Thompson Rebounds as the Leader for UCLA

UCLA’s Dijon Thompson is playing the best basketball of his career. If he’s not the best in the Pacific 10 Conference right now, it’s only because Arizona State’s Ike Diogu is making a strong case for national player of the year.

Thompson, a 6-foot-7, 209-pound senior who has made the move from small forward to power forward, where he gets battered and bruised by bigger, bulkier players, is leading the Bruins with averages of 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds a game.

When the Bruins (9-3, 3-1) play at Arizona State (13-2, 2-1) tonight, the Sun Devils’ Diogu will be the focus of UCLA’s defense. He has to be. The 6-foot-8, 255-pound junior leads the Pac-10 with averages of 23.3 points and 10.4 rebounds. And he is second to the Bruins’ Michael Fey in field-goal percentage while taking 98 more shots. Fouling Diogu doesn’t help, either. He shoots 84.5% from the foul line.

None of this is surprising, though. Diogu led the Pac-10 in scoring last year and was ninth in the country. He led the Sun Devils in rebounding too.

For UCLA, Thompson was tied for third in rebounding. And although his 14.4 scoring average led the Bruins, it was only 11th-best in the Pac-10. Now he is third in the league in scoring and second in rebounding.

Second in rebounding -- that’s surprising.

“Yeah, nobody expected that,” Thompson said.

During a disappointing experience at an NBA tryout camp last summer, Thompson often heard that he needed to become a better rebounder and defender. That became a familiar critique: After a spotty start this season, he also heard from UCLA Coach Ben Howland that he needed to become a better rebounder and defender.

And that’s what Thompson has done.

He’s even got the coaches scouring game films now, trying to make sure Thompson hasn’t been shorted a rebound when he’s close to another double-double. Four times this season, Thompson has had at least 10 points and 10 rebounds after doing it only once in the three previous seasons. Twice this season, he has had 16 rebounds, his career high.

When the Bruins upset 12th-ranked Washington on Saturday, Thompson tied his career high in scoring with 29 points and had nine rebounds.

“We went over the film again,” Howland said, “but the nine rebounds was right. We couldn’t find Dijon a 10th.”

This transformation wasn’t so apparent in November when Thompson racked up 25 points against Long Beach State but contributed only five rebounds. After that game, Howland praised several of the Bruins -- including all four of his freshmen -- but his only remark about Thompson was, “I’d like him to have more rebounds.”

Thompson declined to speak to the media after that game and left the court deep in conversation with Howland. Safe to say the coach wasn’t telling the senior, “Congratulations on the 25.”

Now Howland makes an emphatic assessment of Thompson.

“He’s clearly our best player,” Howland said Tuesday. “He’s second in the league in rebounding. He’s really worked hard at his offensive rebounding, and that’s been big for us....

“And another thing. His post defense against bigger guys has been very good. He’s never been asked to play that spot before.”

For three seasons Thompson seemed content to coast, flitting around the edges of the offense and occasionally spotting up for a jump shot. On defense, he was a ghostly presence, his man often moving through him without feeling so much as a hip check or a chest bump. Thompson also didn’t speak up much -- on the court or off.

Now Thompson is a leader.

“He’s our senior,” freshman point guard Jordan Farmar has said. “We expect Dijon to take us places.”

The place Thompson has taken the surprising Bruins is tied for first place with Washington in the conference. Often Thompson is on the floor with four freshmen -- Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Lorenzo Mata.

Last week, when the Bruins beat Washington State in double overtime and upset Washington, Thompson scored 39 points and had 25 rebounds. In leading the Sun Devils to a road sweep of Stanford and Cal, Diogu had 53 points and 22 rebounds and was chosen conference player of the week.

Raw statistics aren’t everything though. Thompson had 19 of his 29 points against Washington in the second half. He scored nine of UCLA’s points in the stretch when it went from 72-68 down to 82-81 up late in the game. In the final minutes, he was demanding the ball in the way a confident senior should.

“I’m having more fun with basketball than I’ve had in a while,” Thompson said.

On Tuesday, Thompson was asked whether Diogu was the best player in the conference.

Without missing a beat, Thompson answered, “One of the best.” Then he smiled.