Duke's Gerald Henderson blossoming

No more.

The last month has been the coming-out for Gerald Henderson, college hoops star. The Duke Blue Devils rose to No. 1 and have fallen back with a couple of recent losses. They got trounced last Wednesday at Clemson. Tonight, they host North Carolina in another litmus test. But in recent weeks, Henderson's role has changed, from key part of the mix to clear go-to guy, although the explosiveness and over-40-inch vertical leap were there all along.

"He's almost become unguardable," said Mike Gminski, television analyst for Atlantic Coast Conference games and a former Blue Devils and 76ers center. "The expansion of his game - you know what you're going to get when he gets to the rim. I think the book on him was to make him take jump shots. He's now making teams pay for that philosophy."

His 15.2-point scoring average is a bit misleading. In ACC games, the 6-foot-4 junior averages 18.9 points a game, up from 10.7 through Duke's first 10 nonconference games. In ACC play, Henderson easily leads the league in field-goal percentage, at 55.2.

He's getting questions a lot lately about why the light is on.

"I think a lot had to do with my health," Henderson said in a telephone interview last week, referring to a series of injuries and ailments, including a wrist injury that required surgery right after last season.

But a lot didn't have to do with his health, he said.

"I think a lot had to do with me maturing as a player, me being able to take on a bigger load, more responsibility," Henderson said. "I think that's worked really well for me."

Henderson says he plays best angry.

"G has the best attitude on our team that he's good, that he belongs, that he wants to be in the moment," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after his team beat Georgetown last month, after Henderson made his first seven shots on the way to 23 points. "Not that other kids are afraid, but he really wants to be there. He has a good ego for the game, a tremendous ego for the game."

However, the dunks and blocks above the rim, the high-flying game, can mask other things. Henderson's high school coaches said Henderson had to work harder on his mechanics than smooth-shooting teammate and best friend Wayne Ellington, now averaging 15.0 a game down the road in Chapel Hill.

"He does things gradually," Marie Henderson said of her son. "That sometimes can be a good thing. He's comfortable now. I think he has the support of his teammates. I usually text something, the day before a game, like, you have to do the right thing as a leader, in order to get people to follow."

When he first got to Duke, she said, Krzyzewski told the freshman, "You're playing like you're out in the suburbs. You've got to come to the city."

As for that flying forearm that bloodied and broke North Carolina star Tyler Hansbrough's nose two seasons ago, mom said that episode should not be viewed as a display of toughness, that he "really regrets that happening."

He first learned the game in the suburbs. Mom still remembers his first trip to a playground in Ardmore, when Gerald was barely in grade school. Henderson was out there alone except for one other boy, a year or two older, although not as tall.

"He was making every shot," Marie Henderson said of the other kid. "He was telling G, 'You're weak, your game is so weak!' I was getting so mad."

You have to wonder: Where is that other kid now?

Henderson would have been a basketball star wherever he grew up. It was outside Philly, first in Villanova and then Blue Bell, because his father, Gerald Sr., was nearing the end of a 13-year NBA career that included three NBA titles.

Gerald Jr. was born seven days after his father signed with the 76ers for the start of a three-season run. When Dad moved to Detroit, for his last title, in 1990, the family stayed put. The kids were growing toward school age, grandparents were in Baltimore and Syracuse, and the Hendersons had started a transportation company. They became locals.

Now, even if he stays through graduation at Duke, Henderson is chronologically closer to the pros than to his high school days.

"I always understood that he had to find his own way," Gerald Sr. said. "You can't hold a kid's hand, going through what he's been though. He'll never find his own way. The last year or so, I've let go, and a lot of parents should do the same thing."

Gerald Sr. did say that when his son was home for a couple of days over Christmas, "I told him, 'This midrange area is going to be your bread and butter. It's a lost art in basketball, because of the three-point line. This is what's going to get you all your success, to be able to stop and hit the 8-to-10-footer, from all kinds of different spots."

Lately, Dad sees the same thing as everybody else.

"He started knowing what was under the hood," Gerald Sr. said.

In his prime with Boston and Seattle, the 6-foot-2 Henderson averaged double digits for five straight seasons.

"Gerald never had a problem wanting the ball," said Gminski, a teammate of Gerald Sr.'s for a time with the Sixers. "Young Gerald had to come to that."

As for physical gifts, Gminski said that if the father were taller, you probably would have seen similar play around the rim.

"Gerald was not a weak player by any stretch - he was a very strong guard," Gminski said. "He was much more jump-shot-oriented."

As for comparisons, Gerald Sr. has others in mind.

"If he wants to go further, he's got to be a student of the game," Gerald Sr. said of his son. "He's got to look at players, some great players, Kobe [Bryant] and [Dwyane] Wade - what works for them. You can't tell me Gerald doesn't have the same physical tools. He's got to increase his data bank. He hasn't quite gotten to that point yet . . ."

Dad added another sentence, one to remember.

"But I'm sure he will."

The son isn't talking about the next step. His current footing is still new to him, but he sounds comfortable in this role - "a role where I just had to do more," Henderson said.

Contact staff writer Mike Jensen

at 215-854-4489 or mjensen@phillynews.com.