A 6-1, 195-pound guard, Thompson averaged 11.8 points and 3.9 assists a year ago for UAA’s 23-7, NCAA second-round club. The former local prep star from Dimond High also shot 48 percent on three-pointers in 2011-12 as he earned second-team All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honors.

“We knew this was always a possibility for this year,” said Osborne, whose team starts tonight with an exhibition at Div. I Troy. “Our program benefitted greatly last season when Travis sacrificed his redshirt year to strengthen our team. It is now time for the program to sacrifice for him. He is in a very demanding academic curriculum (civil engineering) and will need five years to graduate. The ability to not travel this season will allow him to get a solid foundation for his last two years. He has high academic goals and we support him in those as well as his athletic goals.”

Thompson was also a GNAC All-Academic Team member in 2011-12 with a 3.35 overall grade-point average.

“We will definitely miss his talent and competitiveness,” Osborne added. “However, we had a good recruiting class and we expect someone to step up and excel in his absence. What we lose this year we gain in the future as we now have two all-conference level players redshirting. He and Brian McGill will definitely challenge us day-in and day-out in practice.”

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