Trey Thompson’s first season hasn’t gone as planned. Why Iowa men’s basketball is confident in him for next season

IOWA CITY — Sometimes it takes a few extra practices to become game ready. That’s been freshman Trey Thompson’s story this year.

Thompson committed to Iowa men’s basketball initially as a member of the 2026 freshmen class. In a surprise move to boost head coach Ben McCollum’s inaugural Hawkeye freshmen class, Thompson ended up reclassifying to 2025.

But he hasn’t seen the court, despite McCollum’s initial plan for Thompson.

“We expected him to play this year and play considerable minutes,” McCollum said Tuesday. “He just wasn’t quite ready defensively, and we didn’t want to burn his year.”

Thompson’s first season, instead, has been filled with time in the weight room, and sitting courtside in his first season.

Not that Thompson has minded the unobstructed view.

“I have the beat seat in the house,” Thompson said. “I’m front row. I get to see Coach Mac live when he gets mad at our players ... I get the watch the Hawks play live, and it’s my best friends out there.”

He’s taken hits from Alvaro Folgueiras in practice and had to guard Bennett Stirtz and Kael Combs. He dealt with a month-long sickness that cemented the decision to redshirt.

Thompson hasn’t been phased the whole way through, because he recognized there’s a chance to grab a significant role next season — if he plays the long game.

“He’s developed good habits, and he continues to do that,” McCollum said. “So when he’s coming in, in essentially in what would have been his freshman year, he’ll really make an impact.”

Thompson was dealing with an illness for a month earlier this season, where he said he’d lost up to 10 pounds. Thompson had already been working on adding muscle throughout the season, too.

The freshman had a goal of reaching close to 230 pounds, after starting college around 215 pounds. He’s since surpassed that goal, even despite the sickness, sitting closer to 233, he said.

Despite the physical transformation, Thompson said the pace of Big Ten basketball hasn’t felt much different from his experience in AAU basketball. It’s the physicality that’s different — putting more of an emphasis on his defensive habits and muscle gain.

He wanted this exposure to college basketball, though.

“I think get being pushed every single day in practice here is just it's so much better for me,” Thompson said. “I'm getting better every day I get to work out with the best assistant coaches in the country, in my opinion. They push me, they correct me and then we have a little bit of fun every now and then. So it's not too bad.”

McCollum’s confident that Thompson will still live up the teenager’s potential. Iowa fans just have to wait a little bit longer to see that potential unlocked in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“Most kids in that, especially how recruited he was, would have a tough time with that and he probably did have a tough time with it,” McCollum said. “And he still may not understand it, but he did trust in what we were talking about.”

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