Click here to view the profile for J.T. Thompson

J.T. Thompson , who committed last week for the 2008 class of basketball recruits, is a player in the midst of a major overhaul of his game. One year ago, I just didn’t see him as ever being able to make the transition to the perimeter and was not sure he would be anything other than an undersized power forward best, playing at a lower level. But his improvement away from the basket has been striking.

J.T. is a very athletic and strong power player along the baseline right now; he can finish in a crowd and among taller players, due to his strength. He really navigates the baseline well and uses the rim cleverly to shield players. He rebounds offensively and then can go back up to score, getting his share of three point plays. It helps that he is 6-6 and 215-pounds and he plays to his strength.

The concern will be if he can do that at the ACC level or make the move to a wing. I didn’t see that wing move as a viable option a year ago, but now, after a splendid spring and summer in AAU ball, he has really worked on those things and is markedly better. He has been one of probably the top five players in the country as far as improving his value and reputation nationally this spring and summer. J.T. performed very well at the NBA camp in June against some top echelon players, and this reclassified year [he is transferring and repeating his junior year, a process called “reclassifying” in recruiting] puts him over the top, because he now has two more years at the high school level to polish those perimeter skills.

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