Marshall Henderson, hero of the day for Ole Miss on Tuesday night against Vanderbilt, enjoys shooting about as much as Hugh Freeze enjoys firing off a retweet for somebody's cousin's birthday during the off-season. In fact, if I were more industrious, I'd keep a tally on Henderson's three-point attempts per game versus Freeze's retweets per day just to test my theory.
Alas, I am not that dedicated to finding out. But, as for Henderson's three-point attempts, he's shot 169 on the year, which is 33 MORE than Nick Williams, Jarvis Summers, Ladarius White, and Derrick Millinghouse, Ole Miss' other primary guards, COMBINED. Do the simple math and he's averaging, AVERAGING, 10.5 three-point attempts per game (by comparison, Murphy Holloway has taken 184 shots TOTAL on the year, which is 11.5 shots a game).
Mercifully, he's hitting 36.1% of those, which is solid, but not great for college. The biggest reason for his lower percentage is his shot selection, which head coach Andy Kennedy described earlier this season as "makes coffee nervous." Henderson features the off-balance three, the one-legged three, the spin-and-fire three, the 1-on-3 fast-break three, and a host of other versions.
So, in preparation for Saturday's game against Arkansas, and you should go if you can (I cannot so I will be yelling at my television instead), I've thrown together a little scouting report on Henderson so that you may be prepared when he takes a shot that makes your inner monologue scream, and possibly your throat as well, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?".
First, here's the process by which Henderson decides he's going to shoot. It's pretty simple, which helps explain why he's able to get his shot off so quickly.
1. Do I have the ball?
(If yes, move to next step. If no, get the ball.)
2. Can I see the basket with at least one eye?
(If yes, SHOOT. If no, turn around and shoot.)
And that's it. No mental bells and whistles, just a dedication to the craft of getting shots off.
But what about his range, you may ask. Where does it stop? We caught a glimpse of his range against Vanderbilt when he hit the 35-footer to force overtime, but all signs point to it going deeper than that.
Based on my calculations, which like the BCS Computers are void of any and all forms of responsible mathematics, I've established what I think Henderson's range is. But first, for comparison, let's take a look at what would be considered normal three-point range for a college player:
Anything in the red area is fairly makeable NO I'M NOT AN ARTIST LEAVE ME ALONE IT WAS THE BEST I COULD DO. But Henderson's range goes a bit beyond that as you can see here, represented by the red area:
As you can see, it's pretty much the moment he enters Tad Smith Coliseum. So, when you're watching Ole Miss on Saturday, keep your shot judgment on its lowest setting, otherwise you're gonna get a little upset. This is the way Marshall Henderson does things, and until it stops working, I say ALL THE SHOTS, MARSHALL. ALL THE SHOTS.