- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,194,434
- Reaction score
- 59
Jun. 16—BROOKINGS — Myles Thompson won a JuCo national championship at Barton Community College, scoring 27 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the championship game.
He'll try to take that winning pedigree into his new team at South Dakota State for one last year of college basketball.
The Jacks have a good history with former JuCo champions — Coach Bryan Petersen and former standouts Doug Wilson and Luke Appel all won one together at Kirkwood Community College in 2019.
Thompson, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound lefty, will provide muscle and skill to the Jacks after missing most of last year with an injury. After he'd served as a role player in his first year at SIUE in 2025, he started the first eight games of last year and averaged 10.8 points and 6.1 rebounds before getting hurt.
Now he's healthy and ready to make a contribution to a Jacks team looking to get back into NCAA tournament contention.
Thompson spoke with Sioux Falls Live's Matt Zimmer about his transition to Brookings.
MZ: Tell me a little bit about what your familiarity was with the SDSU program before you came.
MT: Not a bunch of familiarity, just with their basketball program's history of winning. They've obviously got a championship culture here, and that's something I want to be a part of.
I've been fortunate enough to be, and kind of fortunate enough to be a part of in the past, in junior college and at SIU, and in my last seasons at both those places, we were able to do that. It's something that I really wanted to be a part of, and they've been historically really good. It was a good jump for me to still be a part of a culture like that and take the next step.
MZ: Did you have any kind of relationship with Coach Petersen before this, or did he just reach out to you?
MT: No, sir. No, sir. Didn't know Coach Pete before this, until we started the recruiting process.
MZ: What was his pitch, sort of, when he reached out to you?
MT: Just thought I fit their system, fit what they were trying to do, and obviously winning is super important to them here. He thought that I could help their program do that, and so that was kind of the conversation with him.
MZ: You have one year left. So that means that you're kind of putting all your chips in here on SDSU. What's it like going into a new place for your final year, potentially, of college basketball?
MT: It's super exciting. I really believe in the culture here, but I really believe in the guys that they have on the roster right now. I believe in their retention, and I believe in some of the guys they're bringing in, and I really believed in what we were going to have here for this roster for this one season I left. Yeah, I felt good about putting my chips in here and chasing the championship and going after it.
MZ: What kind of player are you? I know it's kind of a hard question to ask sometimes, but what are you going to bring to this team?
MT: I've always just really valued whatever it takes to win, and I feel I do a lot of things on the floor to help a team win, whatever that may be on a given night, but I'm a forward. I just feel like I do a lot of things that impact winning, and that's really my main goal here is just to help this team win as much as we possibly can.
MZ: Well, it sounded like last year things were off to a relatively good start for you before you got hurt. Can you talk a little bit about just what your experience was like last year going through that?
MT: Yeah, so the shoulder, it became a real problem after I had the labrum tear. We tried to manage it a little bit and see how it would work for a while, but it was a really, really bad injury and I was not able to continue to play with it, so it was recommended that I get surgery. And we talked about it for a while and debated, but it just got to be too much and too much pain, so we decided to call it, and obviously I was in my last season, so just to try to get healthy. It wouldn't have been safe to play with it.
MZ: Sure. Are you healthy now?
MT: Yes, sir. Healthy. Yes, sir.
MZ: How have the workouts been going? How is it? Did you feel a little bit like you had to sort of be careful with it, or did you get to a point where you're like, I'm not going to get back into it until it's 100% and I can go be the full version of myself? How have you sort of managed that as you're working your way back?
MT: It's been great. You know, everyone, the surgeon, all the doctors, they did a great job with me, so the recovery process has been great and I just kind of went through the steps and kind of got back to it over time.
So just slowly got my way back onto the court as I got my shoulder more healthy and until I could do everything fully basketball-wise. So it was a really smooth recovery and it was really a blessing to have a lot of good people to work with.
MZ: You alluded to it a little bit, getting to know some of these guys. What's that been like, meeting them and getting a chance to sort of learn who they are and how you're going to fit in with them?
MT: It's been great. I think one of the best parts about this place is their retention and we've returned a lot of great players and a lot of really good guys, even so far that I can tell in the first week. Just, you know, all the guys who are returning from last year's team are great dudes.
And then, you know, I think that's something they focus on here is just recruiting good people. So even our new guys have all matched really well together in the first week and everyone's been enjoying each other and everyone's super excited to play together this year.
MZ: It's kind of a unique place for a mid-major school, you know. I mean, I'm sure you've been told a lot about the conference tournament and how well that is received. And I'm sure you've seen the arena now and been told about how the crowds come out and just the support that they have there. Is that something that you were looking for? Is that something that was attractive to you when they reached out that, hey, I'm going to a mid-major, but it's a place where they get a lot of support, they got a lot of fans?
MT: No doubt. I think that's super exciting. It's awesome.
It's awesome that they get that support. And it's something that's a real blessing to have when you're a mid-major school. It's an advantage that a lot of mid-major schools don't have.
And you know, we got great support too at SIUE at a little bit of a lower level. But like we got really good crowds for our arena and stuff. And I know how much as a player of an advantage that can be.
And to be here and kind of a step up a little bit more fan support, it's just super exciting. And I just know how important that is to a team and to a home court advantage. And so I'm really looking forward to playing in front of the fans here.
Continue reading...
He'll try to take that winning pedigree into his new team at South Dakota State for one last year of college basketball.
The Jacks have a good history with former JuCo champions — Coach Bryan Petersen and former standouts Doug Wilson and Luke Appel all won one together at Kirkwood Community College in 2019.
Thompson, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound lefty, will provide muscle and skill to the Jacks after missing most of last year with an injury. After he'd served as a role player in his first year at SIUE in 2025, he started the first eight games of last year and averaged 10.8 points and 6.1 rebounds before getting hurt.
Now he's healthy and ready to make a contribution to a Jacks team looking to get back into NCAA tournament contention.
Thompson spoke with Sioux Falls Live's Matt Zimmer about his transition to Brookings.
MZ: Tell me a little bit about what your familiarity was with the SDSU program before you came.
MT: Not a bunch of familiarity, just with their basketball program's history of winning. They've obviously got a championship culture here, and that's something I want to be a part of.
I've been fortunate enough to be, and kind of fortunate enough to be a part of in the past, in junior college and at SIU, and in my last seasons at both those places, we were able to do that. It's something that I really wanted to be a part of, and they've been historically really good. It was a good jump for me to still be a part of a culture like that and take the next step.
MZ: Did you have any kind of relationship with Coach Petersen before this, or did he just reach out to you?
MT: No, sir. No, sir. Didn't know Coach Pete before this, until we started the recruiting process.
MZ: What was his pitch, sort of, when he reached out to you?
MT: Just thought I fit their system, fit what they were trying to do, and obviously winning is super important to them here. He thought that I could help their program do that, and so that was kind of the conversation with him.
MZ: You have one year left. So that means that you're kind of putting all your chips in here on SDSU. What's it like going into a new place for your final year, potentially, of college basketball?
MT: It's super exciting. I really believe in the culture here, but I really believe in the guys that they have on the roster right now. I believe in their retention, and I believe in some of the guys they're bringing in, and I really believed in what we were going to have here for this roster for this one season I left. Yeah, I felt good about putting my chips in here and chasing the championship and going after it.
MZ: What kind of player are you? I know it's kind of a hard question to ask sometimes, but what are you going to bring to this team?
MT: I've always just really valued whatever it takes to win, and I feel I do a lot of things on the floor to help a team win, whatever that may be on a given night, but I'm a forward. I just feel like I do a lot of things that impact winning, and that's really my main goal here is just to help this team win as much as we possibly can.
MZ: Well, it sounded like last year things were off to a relatively good start for you before you got hurt. Can you talk a little bit about just what your experience was like last year going through that?
MT: Yeah, so the shoulder, it became a real problem after I had the labrum tear. We tried to manage it a little bit and see how it would work for a while, but it was a really, really bad injury and I was not able to continue to play with it, so it was recommended that I get surgery. And we talked about it for a while and debated, but it just got to be too much and too much pain, so we decided to call it, and obviously I was in my last season, so just to try to get healthy. It wouldn't have been safe to play with it.
MZ: Sure. Are you healthy now?
MT: Yes, sir. Healthy. Yes, sir.
MZ: How have the workouts been going? How is it? Did you feel a little bit like you had to sort of be careful with it, or did you get to a point where you're like, I'm not going to get back into it until it's 100% and I can go be the full version of myself? How have you sort of managed that as you're working your way back?
MT: It's been great. You know, everyone, the surgeon, all the doctors, they did a great job with me, so the recovery process has been great and I just kind of went through the steps and kind of got back to it over time.
So just slowly got my way back onto the court as I got my shoulder more healthy and until I could do everything fully basketball-wise. So it was a really smooth recovery and it was really a blessing to have a lot of good people to work with.
MZ: You alluded to it a little bit, getting to know some of these guys. What's that been like, meeting them and getting a chance to sort of learn who they are and how you're going to fit in with them?
MT: It's been great. I think one of the best parts about this place is their retention and we've returned a lot of great players and a lot of really good guys, even so far that I can tell in the first week. Just, you know, all the guys who are returning from last year's team are great dudes.
And then, you know, I think that's something they focus on here is just recruiting good people. So even our new guys have all matched really well together in the first week and everyone's been enjoying each other and everyone's super excited to play together this year.
MZ: It's kind of a unique place for a mid-major school, you know. I mean, I'm sure you've been told a lot about the conference tournament and how well that is received. And I'm sure you've seen the arena now and been told about how the crowds come out and just the support that they have there. Is that something that you were looking for? Is that something that was attractive to you when they reached out that, hey, I'm going to a mid-major, but it's a place where they get a lot of support, they got a lot of fans?
MT: No doubt. I think that's super exciting. It's awesome.
It's awesome that they get that support. And it's something that's a real blessing to have when you're a mid-major school. It's an advantage that a lot of mid-major schools don't have.
And you know, we got great support too at SIUE at a little bit of a lower level. But like we got really good crowds for our arena and stuff. And I know how much as a player of an advantage that can be.
And to be here and kind of a step up a little bit more fan support, it's just super exciting. And I just know how important that is to a team and to a home court advantage. And so I'm really looking forward to playing in front of the fans here.
Continue reading...
