They were bookends as the season opened, Public League products separated by that ribbon of concrete that runs from Chicago to Milwaukee.
Imari Sawyer from King High School was DePaul’s sophomore point guard, and he was expected to harness his obvious skills and lead the rebuilding Blue Demons. Cordell Henry from Young High was Marquette’s senior point guard, and he was expected to orchestrate the young, unproven Golden Eagles.
They were the obvious keys to their teams, both burdened with the weight of leadership, and one appeared better suited than the other to handle that chore. The dazzling 6-foot-2-inch Sawyer had entered DePaul as an acclaimed recruit. The quiet, 5-10 Henry, in stark contrast, had not even been offered a scholarship by his hometown college.
But now, as the regular season closes for both with the Blue Demons’ game at Marquette on Friday night, it is Henry who reigns and Sawyer who has been forgotten. Sawyer has been suspended since early February. While he has languished in the shadows, Henry has led the Golden Eagles to a No. 9 national ranking, to a heavyweight’s role in Conference USA and to a certain berth in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s all up to Imari,” DePaul coach Pat Kennedy says of his enigmatic disappointment, whose academic failures have relegated him to the shadows.
“I’ll say this,” Marquette coach Tom Crean says of his phlegmatic star. “When Cordell plays as the underdog, when he takes that approach, he’s usually really good. When you’re his size, you have to play with a sense of urgency all the time. He has done that all year.”
Ultimately, then, each has come to personify his team, the Blue Demons floundering as much as Sawyer, the Golden Eagles soaring as high as Henry.
No grand expectations surrounded Henry or his team when their season opened, but then they defeated Tennessee, Indiana and Gonzaga to win the Great Alaska Shootout.
“I saw a difference in Cordell from Gonzaga on,” says Crean, thinking back to the defensive job his guard did on the Bulldogs’ potent Dan Dickau (10 points that night). “He anticipated the challenge of guarding a great guard and he did a great job. I think that gave him confidence he could play against other good people.”
Sawyer, too, opened the season spectacularly, setting a school record for assists with 17 against Youngstown State in the third game. There were hints of growth in himself and his game.
“He has been real good up till now,” Kennedy said then. “That’s the great thing about Imari. He gets geared up, all emotional, but he recovers much quicker [than he did as a freshman]. He really has matured in that area.”
But then, in his next game, he sucker-punched Notre Dame’s David Graves and was slapped with a one-game suspension. Another one-game suspension followed, this time for academics, and then came the indefinite suspension.
Henry and Marquette, meanwhile, have grown into one of this season’s surprising success stories. Dwyane Wade of Richards would emerge as his team’s most electrifying talent. But guiding it always was Henry, who was now very different from the player Crean greetedthree years ago.
“He has learned how to change speeds in his game. That’s one of the biggest differences offensively,” Crean says. “But the biggest thing is he has taken real pride in his defense. What I’ve learned more and more is his response to challenges. If I had to put one word on him now it would be confident. I’m not sure he always played with [confidence].”
East Carolina coach Bill Herrion agrees.
“He has been around the block, and that’s what good seniors are supposed to do in good basketball programs,” he says. “What impresses me so much is he just makes big plays. It’s a God-given gift certain players in the country have.”
On the weekend Sawyer began his suspension, Henry proved that emphatically by outplaying Cincinnati’s Steve Logan as Marquette upset the No. 4 Bearcats. It was re-emphasized in the rematch last Friday night when Cincinnati, which favors a straight-up defense, went after him high with a variety of traps and double teams.
“We just kind of wanted to keep him from seeing so much and take away some of his vision,” Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins said.
“I’m not sure he always understood what I wanted to get out of him,” Crean says, “and I’m not sure I always understood all he had in him.
“I go back to what (the late) coach (Al) McGuire said to me when I got here. He said take his game and change it, and once you do you’ll have a pretty good player. That’s where changing speeds comes in. Go to the rim sometimes. Pull up sometimes. He really has developed that, and it comes from time spent in the gym. He was in there (Thursday morning). He was in there yesterday morning. He accepted the challenge.”
And now, he’s the one who got away.
“Now I always tell him,” Kennedy says, “that he is the single biggest mistake I ever made in recruiting.”
