Some call him Michael, others call him Juice. But the only way Michael Thompson’s teammates and coaches need to know him is by his role on the team: leader.
“He runs the team,” coach Bill Carmody said. “He’s not afraid to tell people where to go on the court.”
In Northwestern’s loss to Penn State on Wednesday, Thompson became the 29th player in NU history to score 1,000 points in his career. The junior point guard is second on the Wildcats in scoring and leads the team in assists and 3-point field goal percentage.
The true testimony to his importance is when he is not on the floor. The Cats look to their general to dictate the pace of the game and have struggled when he is on the bench.
“He’s the voice of coach when we can’t hear coach,” senior guard Jeremy Nash said. “He has to see a lot; he has to talk a lot; he has to be vocal to all the players and lead them.”Thompson has not stepped timidly into that role. Rather he embraces it.
“I think of myself as that leader,” Thompson said. “Now that Craig (Moore) is gone, we don’t have that vocal leader, that feisty guy like he was. So I stepped up in my own way.”
At first glance Thompson doesn’t seem like a player capable of leading a Big Ten team. The Chicago native is listed at 5-foot-10, which makes him half-a-foot shorter than the second smallest scholarship player on the team. But he uses his speed and tremendous shooting ability to get his shots off against taller defenders.
“Being small has some advantages as well as disadvantages,” Thompson said. “I have confidence. It’s knowing you can get your shot off and believing in it as well as preparation. It’s following your instincts out there on the basketball court.”
One of the problems of being short in a game that rewards height came when he was still at Lincoln Park High School, as Thompson’s diminutive stature scared off many colleges.
“People would say ‘Well, he can’t get much better, this little guy,'” Carmody said. “People say he’s not this and he’s not that, but I see everything he is. The more I saw him, I saw that he loved to play. The more I saw him, the more I said, ‘This guy’s going to do it.'”
Carmody initially wasn’t preparing to offer Thompson a scholarship on account of his shaky 3-point shot, but Thompson improved that aspect of his game. Nash, who has teamed with Thompson in the backcourt for years, has seen the improvement as well.
“He has grown,” Nash said. “I played with Juice when I was younger, and I knew what type of player he was. He wasn’t going to be stopped. So it’s not surprising when he can get off his shot at this level, because he’s that good of a player.”
Not only has he proved he can shoot, he has become proficient at it. Thompson has led the Cats in 3-point field goal percentage every season he has been in Evanston.Which is why a guy named Michael Thompson became Juice Thompson.
“Well, when I shoot 3s, I always say my jump shot is 100 percent pure,” Thompson said. “So I would call myself Juice.”
And thus, Juice was born. It’s what Thompson has tattooed on his left bicep and is what the NU student section yells out when he takes the court. But it means different things to different people.
“I would say his name is Juice because he sweats like he’s pouring out juice,” Nash said. “If he wants to say (his jump shot) is where he got his nickname from, I guess you can give it to him.”
To Carmody it doesn’t matter what he calls himself, as long as he produces. NU will need him to do so on Sunday if it wants a shot at knocking off Wisconsin in Madison, Wisc.
“Just make shots, kid,” Carmody said. “Juice, I don’t care what it is. Cranberry juice, I don’t care.”[email protected]
