NEW YORK - The freshman is only beginning to bud. The full bloom of Texas' Tristan Thompson may not come for many games, weeks or months. But over the past two day at Madison Square Garden, he gave Longhorns fans many a flashback while also lifting their hopes and expectations for this season.
First, the flashbacks. Who does his overall skills remind you of? There've been plenty of skilled, NBA-talent forwards that have come through Rick Barnes' system. Is it LaMarcus Aldridge you see in his game? Surely just a bit, right? And, yes, I'll say it, there's a bit of Kevin Durant in that body, too.
After Thursday night's upset over Illinois, a game decisively decided by the Longhorns in overtime, Rick Barnes credited the entire team's ability to play cohesively. That was before he got to Thompson's play, which he praised but curbed from getting too excited over (that's a good thing).
"It's a great team win. They chemistry is what we had," Barnes said. "Coming down the stretch we could've been better, obviously, in a lot of areas. But they found a way to finish it."
Those expectations from Texas fans can't be held back as easily, as Thompson, he of the ultra-lanky, always-aware-in-the-paint variety can change offensive attacks from opponents at any level. There's so much room to grow for Thompson, but what's been on display so soon is very enticing. You can see why this group has the ability and potential to have a better wire to wire season than last year's team, which fizzled to a slow death in the second half of the year.
Thompson didn't play as strongly against No. 4 Pitt Friday night, but he still swatted away three shots. He's got 11 blocks in his past three games, and while his skills are aplenty, his role as rim security guard will likely be his biggest asset to a team with a lot of talent over six feet, six inches.
"I think his greatest talent is that he can just go forever," Barnes said. ""You can't underestimate what he did. Throughout the game, yeah, he was terrific - you can't take that way from him, but there a lot of big plays."
Barnes said Thompson and fellow freshman Cory Joseph are consistently the first-ones-in-last-ones-out tandem. And Thompson is more than merely the latest NBAer to Austin; his demeanor and candor after the game was also very impressive. Already, Thompson seems to be a "get it" guy.
"Situations happened last season ... and guys don't want to experience that (again)," Thompson said. "No way. ... So this summer we came in, worked hard and it's showed on the court that we have some depth."
Illinois guard, and likely First Team Big Ten player come March, Demetri McCamey resigned to the fact Thompson played so freely on both ends of the floor in Thursday's game.
"He was going over the right shoulder with the left hook every time," McCamey said. "We just didn't go a good job of fighting, or if we did, we were already too low and couldn't stop him."
There's going to be nights when nobody can stop Thompson. It's likely we'll see a few in the immediate future, when the 6-9 frosh wreaks havoc on the smaller teams on Texas' schedule. The bittersweet part of this is, Texas fans have to hope he's not too good, lest he be gone in one year, like Durant. If he wants to really up his game and become a top-five pick, two years is a possibility. Call that the Texas Aldridge plan.
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