Campbell transfer Cedric Henderson excited to play 'fun basketball' with Arizona Wildcats

Sometimes late at night in the heart of North Carolina, when he wasn’t playing basketball or working toward a degree in information technology and security at Campbell University, Cedric Henderson Jr. would punch up a little late–night West Coast college hoops.

On the evening of Thursday, Feb. 3, he was particularly entranced.

In a key moment during their Pac-12 championship run last season, the Arizona Wildcats were avenging an earlier loss to UCLA in a Top-10 matchup before a sold-out crowd at McKale Center and nationwide ESPN audience. The Wildcats shot 48.0%, had five different players sink 3-pointers and held the preseason league favorites to just 38.9% from the field.

Arizona won 76-66. It was a good time for the home team, and its fans.

“I watched them against UCLA — I watched their pace, and their swagger. They were out on the court having fun,” Henderson said. “It was nothing but fun. Everybody was smiling. Everybody’s laughing. Everybody’s screaming or jumping up and down. It’s just fun basketball.”

Four months later, the Wildcats offered Henderson a chance to become part of it and they didn’t need long for an answer. A grad transfer who is finishing up his Campbell degree this month, Henderson visited Tucson early last week and committed to the Wildcats shortly afterward.

UA staffers showed him videos of their style of play, confirming what he saw that night in February, and Henderson was sold.

“Honestly, the reason I went there was that I fell in love with the offense, and the pedigree of the program,” Henderson said. “It’s hard to beat a team like that, especially with a coach like Coach (Tommy) Lloyd, who’s putting guys in the league at same positions as me. He plays a lot of wings and has a very guard-friendly offense. They play at a pace that I’ve always wanted to play at.”

Basically, the opposite pace. While Arizona ranked ninth nationally in Kenpom’s adjusted tempo rankings last season, Campbell ranked No. 345 out of 358 Division I teams.

But there is a common thread to both offenses that Henderson is known for: In a Princeton-style offense at Campbell that featured loads of back cuts, Henderson sharpened his cutting and shooting abilities, averaging 14.0 points and 5.6 rebounds last season while shooting 38.4% from 3-point range and 53.8% from 2.

“Something I kind of learned at Campbell was cutting,” Henderson said. “It’s very much a part of my game. The difference now is that I will be playing more in ball screens and playing with better guys. So the elevation of it is very big.”

While moving from a team that went .500 in the Big South to the defending Pac-12 champions is a big jump, Henderson also has reason to believe he’s ready for it.

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A 6-foot-6 wing who was a second-team all-Big South pick in 2020-21 before picking up honorable mention honors last season, Henderson had high-major programs such as Arizona, Texas Tech, NC State and South Carolina pursuing him as a transfer this spring.

He’s also son of a 1993 McDonald’s All-American, Cedric Henderson, who went on to play at the University of Memphis and in the NBA before becoming, well, dad.

Cedric Jr. said his dad came with him on his visit to Arizona last week but never tries to persuade him on his decisions.

“More than anything, he makes sure he rationalizes everything that I do,” Cedric Jr. said. “He’s really, really neutral on all the grounds. He’s the little guy on your shoulder that says, ‘Hey, if you do this, this might be better. But if you really want to do that, go for it.’ ”

So Cedric Jr. made decisions, as a late-bloomer out of high school who decided to play a year of junior college ball in order to get better college options, then winding up the Freshman of the Year among Tennessee’s junior colleges in 2018-19.

After that season, Henderson headed for Campbell as a sophomore in 2019-20, thanks to a long relationship with a Camels assistant coach, and said that move “really worked out for me” as he gained strength and confidence over his three-year career there.

By his senior season in 2021-22, Henderson had a chance to directly prove himself against an elite team, collecting 18 points and 11 rebounds in the Camels’ 67-56 loss at Duke on Nov. 13 last season.

Growing up in the basketball hotbed of Memphis, playing in heated high school matchups that sometimes dripped with talent, ensured he wasn’t intimidated by Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd, either.

“Memphis is a crazy basketball place,” Henderson said. “People are running on the courts, they’re yelling at you. I’ve always had a student section. Going to Campbell was very different because there was no student section. There was a decent crowd, but it was nothing compared to what Duke had.

“I was so hyped because I was like `There’s gonna be fans here. There’s gonna be a crowd. There’s gonna be noise.’ It was exciting.”

As Henderson saw on ESPN that night last February, McKale Center can get pretty hyped, too. The difference is, next season, all that noise will be in support of Henderson, not against.

Rim shots

Former Illinois forward Jacob Grandison announced Saturday he has committed to Duke after also considering Arizona and eight other schools.