John Henson

It's a question that's going to get asked a lot around here over the next few years.

He came to some games. I even saw him do the "Hook 'Em" and sing the Eyes of Texas after one.

He was recruited fairly heavily by UT, but the kid's family is from North Carolina and that's where Henson grew up. He and his parents are basically the only ones out here in Texas. It didn't end up being much of a recruitment.
 
Baylor was the first college he visited and also the first to give him an offer. BU got on him early before anyone else had even recruited him at all. I think that Texas did get in some after that.

However, as SL pointed out, his family is from ACC country. If I am not mistaken, his dad played basketball for Norfolk State in Virginia and I think his mom ran track at the same school(or somewhere around there). I could be off on those things but the bottom line is that they were extremely pro-ACC and as soon as North Carolina jumped in it was all over. Nothing Barnes or anyone else could have done.

TC
 
And now he's not in Round Rock. His coach got fired after last year's disappointing season, so his family just moved to Tampa, Florida, where he's enrolled at Sickles High.
 
The family says the move was for his dad (job transfer/opportunity), and I tend to believe it. If this were a basketball move he'd be at Oak Hill or some other basketball powerhouse.
 
As I've posted before, the guy seems like he sucks. Me and a buddy went to a RR/P-Ville basketball game last year specifically to check this guy out. He sucked. He was dominated in the post by the much shorter and much stronger Alex Okafor, and RR got beat by double digits by the worst P-Ville basketball team in ages. I'm super glad he will not be a Horn. he was a non factor in the game and got most of his points off of FT's in garbage time when the game was well out of reach.
 
I'm an UT alumni and know the Henson family well. My son played along side John for years. The move was 100% a job opportunity for his father. In fact, the father was willing to commute, but the kids wanted to be with Dad which is a tribute to their committment to family.
As far as his skills go, you will definately see him on television in the coming years. "That's right", you cant judge a player by one game. If I remember correctly, the Pville game was in the same week that he broke his nose. Like any other 16 year old, you'd be timid too. All you need to do is google his name and read any scouting report and you'll see that you just caught him on a bad day.

Regarding the recruiting, UT spent virtually no effort on John until Baylor, UNC, UCLA and others were well down the path. Though not from this area, John spent his junior high and almost all of highschool here....he likes the horns very much, its just that UT appeared to be less enthusiastic about him. I saw UNC's head coach Roy Williams at more of his games than I saw Rick Barnes. That sends a signal to a young kid about where you are wanted. And frankly, it was dissapointing for me as a UT alumni.
 
BTW, the family is not from North Carolina, though they lived in Virgina during the elementary school years before transferring to Texas.
 
First, hotwheel, thanks for posting. It's nice to get a different perspective.

At the same time, I can't help but feel you're taking something of a defensive attitude, almost certainly due to your relationship with the family. There's nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but I'd like to make a few counters to your points.

One, I'm pretty indifferent as to the circumstances of the father getting his job opportunity. It can't be very fun as a personal friend of the father/family to see any kind of speculation of that nature, but it's nothing personal. Basketball recruiting has become such a cesspool, with so many reports out there, of course it's going to be a topic of conversation when a father moves right before his nationally rated son's senior year. At the same time, it's not like North Carolina needs any additional advantages to be a recruiting powerhouse, and I don't think UNC did anything untoward in this recruitment. Far from it, in fact.

As far as judging a player by one game, actually you can. I may not come to an accurate conclusion, but it's certainly enough to form a opinion.

At least the guy went to a basketball game to watch Henson himself. You with your one post have never deigned to give us any kind of opinion on Henson's basketball playing skills, nor anyone else you've watched play basketball.

Henson has tremendous upside, but even you would have to admit he's extremely slight at this point, and will have to bulk up some. I will admit I think he's going to be a terrific player for the Tar Heels.

As far as his recruiting, I'm sorry to see you're so disappointed as a UT alum. However, Rick Barnes simply doesn't go out and see that many players during the beginning of their recruitments. Roy Williams is much more active during that phase, whereas Barnes depends on his assistants to lay the ground work to a much greater extent. It's a different approach.

Texas was very choosy in the 2008 class. While you feel like they were late in going after Henson, in the end they chose to pass on players like Anthony Jones, Sylvan Landesberg, and Jeff Taylor. As we follow recruiting for 2009, we see the reasons why.

This program has the opportunity to do great things in the next 3 years. To me it seems a little bit of a shame that the only time you see fit to make any contribution to the board as a fan is when a neighbor isn't recruited as hard as you'd like, but so be it.

And yes, a great deal of Henson's family is from North Carolina. I don't remember if it's on his mother's or father's side --- or both --- but I know that for a fact. John Henson himself may never have lived in North Carolina, but that's beside the point.
 
Welcome aboard Hotwheels, hope that you continue to post your viewpoint. The growl is much worse then the real bite.

Not everybody has inside info that sometimes is wrong but we all try to put in a little bit of info into the discussion even if we are not in the majority viewpoint.

To post your views on any player after one game is not realistic at all even if it is wrong. Wait ! unless you are a seer of the future and never make a mistake. But really Henson will be playing in the League in 3-4 years, heck even the best players in the league have bad games.
Barnes approach to recruiting is very different, we go hard on top guys with all our eggs in one basket.That did not pan out in 08, and JBrown was a big risk that did not work out.

Our 09 class is already top shelf and will get better if Jordan Hamilton commits to UT. Like SLX Said the next 2-3 years will be very interesting.
Barnes makes players better then rated when he get them to play defense and they get mentally tougher during the season.
 
I certainly think posting one's views on a player after one viewing is entirely realistic. Those views may not end up being correct, but they may not end up being correct after dozens of viewings. All I ask is that people post their genuine opinion, which is what happened regarding Henson.

Texas basketball recruiting hasn't even approached putting all their eggs in one basket. That's ridiculous. They have kept their options as open as possible for as long as possible, then as it becomes necessary, they make decisions as to how they'll proceed.

J'Covan Brown hasn't been much of a risk at all. If he makes it on campus, great. If he doesn't, it isn't going to have that much of an impact on the overall program whatsoever --- which is exactly why Texas is the best place for the kid. He needs to be going to a place that sets appropriate boundaries on his behavior within the program. That's more difficult if his presence on the court means a significant difference in competitiveness.

I do wonder out loud what in the world John Henson was doing playing for Terrell Henderson's AAU club this summer, but that's the Henson family's business, not mine.
 
Well all I can say is that my father was the SID at Texas during my childhood, and many many people I have gone to high school and even middle school with have gone on to D-1 scholarships and even all the way to the MLB and NFL; my point being that I've been around D-1 athletes my entire life. When My buddy and I walked into the gym we saw some Pflugerville football players including Zaviar Gooden and Greg Nwoko (Running backs now at Mizzou and Zona) and they looked the part. Obviously this has nothing to do with wether or not they succeed as collegiate athletes, but suffice to say, they looked like D-1 athletes. As we waited for the Varsity game to start we were surprised at the lack of people at a game featuring a UNC commit. Granted, Round Rock is a baseball town, followed by football and then basketball, but I have been to Pflugerville, Connally, Killeen Ellison, McNeil, Waco, and a few more home games and none of those teams featured a player as highly ranked as Henson yet all had hundreds more spectators. Anyways, we were looking at all of the RR players standing around and we thought that henson must still be in the locker room, wether he's getting taped up, or if he's already a superstar in his mind and he gets to come out later than everyone else, either way, we figured he couldn't possibly be one of the kids standing around waiting for the JV game to end. They all looked like scrubs. It wasn't until they announced the players that I figured out who he was. The game proceeded to play out and Henson proceeded to be an absolute non factor. He did looki timid, but I didn't see any tape, or bandages, or anything on his face indicating he had a newly broken nose, so I seriously doubt that was a factor. He was bullied in the paint and on the boards, and he didn't appear to have much of a jumper, and never even really tried to show any sort of an outside game. For a guy as frail and weak as him, he needs to have an outside game. Obviously KD didn't physically pass the eyeball test but the first images I saw of KD was of him nailing 3 after 3 after 3 effortlessly. This kid never even attempted anything outside of a midrange jumper. He ended with about 24 points, With I think 16 of them off free throws, at least 10 if not more came in the 4th quarter. Now, when I hear "Junior commited to UNC", names like Stackhouse, Carter, Jamison, Wallace, Jordan, Worthy, etc... This guy would get uberpwned by any of them as high schoolers, and that performance alone was enough for me to be glad he's not coming here.

and, since is my 1,000th post as That's Right..... OU SUCKS.
hookem.gif
 
dam, i was expecting you to say he finished with 4 points the way you talked about him. 24 points is 24 points...I dont care how or when they come.
 
No I didn't. I saw Pflugerville play an Australian junior national team and saw a 7 footer miss a point blank dunk. He physically looked more impressive than Henson. Also in that Pflugerville game I saw a sophomore from P-Ville throw the ball off the backboard to a trailaing teammate (also a sophomore at the time- Terrell Reese, WR, Arizona) who tomahawk jammed it capping off a 115-23 (or something like that) Pflugerville win. The sophomores I spoke of are now D-1 athletes, and they looked the part in high school. Any random observer could look at them and think they may be a D-1 recruit. No one in the RR warm-up jerseys looked anything like a D-1 athlete. Henson reminded me stature-wise of a guy named Adhar Mayen who is at Hawaii now. He played at P-Ville and went Juco then transferred to Hawaii. He did not look like a D-1 player physically, but yes, he has made it. However, when I hear "Junior commited to play for Roy Williams at UNC", I pictured someone who looks nothing like Henson. And, like I said, if he was draining 3's all game, and driving on people and getting rebounds and assists and blocking shots, his talents would supercede his physical frailty. However, since he had no impact on a game played between two pretty weak 5A teams, that is why I have formed my opinion of him as such.
 
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