Yeah, French surrender jokes are very cliche.
There has been a lively discussion on the 850 the Buzz blog about whether UNC is overrated next season because they lost Brandan Wright and Reyshawn Terry. To those folks I give you Deon Thompson's line from the U19 semifinal in the World Championships where the US rallied to beat France 78-75:
30 mins, 18 points, 9-12 FGs, 13 rebounds(7 def, 6 off), 2 steals, 1 block, 0 TOs
I was actually keeping tabs on the game using the FIBA web site which has live stats and Deon had 10 of USA's 25 fourth quarter points and collected seven of his 13 boards in the final 10 minutes of play. In fact Deon scored six of the final eight points and gave USA the lead for good on a two pointer with 1:41 remaining in the game.
The more compelling aspect of his performance is that this is another huge game where Deon has stepped up his play when the team needed him. Arizona and Georgetown were examples during his freshman season and in U19 play he did so in the warm-up tournament. In this game it was more of the same.
Thompson is ready to step in for Wright and I cannot be more excited about what he is going to bring to the table.