

It was the Blue Devils who couldn't shoot in the second half. Duke missed 15 straight three point shots and hit just 5-of-22 from behind the arc. Senior DeMarcus Nelson, who scored just two points in the win over Belmont, shot like garbage again. He hit just 2-of-11 shots and scored just six points.

Duke goes home a tad bit early for the second straight year. West Virginia (the Duke Haters favorite team) will face either Xavier or Purdue next.

Again, as I said a few days ago, the Belmont-Duke game was going to be better than most people figured. And, boy, it was!

Belmont had a one point lead until Gerald Henderson rebounded a miss, took it the length of the floor, and scored a game winning layup with :13 remaining. A last second heave by Belmont went wide left and the Blue Devils escaped with a win.

Duke needed somebody to step up tonight and Henderson took those reigns. He scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to led Duke to the 71-70 victory. They needed that slasher since DeMarcus Nelson keeps struggling (2 pts, 1-of-6 shooting). While the rest of the Blue Devils looked sluggish, Henderson was very active on both ends of the court, scored the final eight points for the Blue Devils and carried them to the 2nd round.

They face the winner of West Virginia-Arizona.

Duke swingman Gerald Henderson will need surgery to his right wrist. He's elected to have the surgery after the season and will play through the pain.

Henderson hurt his wrist against North Carolina nearly three weeks ago and has struggled shooting ever since. He has shot just 10 of 28 from the field (and 2-of-7 from behind the arc) since suffering the injury. Henderson averages 12.3 points and 4.7 boards for the Blue Devils this season.

Of course, this news has been top secret since Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski doesn't discuss injuries with the media "like some schools". It's obvious that there is treason afoot in the Duke program.

Everyone in ACC country knows that Winston-Salem is a tough place to visit. Winning at Wake ain't easy, no matter how good they are.

Duke found that out tonight, losing to the Demon Deacons, 86-73. Wake Forest (who is 14-1 at home) dominated this game in not the way you would think. Instead of riding big man Chas McFarland ... they used their guards to attack the basket. Since Duke has no one back there to challenge shots, Wake either got easy baskets or fouled.

Freshman James Johnson was a beast. Dude went for 24 points and 16 boards while Jeff Teague led all scorers with 26 points.

For all those people who say that Duke gets all the calls: Greg Paulus, DeMarcus Nelson, Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and Lance Thomas (aka, the entire Blue Devils starting lineup) fouled out. Wake Forest shot 38 free throws, making 27 of them.

Duke, who is one of the better long range shooting teams, shot just 8-of-28 from behind the arc (28%). They also made just 13 of 25 from the line. Ugh. All that lends to the common belief of why Duke cannot win a national championship: they can't defend the paint and they are screwed if their shots don't fall.

With Duke coming to Chapel Hill tonight, some of the UNC students are thinking about wearing "Psycho T masks" to the game. The masks will be fashioned from one similar to what Tyler Hansbrough had to wear for four games after the last time Duke visited the Dean Smith Center.

Expect Duke's Gerald Henderson ... whose elbow was the one that broke Hansbrough's nose that day ... to get quite the ribbing from the 20,000+ crowd. He knows that the reception for him "won't be too good."

"I don't know how it'll be, but it'll be a high level of boos for both [me and coach Mike Krzyzewski]," Henderson said of Wednesday's 9 p.m. game between No. 2 Duke and No. 3 North Carolina. "They don't like either one of us there, I guess. ... Last year was an unfortunate incident. And we lost to them twice last year. ... I'm still looking forward to going out there and getting a win."

That leaves one position where Duke needs to capitalize on its advantage. North Carolina forward Deon Thompson won't easily guard versatile freshman Kyle Singler around the 3-point arc. A big game by Singler might be the Blue Devils' best chance of winning.

But counting on a freshman forward to hit 3-pointers in front of a crowd that's sure to be wild will be a dangerous way for Duke to live Wednesday night.

The theory is that Duke doesn't have anyone to match up with Tyler Hansbrough; the Heels will stick defensive guru Marcus Ginyard on DeMarcus Nelson; Wayne Ellington and Greg Paulus will match each other shot for shot. We could see Carolina put super sub Danny Green in on Singler. However, that will give up the Heels biggest advantage in this game: their size.

The article doesn't, however, mention Ty Lawson or Gerald Henderson ... the two other starters in this game. Lawson is a tough matchup for the Duke guards and if Ginyard is guarding Nelson then Ellington has got to guard Henderson.

Doyel: Mike, you made it clear after the game and just now, some conduct is unacceptable and you would hold your players to higher standards and all that ... um, I'm just wondering, how many games did you suspend Christian Laettner for when he stomped on Aminu Timberlake?

Coach K: Well, you want ... first of all ... would you call that a stomp?

Doyel: Absolutely. I've seen it over and over.

Coach K: Okay. Well, then my judgment and yours differ.

Doyel: I got some glasses ... I mean, are you serious?

Coach K: Okay. So, you ... you ... I'm not going to get in with you because you would always want something controversial (laughs nervously) so...

Doyel: I just like the truth sometimes that's all.

Coach K: No ... believe me, there's nobody who likes the truth more than me. And, uh, after the season we'll talk about, you know, 1992; I'd rather talk about 2007 right now.