KU’s Self expresses ‘wishful thinking’ regarding return of injured Bryce Thompson
Kansas freshman reserve guard Bryce Thompson, who had surgery to repair a broken right index finger on Jan. 14, might be able to start shooting on his own next week, coach Bill Self said Thursday.
“We’re hopeful we can get the release on him sometime early next week and he can get back to doing some things full speed,” Self said of the 6-foot-5 native of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I don’t think there are any problems with the fear of re-injuring it or anything like that. I think the problem is that he doesn’t have full range of motion,” Self added.
Prior to suffering the injury against Oklahoma State on Jan. 12, Thompson, a McDonald’s All-American out of Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School, had averaged 5.1 points and 1.3 rebounds a game in 10 games. He missed three games prior to the KU-OSU contest because of a cracked vertebrae in his back suffered in practice.
“I think it’s been a pretty big loss, not having Bryce,” Self said of Thompson, who has connected on 18 of 51 shots for 35.3%. He’s made just 5 of 20 threes, with 10 assists, 12 turnovers and six steals.
Overall, he totaled 17.1 minutes a game in 10 games.
“I certainly hope he’s healthy enough that he can finish the season strong, because there hasn’t been anybody that’s been hurt who has been more in tune to everything going on and trying to do everything they possibly can to get back faster than what he has,” Self added.
“If he hadn’t gotten hurt you guys (media) would see just how much he’d be playing and how much trust we’d have (in him). We probably should have played him even more than what we actually did up until Christmas. He’s had such a bad run since Dec. 27 when he gets hurt (the back injury) and it’ll probably be at least another week at least before he’ll be able to go.
“I’m hopeful that’s the case,” Self continued. “That’s probably the best wishful thinking. I just think he’s a good player and he always tries to do what we want, even if it’s not always perfect the way he does it, but there is an attempt to do that. He has some ability offensively to create some space and get his own shot so I think it’s been a pretty big loss.”
Self said Thompson — he scored a season-high 12 points in the season-opener against Gonzaga and 11 against Washburn for his best offensive games — had emerged early “as a pretty good defender. I thought he would be a pretty good defender before he got here. I would say he was definitely right on pace where we hoped he would be.”
Self has called Thompson “tough as nails” in the past.
Thompson broke his finger with 2 minutes, 12 seconds to play in KU’s 75-70 loss at Oklahoma State. He leaped onto the Gallagher-Iba Arena floor for a loose ball, then was jarred when 6-foot-10, 240-pound Bernard Kouma of Oklahoma State fell on him. Thompson came up from the pileup on the court in great pain, holding his right hand. He had two points and two rebounds in 13 minutes that night.
“How about him putting his body out there,” Self said after that game. “That was maybe the most violent unintentional hit that a kid can take. He is lying flat on his face and a dude that weighs 260 pounds (Kouma) jumps directly on his head going after the ball.
“I’m not saying anything illegal,” Self said on his Jan. 14 Hawk Talk radio show. “I’m not saying anything bad. The timing was off. It was a foul (on Oklahoma State). Everybody knows that. They missed it. It’s been admitted by everybody. But the whole thing is regardless of that, face down somebody 260 pounds just falling on your face onto a hard floor.”
It was initially indicated that Thompson could miss four to seven weeks because of the hand injury.
Thompson arrived at KU as the No. 19-rated player in the recruiting Class of 2020 by Rivals.com. He was named Gatorade Oklahoma Boys Player of the Year his junior and senior seasons at Booker T. Washington High School. He averaged 24.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists in leading Washington High to a 20-5 record in 2019-20. His team advanced to the 2020 Oklahoma 6A state semifinals before coronavirus ended the season. As a junior he averaged 19.6 points, 5.2 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game for Washington’s Class 6A state title team.
KU will next meet West Virginia at 1 p.m. Saturday at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia. After that, the Jayhawks will meet Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Monday at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 4:30 PM with the headline "KU’s Self expresses ‘wishful thinking’ regarding return of injured Bryce Thompson."
