Atlantic 10 Basketball: 4 biggest takeaways from opening night

Christion Thompson is legit

Jeff Dowtin, Fatts Russell, Cyril Langevine. Those were the three names off of everyone’s lips all offseason when it came to talking Rhody hoops. Everyone pegged Dowtin as a rising star and All-Conference level talent, and most people foresaw Russell (PG) and Langevine (C) stepping up as more-than-adequate role players. There was plenty of talk about Russell even seeing a Luwane Pipkins-esque freshman to sophomore production leap and becoming one of the league’s premier scoring threats.

One player people didn’t mention (or if they did, not enough) was Christion Thompson, the redshirt Junior who played a role two seasons ago before sitting out all last year. In Rhody’s 97-63 absolute stomping of the Bryant Bulldogs, Thompson showed that the Rams’ supposed trio is actually more of a quartet. In 24 minutes of play, he accumulated 14 points, seven boards, three assists, and two blocks – about as complete of a stat line as one might hope for out of a star player, let alone a fourth option.

Everyone knew that the Rams would have talent in the backcourt and post, but there were questions surrounding the wings. Sure, freshman Dana Tate and Tyrese Martin are highly-touted and undoubtedly have potential, but expecting them to step up as impact players right away wouldn’t have been an ideal situation. Thompson playing like he did last night goes a long way towards alleviating those concerns. As an experienced and well-rounded Junior, he provides the Rams with an element of poise and leadership in a relatively young rotation, and is enough of a threat on offense to spread out defenses and give Dowtin and Russell room to thrive.