I guess we can call this the Summer of Deon. From USA Basketball:
With the USA Men’s U19 World Championship Team in the midst of a tight gold medal contest in the Global Games Saturday night, 6-8 center and University of North Carolina sophomore Deon Thompson (Torrance, Calif.) took matters into his own hands and scored six points in a decisive 10-0 USA run that helped propel the team to an 86-72 victory. Thompson finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds as the USA wrapped up the Global Games with a perfect 3-0 mark and improved its overall exhibition mark to 4-0.
I am seeing a nice trend with Deon and that is he steps up when needed. Taking both the Arizona and Georgetown games into consideration as well as this outing and it is obvious to me Thompson has a handle on elevating his game when necessary to boost the team. DePaul head coach Jerry Wainwright, who is heading up the team, had some lavish praise for Thompson.
"The one thing that Deon does right now that our other post players don’t do is he demands the ball. Deon really has a good post up game and he has a lot of moves that bother bigger players. He’s also a good passer. He’s going to be more important now, especially with (Darrell) Arthur’s injury.
Obviously you take some of this with a grain of salt but I have been more than encouraged by the things people have been saying about Deon. SI's Seth Davis was also high on Deon's post moves and if he continues to improve his whole offensive resume then the Tar Heel interior game is not going to miss a beat in losing Brandan Wright. I think the only questions surrounding Deon going into the season will concern his defense and his ability to do so without committing fouls.