As practice for the George Mason men's basketball team ended Friday and the team prepared to depart for Davidson, center Shevon Thompson approached graduate manager Bryson Johnson.

   Other players were at other baskets working on shooting as Thompson and Johnson got down to their customary business. Johnson deliberately missed shots; Thompson corralled rebounds and put in follow shots. Thompson worked at grabbing misses from all kinds of angles.

   College gyms are full of guys hoisting up extra shots. But guys practicing rebounding?

    “Never seen it,” said Johnson, who played for Mason coach Dave Paulsen at Bucknell. “He does it every day. He's adamant about it. That's why he's such a phenomenal rebounder.”

    The 6-11 Thompson, an ex-defender in soccer who didn't begin hoops until high school in Jamaica, ranks first in the Atlantic 10 and16^th nationally in rebounding. He went for 17 rebounds and 14 points in Wednesday's 77-58 loss to St. Bonaventure.

    “Thompson's a horse,” said Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt. “As you could see, we had a hard time with him.”

  Schmidt found himself chuckling a moment later when he heard himself saying about Thompson's performance: “We found a way to somewhat keep him under control with 14 and 17.”

   The rebounds tied a season high for the senior, who also had 17 rebounds in a win against Oklahoma State in Charleston, S.C., in November. That was about the time Thompson developed a foot injury that caused him to miss the Dec. 19 Longwood game.

   Thanks to treatment from trainer Rebekah Schmidt, Thompson's foot is feeling better and he's moving with more spring in his right, jumping leg.

   “That was back to the Shevon Thompson we all know,” Paulsen said of the double-double against Bonaventure. “It's no coincidence. His foot is feeling better. He's finally able to move. He's able to get in extra work with me and staff before and after practices.”

  Ever since he began playing as a high school sophomore, Thompson found himself focusing on rebounding: “Everybody has a chance to shoot; everybody wants to dunk, make threes and stuff like that. I just wanted to find something else while everyone focused on things like shooting.

   “I can focus on getting rebounds. I want to change the game a little bit. Hey, hustle plays win games too, not just shooting threes and jumpers.”

    His presence on the boards is relentless. “I take everything as a miss,” said the lefty who averages 15.5 rebounds and 8.0 points per game. “If the ball goes up, I'm thinking it's going to miss.”

   And he's going to try hard to get it. Though the rest of Thompson's game is not as evolved as his rebounding, he's improving at passing out of double teams and reducing turnovers.

   Bonaventure played more 2-3 zone against Mason than it had all season. “They're a very athletic, attacking team,” Schmidt said. “We played a lot of zone to limit that. They're able to get the ball into the paint either off the dribble or by passing it to Thompson. We surrounded him. When he got the ball, we had a lot of hands and feet around him. Thank goodness, he didn't shoot the ball well from the foul line.”

   Thompson, 2-for-9 at the line after making his first two, is shooting 37.7% from the line this season.  Because he makes nearly double that percentage in practice and shot 61.9% last season, there's optimism his foul shooting will improve.

   The Patriots may see increasing amounts of zone, especially if they go 2-for-17 on threes as they did against Bonaventure. Paulsen was blunt when asked if the problem was shot selection or shooting ability and emphasized the latter.

   “We have drills that we do and standards we have in practice and we don't hit them. We don't make them,” the coach said. “We need to have guys who are like obsessed with getting in the gym and becoming better shooters. I don't think they're too many bad shots (attempted). We've got guys who have to shoot the ball better. They've got to get in the gym and they've got to knock them down. And they have to fight through things when they miss some shots.”

   When shots are missed, either by your team or the opponents, it's nice to have a guy like Thompson on your team.

  “He's a phenomenal rebounder,” Paulsen said.