City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Marshall Henderson hasn’t changed much on the court since college.

He does not hesitate to launch a 27-foot triple (he attempted six threes on Thursday) or speak his mind (he collected the game’s only technical with 4:27 left). You won’t miss Henderson due to his shot or his mouth, and he still sports the same buzz cut and goatee he had when he became one college basketball’s biggest polarizing figures at Ole Miss three years ago.

That face is one of the most recognizable in The Basketball Tournament’s field. And it’s been that way for Henderson since the event began in 2014.

“It’s still cool to look up and see my face on the (promotion) posters,” he said after his TMD squad bowed out of TBT with an 85-74 loss to Trained To Go in the Sweet 16 at Philly U. “Reminds me of the good ol’ days.”

Henderson, 25, had a headline-filled college career, which featured a drug-related suspension at Ole Miss, a punched opponent during his one year with Utah and multiple responses to fans. But on his best of those “good ol’ days” Henderson was a scorer who could go off for 20+ on any given night and from nearly anywhere inside half court.

Whenever Henderson was on the court in college, there was a reason to watch.

Serving as his team’s starting shooting guard/Head Coach/General Manager, Henderson did not have a performance reminiscent of his best days in an Ole Miss uniform, going 1-for-9 from the field (1-6 on treys) for five points in 21 minutes.

Still, for Henderson, this was the farthest he’s made it during his three years at TBT. He teamed up with former Syracuse big man Hakim Warrick in 2014 but only made the second round. And his team was ousted in the first round last year with Henderson sidelined with a broken thumb.

“My first year we had good pros, and then I broke off and decided to make my own team last year with half pros and half my boys back from Texas, and that didn’t go so well,” he said. “So this year I decided to go out and get a squad, get a really good team. I thought we had a team that really could have beat anybody.”

This year’s TMD (Teamwork Makes the Dream work) squad featured a few other top talents from the last decade in the SEC. Former Arkansas forward BJ Young had a team-high 26 points and Christopher Warren, another Ole Miss alum, had 19.

TMD took the lead early in the second half, and it was a close game throughout. But what really gave Trained To Go separation was when Henderson barked too much at a referee and got T’d up with less than five minutes left.

“We were winning and you look at yourself in the mirror and know you could have did something different, that’s the worst part about losing,” Henderson said, before finding a sliver lining. “But at least we’re in Philly for a couple of days.”

Henderson, who lived in Philadelphia for a summer out of college, started his professional career in Qatar during the 2014-15 season. He also played in Iraq in 2015 before signing with the Reno Bighorns of the NBA D-League.

The 6-2 guard doesn’t yet know where he’ll be playing next season. But it’s possible that this experience in TBT opened Henderson’s eyes to a new potential post-playing profession: Coaching.

“I would be the best recruiter in the entire world, hands down,” Henderson said. “I know what to say, I know how to attract people.”

As long as Marshall Henderson is near a basketball court, he’s not going to shy away from the spotlight.