College basketball’s resident bad boy is returning for one more year. Ole Miss Rebels star Marshall Henderson announced in a letter on the school’s website Wednesday that he will be returning to school for his senior season. That means the SEC’s leading scorer (20.1 points per game in 2012) will grace our television sets for a final tournament run and be chucking up three-pointers and “Land Shark” gestures for his curtain call.
“First, I would like to thank the Ole Miss fans for their support this season. It was a lot of fun even though we didn’t make it to the Sweet Sixteen in L.A. It was our goal this season to get Reggie, Murph and Nick to the Big Dance and we did that,” Henderson wrote. “It is my goal to make next season even better.
“With only nine hours left to earn my degree, I want to help build this program and that means I need to be a leader for my teammates both on and off the court. The spotlight on the court means my actions affect more than just me, and I need to show my teammates that I can be a leader for this team.”
But hold up, the antics that made us all either love or hate Henderson could be disappearing.
“I play the game with a lot of passion, and sometimes that passion boils over. I take responsibility for my actions this season and apologize to anyone I offended. However, my edge on the court has made me the player that I am. I can’t change that, but I do understand that I can take things too far,” he continued.
“I have come to understand this year that I represent this team and this university, and I have to hold myself to a higher standard than people in the stands, because I am a student-athlete at Ole Miss.”
Say it ain’t so, Marshall.
His energy and emotion on the court is what made him one of the most entertaining players in college basketball.
If Ole Miss takes away his competitive edge, he could turn in to a different player and lose the swagger that helped him become a fearless shooter and scorer.