Henderson Has Reached Point of Great Return : Fullerton Guard Has Taken Over for Leon Wood as High-Scoring Playmaker

Kevin Henderson had just made two clutch free throws to give Cal State Fullerton the winning margin in a 73-72 victory over Utah State recently when a fan in Titan Gym turned to a companion and asked, “Where the heck was this guy last year when we needed him?”

And, boy, did the Titans need him. Fullerton lost eight games--four in overtime--by one point to finish out of postseason play with a 17-13 record. A few of Henderson’s pressure free throws such as the ones against Utah State could have turned the Titans’ 1983-84 season into a big success.

Then again, if Henderson had played last season the way he is playing currently, the Titans wouldn’t have needed to worry about a few free throws.

In the Utah State a week ago Saturday, Henderson treated the 2,345 in Titan Gym to a 26-point, 3-rebound, 6-assist show--replete with double-pump dunks and behind-the-back passes--and the Fullerton faithful were left wondering whether the Titans would have lost last year had Henderson played more often.

So, where the heck was he?

The 6-foot 4-inch transfer from Saddleback College was healthy and available, but he spent a good portion of the season on the bench watching the action.

Henderson scored 40 points in the Titans’ first eight games last season and looked as if he might even earn a permanent starting spot. But then he was late for a practice, was not allowed to suit up for one game, and did not score a point over a 12-game span during midseason.

He reappeared with eight games left, and averaged 12 points a game, including a 15-point performance in Fullerton’s season-ending 53-51 loss to Fresno State in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tournament at The Forum.

Both Coach George McQuarn and Henderson insist the one-game benching had nothing to do with Henderson’s mid-season demise.

“He was the fifth guy that we searched for all last season,” McQuarn said. “We always knew he was the guy. He’s a superb athlete from an inferior high school program (Centennial) but he certainly had his chances early in the year.

“That (the disciplinary action) had nothing to do with it. He was late and that’s a team rule. I don’t know why he didn’t work out to begin with, though. He doesn’t even know why.

“He just matured a lot during the season and when he got a second chance, he made the most of it. He’s been a player ever since.”

Henderson doesn’t have any easy answers, either.

“I was home in L.A. for New Year’s and had trouble getting back to Fullerton,” Henderson recalled. “I was late for practice and that’s the same as missing practice. So I had to sit out the one game, but that really wasn’t the problem.

“Coach tried me early (in the season), but I was struggling. I was making a few baskets but I wasn’t reading situations well. I was having trouble making the adjustment to Division 1 ball and my inexperience and deficiencies just caught up with me.”

Henderson concedes that McQuarn’s intensity level didn’t help his adjustment, either.

During workouts, McQuarn is a regular Merchant of Venom. He doesn’t smile much and offers words of encouragement about as often as they hold one-cent sales on Rodeo Drive.

“Last year, I didn’t have a clue what Coach was trying to do,” Henderson said. “There’s a reason he yells a lot, though. He’s preparing you for adversity. He’s getting you to get away from the outside elements and just play ball. If you can still perform when he’s on you, then no hostile crowd will be able to bother you.”

But as Henderson became comfortable with McQuarn’s style, his style started to emerge. And, with Henderson adjusting to the program, he looks back at last season with more than a twinge of regret.

“If I had played all last year like I did at the end, I would have grown a lot more as a player, too,” Henderson said. “But more importantly, all we needed was one more player to fit in and contribute. I think I could have been the key ingredient that would have given us a great year.”

This time around, Kevin Henderson may be the key to keeping the 7-7 Titans from having a terrible year.

More than a few coaches and other basketball aficionados scoffed when McQuarn announced he was going to mold Leon Wood into a point guard. Some made it sound as if McQuarn was suggesting the Chicago Bears turn Walter Payton into a punter.

Wood, the quintessential offensive player, became a consistent-and-sometimes-spectacular playmaker, however. And he still managed to score 24 points a game last season as a senior before moving on to an Olympic gold medal with the U.S. team and then to the Philadelphia 76ers.

When McQuarn moved Henderson, the team’s No. 2 scorer this season with a 16-points-per-game average, from shooting guard to point guard two weeks ago, many thought the Fullerton coach was falling back on a proven formula.

In this instance, however, there was no such grand scheme. McQuarn says the switch was merely a case of “evolution.”

Translation : Nobody else was getting the job done.

Freshman Eugene Jackson, who started the Titans’ first 10 games, was timid on the fastbreak, and, more significantly, was not shooting well. Opponents did not bother to defense against him most of the time. Senior walk-on George Yezbak is the only other true point guard in the program (JC transfer Bryant Standley quit the team last month) and he is less of an offensive threat than Jackson.

“Originally, I wanted to make the move to create more playing time for Richard (Morton, a freshman),” McQuarn said. “Then when I moved Henderson (about 10 minutes into the conference opener at New Mexico State), I realized that he added a new dimension to our offense. He’s explosive. He pushes the ball up court. He attacks the defense. And we started scoring out of our break.”

This season, only two Titans--senior Tony Neal and Henderson--have shown offensive consistency. Therefore, McQuarn was worried that Henderson’s point total would drop off with the switch, and Fullerton would be left with a one-dimensional offense.

But in four starts, Henderson already has dispelled McQuarn’s fears. He scored 19 points in the first start at Cal State Long Beach, had a career-high 29 points in a four-overtime loss to San Jose State, scored 26 more against Utah State and was a big factor in the Titans’ 89-80 win at UC Irvine on Thursday with 24 points.

He also has averaged 59% (34 of 58) in field goals since the switch, has played tenacious defense and has rebounded well for a guard.

Henderson isn’t out to make fans forget Wood. In fact, he’s doing everything possible to remember how Wood gave new meaning to the words “point (as in 24-a-game) guard.”

When McQuarn asked him about moving to point guard, Henderson started thinking about last season . . . again. But this time, the recollections were positive.

“Watching Leon last season has been a big help in switching over to the point,” he said. “When we watched films last year, you couldn’t help but notice what Leon was doing . . . he was so incredible and he had the ball so much.

“I’ve made an effort to try and emulate him in certain situations, but, really, I’ve been playing pretty much on instinct so far.”

Henderson says the most important part of playing point guard is attitude. “You can’t get caught up in the point guard stigma,” he said. “If you tell yourself you’ve just got to run the team and never shoot, then that’s the way you’ll play.”

Still, McQuarn insists the point position is specifically defined in Fullerton’s offense.

But Henderson keeps finding ways to expand the definition.

And so far, McQuarn’s not complaining.