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KANSAS CITY — Marshall Henderson was made for this.
The controversial Ole Miss guard has been waiting for this moment, waiting to play in the NCAA Tournament and make the whole world realize he is just as good as he thinks he is.
“I’m trying to get paid here, because I’m tired of doing all this stuff for free,” Marshall said yesterday at the Sprint Center, before the 12th-seeded Rebels face fifth-seeded Wisconsin today. “This is where you make your money. This is where you make a name for yourself and you can go down in history.”
He may dream of shaking hands with David Stern, but he should be setting up meetings with Vince McMahon. In a tournament lacking star power, Henderson opens today’s action like a character conjured up by the selection committee.
He is emotional and energetic, divisive and determined. Henderson is coming off an SEC Championship in which he mimicked the “Gator Chomp” and called the other coaches in the conference “losers,” a regular season in which he jawed with nearly every opposing fan and turned his Twitter feed into an SID’s nightmare.
The junior guard is confident and opinionated, but has backed it up with a conference-high 20.1 points, on nearly 11 3-point attempts per game, leading the Rebels to their first NCAA Tournament since 2002. He is loved by some, hated by more, and he couldn’t care less. This is who he is. And his team wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It never has a negative impact,” senior Nick Williams said. “I’m happy the other fans come over and say things to him. He might go for 40. Please, come on, keep doing it. … He’s a nutcase, but he’s our nutcase and we love him.”
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The tale has been part Reggie Miller, part Odysseus. Before graduating high school, Henderson was arrested for attempting to purchase marijuana with counterfeit money and later spent 25 days in jail. Now, he is at his fourth school in four years.
He left Utah as a freshman because his coach didn’t understand his “individuality.” He left Texas Tech after coach Pat Knight was fired. And he spent last season at South Plains College in Texas, winning the NCJAA Championship.
“I knew I was good,” Henderson said, brushing away the notion he could ever have doubts. “I just thought to myself, this is gonna be an interesting story one of these days.”
Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy truly didn’t know what he was getting until Henderson arrived.
“It’s like watching NASCAR waiting for the wreck,” Kennedy said. “’He’s going real fast, oops, he didn’t wreck there, another turn.’ … I think sometimes a lot of the other stuff takes away from the fact that he’s a very, very good basketball player.
“The reason, people say I give him a lot of rope, is because I know it comes from a good place. He’s passionate. He respects the game. Sometimes that gets misconstrued, but he does.”
The 6-foot-2 guard, who appropriately grew up a Duke fan, said he derives an enormous amount of pleasure from how upset people get from his actions, but today he could be quieted when the brash meets the bland. Henderson sees Ole Miss as the hottest team in the nation except “maybe the Miami Heat,” but he respects Wisconsin’s stifling defense, and in particular, Mike Bruesewitz.
Henderson is a “big fan” of the senior, likes his swag and loves his big, red hair. Henderson smiled whenever his name came up and said he was looking forward to meeting him and matching up with him. Bruesewitz barely shrugged.
“It’s basketball. It’s not about who has a bigger crush on each other,” Bruesewitz said. “You can do all the hooting and hollering you want, but it comes down to making plays and who is gonna be tougher. All that other stuff gets sidetracked.”
Not quite. Henderson will transform you into an angry old man or a giddy little child. His unflinching, unapologetic emotional outbursts will appear overdue or over the top. His propensity to treat 30-foot jumpers like layups will be mesmerizing or nauseating. There’s no in between.
And he has no problem playing the villain:
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com