Tuesday night’s game versus Miami will be Senior Night marking the final regular season game for Deon Thompson, Marcus Ginyard and Marc Campbell. In this season, which can charitably be described at the bizzaro version of last season, it is probably fitting that Senior Night is the mirror of the one last season. A year ago it was a tight and pressure filled game versus Duke. The ACC regular season title was on the line, possibly a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was Tyler Hansbrough’s last home game and Ty Lawson was questionable with a toe injury. UNC won and nearly everyone stayed in their seats to hear from Hansbrough, Bobby Frasor, Danny Green and Mike Copeland. It was probably one of the most emotional Senior Games ever given we were saying goodbye to Hansbrough who with the other three players might be the most beloved senior class in UNC history.
This season, it is doubtful the Dean Dome will even be full, much less after the game ends. Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard will walk away having helmed one of the worst seasons of UNC basketball since Dean Smith was hung in effigy. These two role players over the first three seasons of their careers were thrust into the limelight this season and have really not performed to a level most of us(and no doubt they) had hoped. Like Jason Capel and Kris Lang, they bear the brunt of the fan ire for a Lost Season and while half of Tar Heel nation probably pities them, the other half takes every opportunity to rip them as though the word DUKE was written on their uniform.
Thompson, throughout his career, has always been flashes rather than a steady beam of light. There has always been an air of potential, a waiting for some breakout moment that turns Thompson into consistent contributor. Through three season, it never happened because (1) it really did not have to and (2) even if it did there were brighter lights on the stage than him which made whatever he did gravy. Well, with the exception of certain situations. During his freshman year there were two games in particular that buoyed this idea that Thompson would eventually flourish into a very good player. Thompson had a pair of games where he registered 14 points and six rebounds. The first was on the road at Arizona when Brandan Wright missed the game due to sickness. The second came in the East Regional Final versus Georgetown. Thompson’s play in that game was huge since it was 14 points off the bench and helped UNC jump out to a fairly secure lead before all hell broke loose. Those performances followed by a summer spent with the USA U19 team during which Thompson played extremely well set in motion certain expectations which were ultimately never really met. Not that it matter during his first two seasons as a starters. Tyler Hansbrough sucks a lot of oxygen out of the paint on top of that, UNC has so many good offensive options, whatever Thompson did was filler in some games. Still, a role player is important and UNC played enough tight games that whatever scoring Thompson did provide was pivotal to the team’s success. Still, Thompson did not produce all that many memorable games. In 2008, Thompson would only reach double figures 13 times but enjoyed nice stretch in the NCAA Tournament. However that followed an ACC Tournament in which Thompson a total of eight points in three games. That, more than anything else, illustrated the problem most fans have with Thompson. He disappears. Last season, Thompson did play well early on, especially during the absence of Hansbrough while he recovered from a shin injury. After Hansbrough’s return, Thompson became less noticed contented in the role. Again, this was fine and expected. I would call his play in both Duke games pivotal, especially the first one where he and Bobby Frasor made huge baskets to keep UNC in the game in the first half. During the NCAA Tournament he was there then not then there again with his nine points early in the title game setting the tone for UNC’s general dominance of Michigan St.
In short, all of these moments are simply that, moments. This season was Thompson chance to convert those flashes of solid play into something more, something that would place him in at least in the same company as Ademola Okulaja who carried the 1999 team. Unfortunately for Thompson it never panned. There are various reasons for that. While you cannot put the team’s losing all at his feet, he does bear some of the blame for having far too many games where his rebounding numbers were too low or he did not score often enough. This season, like Thompson’s entire career has flashes. Certainly the NC State game in Raleigh was one but this team needed more than flashes, it needed a steady offensive option on the floor to curtail an opposing team’s run. Thompson could never make that transition from role player to “the guy.” So what is Thompson’s legacy? He is probably more closely aligned to a Brian Reese who had tons of potential but never really did anything memorable(outside of missing a game winner vs Cincinnati and stepping on the sideline in the 1993 title game.) Outside of that I cannot remember much that Reese did and I am thinking some 10 or 15 years from now the same will be said of Thompson. He was a good role player who had a few nice moments. Of course Thompson also has over 1300 points in his career at UNC which is something. He did win a national title, represented the United Stats in international play twice and by all accounts is a solid citizen. Did his career level off and his final team had a horrible season? Sure. Should that be the sole criteria on which he is judged? Probably not but fans have short attention spans and “what have you done for me” lately mentalities. That is why the only time we ever mention Shammond Williams is when discussing backbreaking choke job shooting performances in the Final Four. Thompson’s legacy will ultimately be the last games we see him play which is unfortunate but reality.
Marcus Ginyard, on the other hand, is probably less notable than even Thompson. Like, Thompson, Ginyard was a role player who was labeled early and often as a defensive stopper. Like so many Tar Heels before him, Ginyard was that guy who did a little bit of everything on the court. He was not flashy or even something you noticed yet the box score comes out and there is Ginyard with eight points, six boards, three steals and a blocked shot. Ginyard did the little things and quite well by all accounts though the argument could be made(and proven in 2009) that Danny Green could do all those same things and was an offensive threat. Still, there was plenty to like about the way
