A couple of days ago Marcus Ginyard began his season overseas, this time around it was time for another former UNC basketball player to do the same, Deon Thompson (@DeThompson9 on twitter). Thompson, 6’9″/245 lbs, who played forward at North Carolina under the tutelage of head coach Roy Williams, was part of the `09 national championship team, is playing with Alba Berlin in Germany after having spent the last season with Union Olimpija in the Turkish League.
In the first game of the year Alba Berlin was at home against Artland, winning the match by the final of 94 to 62, with the former Carolina doing his part in the W. In the game Thompson scored 11 points (4 for 7 ~ 1 for 2 ~ 0 for 0) to go with 5 rebounds and a +/- differential of 19 while playing 26:38 in all. The former big man for the Tar Heels. where he averaged 13.7 pts and 6.7 boards his senior season, spent the most time on the floor for his squad and second most of all the players on the court. The squad won this game mostly on turnovers, which they forced 21 on the opponents, while only having nine themselves.
Alba got off to a 12 to 2 start and never looked back as the first quarter ended 25 to 15. Thompson and Co. won each of the four ten minute quarters, dominating the first one by then points and the third one by 15, 28 to 13. And while Thompson did not score as much as Ginyard did in his opening contest, Alba’s win was a lot more of a team job as six players scored in double figures and the highest scorer only had sixteen points in all, while the top rebounder just had one more than Thompson did with six in all.
Deon Thompson in his first game with Alba Berlin
From the Alba web site it seems that the next game that Deon Thompson and his squad will play is on Saturday, October 6, in a scrimmage against the Dallas Mavericks and will resume the following week with a game on the road against Montepaschi Siena in the Euro League part of the schedule. I will get as much information as I can about the game in the upcoming days and of course give you whatever type of recap I can after the game is played. From a post on the UNC Pros, a site that as the name would indicate follows the former UNC basketball players (as well as other sports) at the next level, it seems that Thompson is one of five former Heels playing in Europe and all are going to be starting their season this week.
As usual more information about North Carolina basketball and/or football, teams and players, present and past, make sure to check back often on isportsweb!
