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STILLWATER — When the basketball season tips off later this year, Bryce Thompson will do something that isn’t all that common in the modern landscape of college athletics: start a fourth-consecutive year at the same school.
The transfer portal turns over many rosters year after year, and with Oklahoma State making a coaching change this year, that has certainly been the case in Stillwater. Thompson is just one of three players who will return from last season’s OSU squad, with the other two being rising sophomores Jamyron Keller and Connor Dow.
A shoulder injury this past season ended Thompson’s year prematurely, but he was having a good season. He scored 11.6 points a game, finishing second on the team in points per game. He put up 20 in a home loss to Kansas and finished having scored 15 or more points in seven of the 18 games he played in. But the injury had him sit and watch as his team lost its final six games of the season before OSU fired Mike Boynton shortly thereafter.
The Cowboys were without a coach for going on three weeks before they announced the hiring of Steve Lutz. Thompson watched as five of his teammates hopped in the transfer portal, but the Tulsa native stuck it out. He said he didn’t want to make a rash decision but rather waited for OSU to make a hire before having a conversation with Lutz and realizing he didn’t need to go anywhere.
“I really just liked Coach Lutz — I like his vision for our team,” Thompson said last week. “He emphasized that he’ll be able to get players. We have a pretty good roster right now. I love the assistants. KP [Keiton Page] stayed — that was a big part of it. I’ve just got faith in him. Obviously love to be close to home. I love the fanbase here. They show a lot of love. I feel like it’s the right decision.”
Thompson has always had an elite-level worth ethic, something that Boynton often praised, but Thompson has had to grow as a vocal leader throughout his college career. He was tested in that aspect last season while not being able to play on a team that included five true freshmen. He’ll be tested again this upcoming season, as thus far Lutz has brought in seven players via the transfer portal. All have college basketball experience, but none are anywhere near as familiar with Stillwater and the Big 12 as Thompson is.
“That’s something Coach Lutz had emphasized, me being a leader being somebody who’s played in the Big 12 for multiple years and has the experience to come out and just lead the guys,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a good group of guys, but it’s gonna take us banding together and really getting better to be able to compete at a high level like this.”
A former five-star recruit, Thompson transferred from Kansas back to his home state after his freshman season, but heading into his fifth year in college basketball, he has the opportunity to do something that doesn’t happen as much as it once did because of the portal — leave a legacy at a program.
He’s 61 points from becoming the 43rd person in program history to score 1,000 in an OSU uniform. If he could replicate his 2022-23 season, he’d finish his career with 1,363 points at OSU, which would tie JamesOn Curry for 21st on OSU’s all-time list.
But he could also be a part of something bigger. He could be part of the turnaround of a program desperate to get back to prominence, and he could do all that about an hour drive from where he grew up.
“I definitely love it, especially being from Oklahoma, being able to put so much time here,” Thompson said. “Just put on and do what I can. I love it. I love being an inspiration to the younger generation and stuff like that.”
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Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.