Gminski: Henderson a big loss for Duke

Raycom Sports TV analyst Mike Gminski weighed in Wednesday on what losing wing Gerald Henderson to the NBA means to Duke.

The school announced Tuesday that Henderson will forgo his senior season after signing with agent Arn Tellem.

"It's a big hit for them because I thought (Henderson) was such a catalyst and a confidence instiller on offense," Gminski said. "Obviously he could get to the rim and his jumper was much better last year. I just think they looked to him for a lot of their confidence. . . .I think it's going to put a lot of onus on (Jon) Scheyer to step up from a leadership standpoint, and I think he's capable of that."

With Greg Paulus gone, too, Duke is left with just three players - Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Elliot Williams - in the backcourt. That might require Kyle Singler to play some small forward after playing power forward and even center in his first two seasons.

"I think Kyle is capable of doing that," Gminski said. "It might be a matchup problem for another (small forward), and I think he's got the ability to defend out on the perimeter. So that would give them some flexibility. . . .They lose two really good perimeter shooters (Henderson and Greg Paulus) and certainly that's not Nolan Smith's forte and we haven't seen that from Elliot Williams. So that's going to be a little bit different." - Ken Tysiac