NCAA Basketball: 7 players vital for their teams in 2018-19

Ethan Thompson – Oregon State

The Oregon State Beavers have been to one NCAA Tournament since 1990, but they return a core in 2018 that could have them in an at-large conversation leading up to Selection Sunday. One guy who could be a real key for Wayne Tinkle is sophomore guard Ethan Thompson.

The 6-5 Thompson arrived in Corvallis as a highly-touted prospect out of California ranked in the top 45 nationally and was seen as a top-six recruit in the state by all the major recruiting services. He chose the Beavers over UCLA and Cal in addition to others.

The Montgomery Bishop High School alumnus is the younger brother of senior guard Stephen, who was the team’s second-leading scorer last season. Ethan contributed right away as a freshman and was second on the team in assists with 3.5 and is the team’s second-best returning rebounder, he pulled down 4.1 boards per game as a freshman. He averaged 9.9 points per game and began his college career with a bang with 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals against Southern Utah.

He registered double-figure points in half of the team’s 32 games and had a career-high 23 in the regular season finale at Washington State. He did go through some freshman growing pains, he was productive offensively but not particularly efficient. He took over 253 shots but made just 97 shooting just 38% from the field and nearly half of his field goal attempts (105 of 253) came from three-point territory where he shot just 33%, he also turned the ball over 63 times, which was the third highest on the team.

If the younger Thompson can make a jump and be more efficiently productive instead of a volume producer, he can join his brother and redshirt-junior Tres Tinkle as a trio that can lead Oregon State to relevancy in the Pac-12.