ALBANY, NY — Race Thompson doesn’t want to tell you. It’s just not his style.
All the injuries and issues he’s battled through this year, he’s kept silent about them as he’s been going through his final year with Indiana. And he’d rather keep it that way.
Give everything you have on the court, no matter what you’re dealing with. That’s how he is.
But the truth is, it’s been a rugged senior season for him. It took some prodding, but the 6-foot-8 sixth-year senior forward finally allowed for a little insight Saturday during the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend off day.
And that only happened after teammate Trayce Jackson-Davis gave a little peek bend the curtain after IU beat Kent State in its NCAA Tournament opener late Friday night.
“He's gone through a lot of the stuff behind the scenes that people don't know about,” Jackson-Davis said. “Just personal stuff. And it's hard. Just being a college athlete in general, it’s hard. I don't think people understand how tough it is.
“But he's really battled and he's really fought to get to this point. And I can say so for myself, and I can say probably for my teammates, we're really proud because he deserved this more than anybody on our team.”
No. 4 seed Indiana (23-11) faces No. 5 Miami (26-7) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament tonight (8:40 p.m., TNT) in MVP Arena.
Thompson, a sixth-year senior, scored a postseason career-high 20 points to go along with nine rebounds in Indiana’s 71-60 victory over Kent State in a game that didn’t end until 12:43 a.m.
The 20 points are two shy of his career high.
Considering the stakes, his performance in IU’s NCAA Tournament first round win might have been his most impactful of his IU career.
In IU’s 71-60 NCA Tournament victory over Kent State, Thompson was 8-for-11 from the field, including 2-for-3 from 3-point range, for 20 points in 29 minutes played. He scored 10 of IU’s first 15 points.
Thompson’s biggest injury this season was a sprained knee suffered Jan. 5 at Iowa that kept him out until Jan. 22 against Michigan State.
Last season, Thompson averaged career highs in points (11.1) and rebounds (7.5), but this season he’s averaging 8.3 points and 5.1 rebounds.
During the off day between games, Thompson opened up a little bit about how tough this season has been.
“Going through that in the moment, it's mentally draining. You get back and then you have something else, you have something else, you have something else. It’s mentally draining. But I give credit to my teammates, my coaching staff. They know what I'm going through. They know how I feel every day,” Thompson said.
“Just being there for me, being really good teammates, always making me smile. They make it easy to come practice every day. I’m going to give all I got for them because they've been so good to me.”
A person who coached Thompson in AAU with D1Minnesota once said you’d probably have to tear off one of Thompson’s arms or legs to keep him off the court.
“I think it's the competitive nature that I grew up with. I mean, I had older siblings, neighbors at around the same age, and everybody went and played at a high level,” said Thompson, whose dad Darrell graduated as the all-time leading rusher at Minnesota and played in the NFL, whose mother Stephanie played volleyball at Iowa, whose brother plays football for the Gophers and whose two sisters played Division I volleyball.
“I think it's that competitive nature that I have, that I grew up with. My siblings, my friends, my AAU teammates. I played on good teams. Just going through that, not wanting to lose, I mean, like, if I know that I'm hurting and I'm not able to help, I’ll tell them, hey JG (Jordan Geronimo) needs play, Malik (Reneau) needs to play. I can't give you what I would want to be able to give you.
“That that tears me apart. I mean, I'm a team player always. And if someone else would be better playing and me out, I’ll tell them that. I think that just comes with the competitive nature of wanting to win more than the personal statistics and things like that. I just really want to win.”
Is Thompson truly healthy right now? Yeah, like he’s gonna tell if he isn’t.
He certainly looked good Friday night. Maybe the best he’s looked all season.
And now he gets another crack at helping Indiana advance further in the NCAA Tournament.
