Washington Wizards

Thompkins not ready for NBA talk ... Yet

Trey Thompkins will wait until the end of the season to even think about declaring himself ready to go pro.

Sophomores Thompkins and Travis Leslie have been projected as possible draft picks by some NBA scouts and at least a couple of coaches have echoed that sentiment on the Southeastern Conference's weekly teleconference.

"We don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. We just play basketball," Thompkins said. "If that's what people say, that's what people say. We want to stay within our team and stay focused on the task at hand."

Thompkins, a 6-foot-10 forward, is second in the SEC in scoring at 17.6 points a game and fourth in rebounding at 8.2 points a game. He averaged 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds a game as a freshman last season.

This year he has improved his field goal shooting from 43.4 percent to 49.8 percent.

"I haven't really thought about it just because I want to take care of this season before I let anything else come to mind," Thompkins said.

Thompkins has drastically improved his numbers in conference play over last year. He averages 19.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and shoots 52.9 percent from the floor in SEC games this season, up from 11.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 40 percent from the floor last year.

When Georgia hired Mark Fox last April, Thompkins did not immediately commit to returning to the program but eventually came back and played on the gold medal-winning United States team at the FIBA Under-19 World Championships in the summer.

"I didn't really think about it because I knew I wasn't ready and I just wanted to come back to school," Thompkins said. "I became a much better player and with the coaching change, that didn't slow that process down at all. Coach Fox came right in and started working with us as a team and let me know individually on what I have to do to improve and I'm a much better player."

Georgia's team play has also improved this season. The Bulldogs have already won more SEC games (four) than last year (three). The Bulldogs also average 71.3 points in SEC games compared to 61.9 last season.

"Once I think about it, (going pro) might be a tougher choice. But I haven't given it much thought yet," Thompkins said. "I want to be known as a guy who helped the program go from where it was