Meet Joseph Henson

We enjoyed the opportunity of witnessing San Jose State signee 6-8 Joseph Henson yesterday when he and his Pasadena High teammates took on Burroughs High. Above are photos of of Joseph (first) and his coach Tim Tucker (second).

Pasadena tops Burroughs 74-52
Keith Lair
Pasadena Star News
1/14/2009

PASADENA - Burroughs High School basketball coach Art Sullivan thinks his counterpart at Pasadena, Tim Tucker, has found the fountain of height.

"I don't understand. He has the biggest guys in the league every year," Sullivan said.

"I don't know how you can beat anybody with that size. The size isn't just this way (tall), it's this way, too (an arm's span), and on these shorter courts, it is really, really difficult."

Tucker jokingly said, "It must be the water" that has allowed the Bulldogs to consistently have some of the tallest players in the league.

The Bulldogs have eight players taller than the Indians' tallest, 6-foot-3 center Chris Morris, and the height was the difference in Pasadena's 74-52 Pacific League victory on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs play at Burbank on Friday night in a game between the league's final two undefeated teams - both are 4-0.

"In this league, everybody is smaller than us," Tucker said. "It's hard to play against teams that are smaller. You don't know where they're coming from. Our guys are trying to adjust and do the best they can."

The Indians packed in a tight 2-3 zone defense in trying to deny the ball to 6-9 Joseph Henson, 6-8 Travis Flye and 6-9 Steven Adams.

It took time, but the big three eventually got it. The Bulldogs were tied at 20 early in the second quarter when Adams and Henson scored six of Pasadena's points in an 11-0 run to create some distance. The Indians never caught up.

"These deep zones and these smaller teams - you see different defenses at this time of the season and we really don't practice against them," Tucker said. "So you come out here and kind of fix it."

What Tucker did to fix it was switch from a man-to-man defense to a 1-3-1 half-court trap with the score tied at 20.

"We were playing better out of the trap," he said. "We started playing better, slowed them down and got the game under control. Then we got going."

Tucker admitted that the Bulldogs are inconsistent right now, citing the different defenses, illnesses and injuries.

"We are just taking wins as they come these days," he said. "We're a spot team right now. In spots we look really good, and at times we didn't."