For Race Thompson, The Film, Like the Truth, Is Out There

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The film, just like the truth, is out there.

Mike Woodson enjoys using it, Race Thompson is fine accepting it, and Cream 'n Crimson offensive potential is as intriguing as unidentified flying objects.

Specifically, Woodson, the new Indiana basketball head coach, pushes Thompson, the veteran 6-8 forward, to expand his game.

That means more than locking into the post, as Thompson previously did.

It means driving and passing and, yes, shooting when you're open, out to the three-point line when it's there.

"If I don't shoot the ball…" Thompson says.

He pauses to smile. A memory has surfaced. There's practice film of Thompson passing up open three-point shots. This won't work in Woodson's spread-the-floor system designed to stretch defenses to the breaking point. He calls Thompson in for some visual reinforcement as only a coach can do.

The no-shot moment is reviewed, again and again.

"He keeps replaying it," Thompson says.

Woodson keeps asking, "What do I want you to do?"

Thompson keeps answering, "Shoot it."

"He keeps doing it over and over," Thompson says, "until I say it loud enough."

There was a favorite Bob Knight coaching tool in which he said the best way to send a message to a player's brain is through his behind by sitting him on the bench instead of playing him. Woodson faced that as a former IU player.

Film sessions loom as a close motivational second, and Thompson embraces them.

"Coach Woodson is pushing me to do this. I feel comfortable doing it. It's just playing basketball."

*****

Thompson was an occasional three-point factor under previous coach Archie Miller, making six of 28 career attempts. That 21.4 percent success rate figures to jump, along with Thompson's overall outside-the-paint impact.

"Coach Woodson draws up a play where I get the ball on the perimeter, drive it to the baseline, make a pass, take a shot. In the past, it was draw up a play for a post-up.

"It's different. Coach Woodson trusts me. He trusts you to make a play."

Miller also trusted Thompson, which is why his 5.4-point scoring improvement last year, to 9.1 points, ranked sixth among Big Ten players. He also averaged 6.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks (eighth in the conference), plus led IU with 28 steals.

Still, Woodson believes more is there, and has the system to maximize it.

"Our offense was different," Thompson says of Miller's approach. "It's not that I couldn't do it (showcase more perimeter-oriented skills), but that was the role I was in. I was focused on doing my best in that role. I was doing what Coach Miller told me to do to win games."

At Minnesota's Armstrong High School in Minneapolis, Thompson was a do-it-all force. In his final season, he averaged 19.6 points and 8.9 rebounds and made 36 of 78 three-pointers, a 42.1 percent clip.

Under Miller, it changed.

Under Woodson, it's back.

"It's what I used to do in high school a lot," Thompson says. "I'm getting back to my roots. I'm getting more and more comfortable."

*****

Woodson does not coach to limits, but to possibilities. He tells a story from shortly after he got the IU job last spring. He and his staff were evaluating players, and Thompson's name came up.

"Some of the coaches said, he can't handle the ball that well," Woodson says. "You probably don't want him handling it. They said he can't shoot out on the floor. You probably don't want him shooting from there.

"I squashed all of that. I don't believe that. As a coach, I feel I can take a player, like Race, who everybody says can't make threes, can't bring the ball up the floor and make plays.

"It's my job, your job as a coach on my staff, to get him to do that. That's what we do as coaches.

"I think outside the box. I want players who think outside the box. I don't want to pigeonhole you and say you can't do this or that.

"Race has got to make shots out on the floor and feel good about it."

So Woodson will have Thompson play from the perimeter, "until he proves me wrong."

"I can always scale back."

Putting Thompson on the perimeter fits an offense that places four players on the outside and one (All-America forward Trayce Jackson-Davis) inside.

It's what Woodson wants for Thompson, but only to a point.

"I wouldn't say he was like you're going to do this and that," Thompson says. "It was, I want you to play basketball. I don't want you to play anything other than your game. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do.

"Obviously, he's going to push you to be better, but it's not only facing the basket. He says play to your strengths. He said, if you show me you can do this, I'm going to let you do it.

"As long as you show him you can do something, he's not going to limit your hand. That's exciting."

There were no limits during August's two-game Bahamas trip. Thompson made perimeter shots then (1-for-3 on three-pointers) just as he has during scrimmages since.

"He's made plays in the open court handling the ball, things coaches thought he could never do," Woodson says. "That's a sign of work and trust and putting him in the best position to do that."

*****

Thompson was gone. That's what many thought when he entered the transfer portal shortly after Miller's departure last spring.

Then he talked to Woodson.

"Coach Woodson was calling me almost every day when I was home."

This wasn't just any coach, but an IU basketball legend with a Big Ten MVP award and 2,000-plus career points on his Cream 'n Crimson resume, plus a quarter century of NBA success as a player and a coach.

"I know who Coach Woodson is," Thompson says. "I know his history. I know what he's done. I could tell he was for real. My dad told me he was for real."

That would be Darrell Thompson, the former University of Minnesota running back who became the school's career rushing leader. The father was just as impressed with Woodson as the son.

"I don't know how you could say no to Coach Woodson," the younger Thompson says. "I don't care who you are."

*****

Jackson-Davis has known Thompson since they were highly recruited high school players. During one summer camp, they were roommates, and Jackson-Davis got inquisitive.

"I asked him, 'What schools are recruiting you?'" Jackson-Davis says. "He listed all these schools. I asked how about Indiana? He was like, 'No, then, yes, then I don't mess with them.'

"All of a sudden, a month later, he commits to Indiana. I was like, (what happened)?"

Whatever happened, Thompson is still a Hoosier, and Jackson-Davis couldn't be happier.

"We've always been close on and off the court. I really enjoy playing with him."

So do the other Hoosiers,

"He's always had the ability to do that," senior guard Rob Phinisee says. "Even in high school, he was doing that a lot, bringing the ball up and initiating the offense. He's shooting better than has in the past."
Add a more versatile Jackson-Davis and you have a potent frontcourt opponents will struggle to contain.

"Both of their perimeter games have improved," Phinisee says. "They're able to create and penetrate from the wings. Last year they were strictly in the post. They're starting to knock down shots.

"Their work ethic is improved. They're really locked in and want everybody to win."

Winning isn't easy, locking in is hard, and Thompson has had his struggles from injuries (a severe concussion cost him most of the 2018-19 season) to disappointing performances to too many defeats (IU hasn't made the NCAA tourney since 2016).

"What I've learned about myself is that I'm a tough guy," he says. "I have good days and bad days. If can get through the worst days, the best days are great.

"You have to look to the future. Stay positive. Know you can do it. You can get through it. Keep harping on that."

So Thompson works and pushes, drives and shoots.

If he doesn't, well, the film is out there.

Indiana University Athletics

For Race Thompson, The Film, Like the Truth, Is Out There

Players Mentioned

Trayce Jackson-Davis

Rob Phinisee

Race Thompson

Related Videos