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Kansas guard C.J. Henry drives past Central Arkansas guard Imad Qahwash during the first half, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 at Allen Fieldhouse.
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KU vs. Radford
KU takes on Radford Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Reader poll
Who do you think is KU's best perimeter defender?
- Sherron Collins 29% 811 votes
- Tyshawn Taylor 14% 389 votes
- Elijah Johnson 5% 160 votes
- Tyrel Reed 7% 206 votes
- Brady Morningstar 37% 1018 votes
- Xavier Henry 4% 126 votes
- Other 1% 33 votes
2743 total votes.
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KU vs. Radford
C.J. Henry wants to do more than just impress Kansas University coach Bill Self when he gets his chance to play in games.
“I feel I have to prove myself to anybody who’s a basketball fan or anybody watching the game. I haven’t played a competitive game in four years. Every time I step on the court, I have to prove something,” Henry, the Kansas University guard, said after the Jayhawks’ 99-64 victory over Radford on Wednesday. “That may not be in the form of points, just that I can play the game of basketball.”
The freshman guard showed that he might just deserve an increased role with his performance Wednesday.
Henry scored 11 points in just 10 second-half minutes, making four of his five shots.
“That’s what I was as a basketball player (in high school). I was a scorer and a playmaker,” Henry said. “I don’t know how to play any different, so that’s how I play.”
Henry’s minutes had been limited early on partly because of a nagging knee injury and partly because Self just hasn’t seen him play much.
“Tonight, we put him out there ... he looked good,” Self said. “He did some good things — not just because he made shots. He moved pretty well. He looked quick and athletic.
“I would anticipate him getting some more clock as we go forward if he continues to improve.”
Henry was especially accurate from long range, as he made three of his four three-point attempts.
“My dad taught me and my brother how to shoot, so we shoot the same,” said C.J., referring to his brother, Xavier, who also plays for KU. “Shots go in when we shoot them.”
C.J. also contributed defensively, posting a blocked shot and a defensive rebound. He showed more bounce and increased athleticism, mostly because of his knee’s improvement.
“I felt really, really good tonight,” C.J. said. “It’s coming along. It’s getting better each and every day.
“It’s not how it was when I’d feel good, and then it’d be aggravating for the next couple days, then I’d feel really good. It’s getting better every day now.”
C.J. admits there were times this season when not playing was difficult.
“Sometimes I can be a little impatient, as anybody could,” C.J. said. “It’s frustrating sometimes, just wanting to be out there with your teammates and just being able to help your team win. I try my best to be patient, and that’s one thing coach tells me. Just be patient.”
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Comments
dagger108 (anonymous) says…
That will be great to get CJ going.
As if there isn't enough competition, Brady comes back soon as well, and practices have already shown that Coach Self intends to play him. Fortunately, it sounds like the player rotation may be expanding as the D intensity get amp'd.
And 1 more week til Withey can play.
njjayhawk (anonymous) says…
Very nice job last night by CJ.
lighthawk (anonymous) says…
crazy depth.
In horse racing they allow you to enter two like 1A & 1B so what's it cost us to field two teams in march.
you take the blue & I"ll take the crimson team.
unfortunately we only play two halfs, not three or four and with the 20 minute TV time outs no one really gets 'winded', hence our depth is of some but not critical value.
crazy depth
Brock (anonymous) says…
When we get into the conference schedule the minutes will dry up for a few of the players.
UmbertoConforti (anonymous) says…
He played a good game against Radford, but he dribbled a bit much and usually shot when he touched the ball. He needs to concentrate on distributing the rock a bit more. But he did impress me.
rawkhawk (anonymous) says…
Great game last night, CJ!
tulsahawkfan (anonymous) says…
I honestly can't wait until someone just tries to throw zones at us and we counter with Collins, CJ & X... that will be some pretty shooting.
chuckberry32 (anonymous) says…
"referring to his brother, Xavier, who also plays for KU. “... I hadn't noitced. hmmm.
slaterman (anonymous) says…
I don't know how I feel about CJ. I agree he looks like a ball hog at times. That might be a result of him feeling like he has to "prove something" every time he's on the court. Plus his comment, "Shots go in when we shoot them" seems kind of arrogant. Am I way off base here?
truehawk93 (anonymous) says…
slaterman- Yes you are way off base! The guy can talk all he wants as long as he backs his talk.
I am totally sold on CJ and really believe due to his size, maturity, skills and attitude he should start a game or two. I just think his knee is going to be a concern. I don't want him to hurt his knee.
HCBS...start CJ over TT and if the knee is an issue, at least start EJ!!
truehawk93 (anonymous) says…
UmbertoConforti (anonymous) says...
He played a good game against Radford, but he dribbled a bit much and usually shot when he touched the ball. He needs to concentrate on distributing the rock a bit more. But he did impress me.
I'm glad he impressed you. But if you're a shooter, you shoot!! He didn't dribble that much and he made several passes before shooting. I don't like Calasleazy, but there's a reason why he wanted CJ on the Memphis squad and would kill to have him on his Kentucky squad. CJ may be playing little games with HCBS during practice and Self may be waiting for him to decide if he wants to start. CJ would start on any team in the nation.
KUFan90 (anonymous) says…
chuckberry - I laughed at that one too. Xavier plays for KU too? Who knew?
slaterman - I think you are way off base. The kid is a scorer. He's out there will Junemann, Buford, Teahan. What do you expect him to do? I like the confidence the comment conveys. #1 most important quality for a shooter is confidence in his shot.
txrockchalk (anonymous) says…
LOL chuckberry32 & KUFan90. I knew that tidbit would not escape comment.
I have to admit, I was skeptical of C.J.’s talent level relative to the rest of our roster, especially when his dad was talkin’ some smack before the season started. I have been pleasantly surprised with what I have seen from C.J. so far. If he can get mostly healthy, I see him playing a significant role in our rotation.
dvo1990 (anonymous) says…
I am not worried about any player on this team, or any team HCBS puts together at Kansas. He has proven to us that he is a great recruiter. C.J. was recruited by KU first!!! And then when baseball did'nt work out, alot of teams wanted this kid!! Let's all enjoy the ride. This team is fun to watch!, and is only going to get better as the season goes along. I just love the Jayhawks. Thanks to ESPN Full Court, I am able to watch every game out here in Central California!!! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!
One more thing........ Muck Fizzu, how does losing to Oral Roberts taste!!!! LOL!!!
jaybate (anonymous) says…
"Thursday Wondering about The Natural"
C.J. Henry is KU's Roy Hobbs. There: I said it.
He is a man among boys. He is alone in some profound way. He is the stranger with a past come to town. He seems to be able to play waaaaaaaaaay better than any man who just shows up without a ride that hasn't played for four years ought to be able to play. There is something about him. But he has struggled with injuries and numbers and what have you. He's an old man, but he can pot the triceraptop and handle the apple in ways that make us think there's a lot more behind the steely eyes than he is letting on.
C.J. Henry was once one of the greatest scoring and playmaking point guards ever to come out of Oklahoma high school basketball. He was once destined to come to KU on a full ride and lead KU for 2-3 seasons before turning pro. He was once as much a natural, as Roy Hobbs, the great fictional baseball player who chose unwisely in youth and jeopardized his gift.
It is to be determined by hard work and luck whether or not C.J. is to become the Roy Hobbs of Robert Redford's The Natural, or Bernard Malamud's The Natural.
C.J. did not sin against society the way Roy Hobbs did. He committed no crime. He left no true love behind (at least that we know of).
C.J.'s sin was to be unfaithful to his gifts to play the greatest game ever invented; the one that he was born a natural to play.
He rebelled against his basketball heritage--his two talented parents who played the game and who taught him to shoot and play the game.
He thought he loved baseball more than basketball.
He thought his chances were better in baseball than basketball.
He thought. He thought. He thought. He thought too much.
He was seduced by the evil New York Yankees and their bonus money.
He chose exactly as so many of us would have chosen (me included).
This is why C.J.'s now lonely, and low profile, fight to redeem himself should matter so much to so many.
jaybate (anonymous) says…
No longer in the spotlight, right now, but not entirely out of it either, rather in its penumbra, he lives out the greatest drama of any KU basketball player ever. He is living the myth of Roy Hobbs' The Natural in real life.
God, and his father Carl, gave him a three point shot that was the equivalent of "Lightening Boy," Roy Hobbs' bat hewn from the wood of a tree felled by a bolt from heaven.
C.J. was born a divinely inspired playmaker and impact player, as surely as Roy Hobbs was born to jack ropes to upper decks and as surely as Norman Maclean was born to write "A River Runs Through It." A river runs through C.J. It is the river of his father and mother and grand parents. It is the river that runs through every one who ever picked up a basketball. It is the river that runs through every young person who ever made a wrong choice for all the right, and all the wrong, reasons. It is the river that ran through the fictional Roy Hobbs, too, even though it is not described in The Natural, even though once has to resort to Huckleberry Finn, and Big Two-Hearted River and A River Runs Through It to deeply grasp it.
C.J. failed to protect his talent, just as Roy Hobbs failed to do so, also.
C.J. has wandered through the wilderness of unprotected talent, has meandered through ox bow lakes leading nowhere like the Yankees and Memphis, since his fateful choice to sign with the Devil of Diamonds, the Beezlebubb of Baseball, George Steinbrenner, himself, and his evil New York Yankees, just as surely as Roy Hobbs did after his fateful choice in The Natural. If you want to get biblical (and most Western myths track there), he has wandered for 40 days and 40 nights looking for basketball Canaan.
But C.J. and we must remember there are two versions of The Natural--essentially two myths, not one.
The one most know is WASP director/actor Robert Redford's movie The Natural. It is the great Christian version of the myth of talent from god squandered in youth by a fateful choice. It is the story of the fall, the wandering, the struggle up, and the redemption. The homer that wins the World Series and blows out the lights in the upper deck in a cinematic moment elevated completely above and beyond time itself. It is full of New Testatment forgiveness. It is both profound and crowd pleasing. But above all it holds truth
Fewer know Jewish novelist Bernard Malamud's version--the original version. It is the great Judaic version of the myth of talent from god squandered in youth by a fateful choice. It is the story of the fall, the wandering, the struggle up, and eventual brutal failure to be redeemed. It is full of Old Testament judgement by a scorned god. Harsh. Unforgiving. It is both profound and too hard for many. But above all it holds truth.
jaybate (anonymous) says…
The simple minded prefer one of these two myths over the other. Those simple-minded folk who like happy endings prefer Redford's version. Those simple-minded folk who like harsh judgements for mistakes like Malamud's brutal original.
But the wise understand that these two myths are Judeo-Christian bookends of the same cultural story. The moral force of each one is strengthened almost alchemically by the existence of the other. The wise know that lives can play out either way. The wise know society needs both versions to even begin "to know" the real story.
C.J.'s basketball life is presently hanging in the balance between these two versions of The Natural.
Fortunately for C.J., there is a third path. It is the path that the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden, outlined long ago. It is the path of individual redemption achieved through becoming the best you can possibly be regardless of the choices you have made in the past, regardless of the luck (or lack there of) that you encounter, regardless of the myths that filter how you are viewed by fans, and regardless of how the chips fall. That is IMHO the real story--the probable story--the existential and spiritual truth, if you will, that I have come to believe.
It is true there is suffering, forgiveness and redemption in some cases.
It is true there is suffering, judgement and eternal loss in other cases.
But both myths merely bracket the truth; that competition with yourself to become the best you can be can deliver anyone, the fates be damned.
Don't quit, C.J., Don't ever quit. Compete with yourself to become the best you can be no matter what.
The Legacy of Kansas Basketball bears within it witness to many, many of the great myths that wise persons have thought about since humanity evolved enough to understand and dramatize such things. James Naismith, the archetypal Adam and father figure. Phog, the often too proud son. The several generations of coaching begats and their prodigal attempts to outdo Phog, especially the resentful sons like Rupp and Smith. Roy Williams, the adult child of the paternal alcoholic come to the father of all programs to work out his paternal demons mythically, while disingenously serving two masters. The Crucible of The Superman in Wilt Chamberlain and so on.
But it has to my knowledge not yet witnessed The Myth of the Natural...until now. This is the Father of All Basketball Programs, where all myths are eventually played out.
C.J. Henry, you are The Natural of Kansas Basketball.
Jayhawk nation is behind you.
Compete and you will win. You have come to the right place to take the next step. Whether you play big minutes, or ride the pine, the relentless struggle here, now, in Lawrence, always, to become the best you can be inevitably redeems all.
Rock chalk!
Smasher88 (anonymous) says…
The only thing i want to hear about CJ is that he's planning to stay after his brother leaves. As far as this guessing game with the starting position...... Don't really think it matters. The wide array of options that this team enables Bill to choose from are easily the most I've ever seen, especially with Brady and Withey comin in. Any competition for minutes can only make us better. We'll be more than fine.
P.S.
jaybate,
Roy Hobbs' bat was named "Wonder Boy" not "Lightening Boy"lol
milehighhawk (anonymous) says…
Jaybate:
Save it for your blog.
100 (anonymous) says…
The sequel will include Roy Hobb's son's bat, named "Lightening Boy"...
jaybate (anonymous) says…
Smasher88,
I love it! That's right! It was the tree that was struck by lightening, but the bat was called Wonder Boy!
The mistakes are part of the breaks.
My apologies to you and Bernard M, may he rest in peace, after this correction.
FWIW, I can tell you exactly how I made this mistake, whereas often I cannot figure the manifold ways memories can fail. I always thought Wonder Boy was the only truly tin-eared, decent into shallowness that Malamud made in his 1952 minor work of genius. I remember reading The Natural in college in the 70s and changing Wonder Boy to Lightening Boy in my head. I made the edit in my mind back then and it stuck in my mind to this day. It even overwrote the use of Wonder Boy in the movie in my brain. Awesome is the power of the mind to recast reality.
LOL!
txrockchalk (anonymous) says…
FYI - Homer Simpson's bat was aptly named "Wonder Bat." :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_at...
jaybate (anonymous) says…
milehighhawk,
My gaff, and a grand one yes? and between your Prozacs see above.
Regardless, my tiny little kilometerdownhawk, you and not Snatcher, er, Slasher, er, Gasher, er, Smasher88 remain my favorite depressed and tight-sphincter-toned alias here. :-)
Question: Were you struck by lightening and ever since the carrier of wood tatooed "The Forty Year Old Virgin"? Yeeeeee Haaaaaa! Say it ain't so, 880fathomsdownhawk.
Come on, you can have more fun with my mistake than just sneering at it. I know you can. Or were you the guy the fraternity rushed to get your brother?
Wonder Boy, schmunder boy, Lightenin' Boy, schmightenin' boy. Your disapproval is as lifeless as you are. Show me a spark!
Did everyone fail to approve of you, when young? Did they teach you, or condition you to respond to everything with a puritan's disapproval? Did they not say they loved you when you were a little Roy Hobbs? Were you The Never Quite Good Enough when you grew up, rather than The Natural?
Smug and faux righteous is easy, but no fun, miledepressedhawk. It is so Comedy Central, Jon Stewart in 2004, so Post Mod Restoration. Get outside with your waders, high, high in those Rockies you only drive through to intermediate ski slopes groomed for anal retentives, and fish for a Brautigan-sized trout, you know, one of those schimmering, elusive, allusive creatures, rainbows oozing guts and eggs when cleaned, one of those Truite of unsurpassed beauty that Richard so loved once when genius was still allowed. Catching a trout might revive you enough to actually enjoy the jism of this Special Season.
Surely, once, before you did what you loath yourself for doing for so long now, surely you must have been able to have a life that felt alive. Surely.
I am here for you, 5280feetlowhawk.
I love you hard.
Rock chalk!
jaybate (anonymous) says…
txrockchalk,
Write a mock-elegiac poem about C.J.Henry being the Homer Simpson of Kansas Basketball.
This will freaking make my day! LOL!
jaybate (anonymous) says…
Post Script to milehighhawk,
I really lover your avatar, man. ;-)
truehawk93 (anonymous) says…
Smasher88- LOL..."Lightening Boy" I didn't notice...That's funny!!
truehawk93 (anonymous) says…
We found Jaybate's new name:
Jay "Lightening Boy" bate
LOL
tomhawk26 (anonymous) says…
Man this Jaybate fella' sure is a windbag.
txrockchalk (anonymous) says…
jaybate ~
Does haiku count?
Please start me Coach Self
Wish I had not played baseball
Mmmm, sweet beer - woo hoo!
:^)
eddiesuttonschoolofdriving (anonymous) says…
Jaybate
Wow. All of us on this board have an unhealthy obsession with KU hoops - but you've got me worried! Step away from the keyboard brother - time to get some balance in your life! Come on, there is a whole world out there - porn, alcohol, exercise, cooking, gardening - (in no particular order of course - in fact, start with porn (viewing, not creating please) we'll support you.
YES to the blog suggestion b.t.w. Its not that I don't want to read your elegant stuff, its just that its not always the right moment - and if it were in a blog, we could go there when we needed the full Jaybate take on things, in all its splendor. These pages simply can't contain you - spread your wings!
truehawk93 (anonymous) says…
LOL
100 (anonymous) says…
Jaybate,
One man one vote -- keep posting your stuff. There's an arrow key for any posters' long winded stuff that isn't cohesive or has to do with the stock market (including my one toothed 'tard drivel from time to time).
Gotta say as funny as Lightening Boy was, that was probably the most unique piece of writing thus far on kusports (aside from the Teen Wolf from about a year ago).... Somehow you rather elegantly tied together Naismith, Steinbrenner, the Yankees, Roy Hobbs, KU hoops & CJ Henry into a relatively cohesive piece...
Hey I'm buying the CJ is Roy Hobbs analagy -- I say you start writing the script and hiring some actors -- although I'm buying the uplifting version of "the 23 year old kid who walked away from the game for a few years" to be even better at the original game than he wouldve been to begin with, due to Yankee training & overall life patience & maturity -- to come back to Naismith's roots to be reminded of how simple it is to put a ball through a hoop & how fun it is when you do this with people who know how to do more than dribble in Memphis....
CJ, although no where near "old" does fit this interesting 40 year old Roy Hobbs profile rather well -- heck, when the kid shoots it's like Lightening comes down from the sky....
And I say to myself, "Oh Boy! It's Lightening! Lightening, Boy!"
"Lightening Wins Championships"
40-0.
aerohawk (anonymous) says…
People must have broken scroll wheels again. I like jaybate's stuff. If you don't just fix your scroll wheel and bypass it. Its really simple just takes an index finger. In fact, all the posts are separated by lines and big bold blue names so you know when someone else started typing.
gthejayhawk (anonymous) says…
Excellent, Jaybate! Your finest work to date. When is the hard back version to be expected for purchase?
ralster (anonymous) says…
I like CJ's play alot. And I also like the "idea" of a 23yr old CJ out there competing vs the 18,19 yr olds. If healthy, he will outcompete Brady narrowly IF he can do the proper passing and feed the post as well as Brady. What he does better is penetrate and finish at the rim. Can he defend like Self needs him to? Being 4 or 5yrs older than TT and EJ gives him a calmness and cockiness (good for a shooter) that looks like a man among boys, sort of...In his own way, CJ is an "x factor" in his own right regarding the combo guard positions (1, 2)...
----------------------------
Gentlemen, this is really getting interesting...
icthawkfan316 (anonymous) says…
Hey if CJ goes on and keeps improving and earning playing time, could he overtake the infamous Christian Moody for the title of "best walk-on ever?"