Player Preview: Henry Sims

This is the twelfth preview of the members of the 2011-12 Georgetown Hoyas. You also can read about Hollis Thompson, Nate Lubick, Markel Starks, Aaron Bowen, Otto Porter, Jabril Trawick, Greg Whittington, Mikael Hopkins, Tyler Adams, Moses Ayegba, and John Caprio.

Most players are known quantities when (and if) they reach their senior years, having progressed from role player to contributor to starter to star. Last year, Hoya fans knew what to expect from Austin Freeman and Chris Wright based on their roles at the center of the previous year’s team. In 2008, Jon Wallace, Patrick Ewing, Jr. and Roy Hibbert were three-fourths of the leadership of the 2007 Final Four team, and delivered similarly excellent senior campaigns after the departure of Jeff Green. (Let’s not discuss Jessie Sapp’s 2009 senior year; I would footnote this if I could.)

This year feels different than any season in recent memory, particularly for the seniors. Jason Clark has been a valuable starter for two years, but it will be a sea change for him to be a primary offensive threat without Wright and Freeman flanking him. And then there’s classmate Henry Sims, who assumes the starting center position by default. That’s a difficult term to be sure, but it doesn’t suggest that Sims is incapable of manning the center position in the year ahead. Rather, Sims’s intermittent record of contributions in seasons gone make it nearly impossible to say what his senior season will look like.

Sims arrived on campus back in 2008, tagged with tantalizing words like promise, potential, and upside. At 6’10″, 230 lb., with impressive athletic ability and surprising touch on his jumper, Sims had the tools to become an eventual heavy contributor, and maybe even a star. As a freshman, though, the returns weren’t there. Behind classmate and immediate star Greg Monroe and DaJuan Summers, Sims got about 10 minutes per game, chipping in a mere 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds per game. While prospects seemed brighter entering his sophomore year, Sims again didn’t produce, as Julian Vaughn snagged the starting center role and even freshman Jerrelle Benimon took some playing time at power forward.

Last year, with Monroe’s departure, Sims again was presented with an opportunity to step forward. While he didn’t exactly deliver, averaging just 14 minutes and not warranting much more, he certainly had progressed, more than doubling his sophomore averages to 3.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. He showed occasional flashes of competence, notching his second and third double-figure scoring games and tallying nine five-rebound games after zero the year before. He also became a more adept passer, actually posting the team’s highest assist rate aside from Wright. Indeed, Sims improved in just about every category, perhaps an inevitability after his disastrous sophomore campaign.

This summer, Sims quietly put together a decent Kenner League performance, routinely scoring in the mid-teens while hauling in several rebounds. He by no means is a completely changed player: he still prefers the face-up to a back-to-the-basket post move, and his lanky frame still causes him to get pushed around too much. But the seeds of a successful season might have been sown. He followed up those strong performances with good showings in China, where he netted double figures twice in three games and established himself as a shot blocker on defense. For those tired of seeing Sims’s summer potential go unfulfilled during the season, big Hank merely cemented his reputation as an off-season wonder. For those of us inclined toward optimism, Sims may have finally come into his own.

Any risk (or, for the Sims-haters, hope) that he would remain on the bench while the younger crop of players proved their mettle disappeared over the summer when sophomore big man Moses Ayegba tore his ACL, ending his second season before it began. Freshman center Tyler Adams, while full of promise as a down-low banger, likely is at least a year away. That leaves Sims for whom, for better or worse, this is his last opportunity to fulfill his potential. The minutes will be available, the tools are evident, and the returns over the summer are encouraging. Even so, it’s his senior season, and we still don’t know what to expect.