By Lee Feinswog
Special to LSUsports.net
Winning would be nice. But Charlie Thompson is having the time of his young life. Thompson is a freshman basketball player for LSU who expected this to a learning season. Now, because of injuries, he’s learning on the job.
“When coach Brady I would be getting a little bit of playing time, that’s all I expected – very little bit of time,” Thompson said. “This a shock to me, but I’m having a blast.”
Thompson is a product of St. Louis High School in Lake Charles who had other options, mostly basketball scholarship offers from smaller schools. Instead, he walked on at LSU, helped out by the TOPS academic scholarship program.
“I always wanted to come to LSU to play basketball, whether as a scholarship player or a walk-on,” said Thompson, who had a 3.7 grade-point average in high school and notched a 3.6 his first semester at LSU.
He’s barely 6 feet but has good point-guard skills. The plan was for him to play a few minutes here and there this season, giving Torris Bright a chance to move over to off guard when Lamont Roland needed a breather or simply giving Bright a rest. But when Roland was lost for the season, Thompson suddenly found himself playing as many as 20 minutes a game.
Against Centenary, Thompson had five points, six assists and played 21 minutes. In LSU’s loss to Vanderbilt, he scored a career-high seven points, including his first 3-pointer since canning one in the Tigers’ season opener.
In high school, Thompson averaged 24 points, 5 rebounds and 6.5 assists as a senior and hit 92 percent of his free throws. While he hasn’t gone to the line all that much for LSU, he’s hit 87 percent of his free throws this season.
“The guys you play against are so much bigger, faster and stronger,” Thompson said of moving up to the Southeastern Conference from high school. “You move up in intensity and it’s a whole new ballgame.”
LSU coach John Brady has been complimentary of Thompson, saying that he will develop into a solid player over the next few years. He’s especially encouraged by his positive assist-to-turnover ratio.
Thompson didn’t score in LSU’s loss at Georgia Sunday that dropped the Tigers to 10-5 and 0-4 in the SEC, but he had a rebound and a steal.
“In the SEC, they’re all good players. You can’t take break. At no point in the game can you take a break, because if you do, you’ll get beat,” Thompson said.
His teammates, as much because they have to as they want to, have been encouraging and positive toward their young protge.
“Collis (Temple) is real positive with me as far as my confidence on the floor, telling me to look for the open shot,” he said. “And they’re all telling me not to be nervous and just go out and play and to keep a level head about myself.”
He admitted to being plenty anxious, which is understandable for a young player under the circumstances.
“I don’t want to do anything to really hurt the team, but I know if I concentrate on that, I won’t do anything to help the team,” he said. “I’m getting better about it, but it’s still kind of new to me. But it’s a blast.”