Thomas Walkup

Thomas Walkup
Player information
Full name	Thomas Ryan Walkup
birthday	December 30, 1992
place of birth	Pasadena (TX), USA
size	193 cm
position	Shooting Guard / Point Guard
college	Stephen F. Austin
Club information
society	Žalgiris Kaunas
league	Lietuvos krepšinio lyga
Jersey number	0
Clubs as active
2012–2016 SFA Lumberjacks ( NCAA ) 2016–2017 Windy City Bulls 2017–2018 MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg Since 2018 Žalgiris Kaunas 0

Thomas Ryan Walkup (born December 30, 1992 in Pasadena , Texas ) is an American basketball player . After studying in his home country, Walkup first tried unsuccessfully for a year in the D-League in 2016 for a commitment in the highest-endowed professional league, the NBA , before playing for the German first division club MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in the 2017/18 season. During his engagement for this club, he was invited to the BBL All-Star Game 2018 and reached the Final Four tournament in the 2017/18 Champions League with his team . Walkup is currently under contract with Žalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania .

Career

Walkup graduated from Deer Park High School in the town of the same name, which is adjacent to his birthplace in the Houston metropolitan area . Although his achievements as a basketball player in school were already exceptional, he hardly received offers for a scholarship at a leading university in the country, as he had a long history of injuries after two cruciate ligament ruptures and an as yet unhealed broken foot and, according to his father, partly despite himself had not acted excessive length in the front court . Eventually, Walkup preferred a scholarship from Stephen F. Austin State University to a fellowship from neighboring Houston Baptist University , as he rated their college team Lumberjacks more likely than the Houston Baptist Huskies to win the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship within the Southland Conference - Qualify tournament. After Walkup skipped the first year of study as "redshirted" from championship games after breaking his foot, he became active for the Lumberjacks from 2012, the four times in a row with Walkup from 2013 to 2016 the "Regular Season" and after the first tournament victory in 2009 also from 2014 to 2016 won the "Conference Tournament" of the Southland Conference three times in a row, which is equivalent to qualifying for the national NCAA finals. After the Lumberjacks lost to the Stanford Cardinal in the 2013 postseason in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in the first round , they surprisingly won a game in the NCAA finals in 2014 after extra time against the VCU Rams . After the clear second round defeat against the UCLA Bruins , they also lost the first round game in 2015 against the Utah Utes .

In Walkup's senior year 2016 as a "senior" he was named Player of the Year at the Southland Conference for the second time after the previous year. For the NCAA finals, the Lumberjacks were even worse at 14 than in the two previous years, but in the first round they surprisingly won by 14 points against the highly rated Mountaineers of West Virginia University . The icon of the supposed underdog became Walkup, who, in keeping with the team's mascot , hadn't trimmed his beard for months and came very close to the stereotype of a lumberjack. But it was not just his appearance that attracted attention, he scored 33 points, 19 of which converted a total of 20 free throws , nine rebounds , four assists and four ball wins, an individually outstanding performance that was praised by the opposing trainer Mike Brey, among others Walkup's understanding of the game highlighted. But it was reserved for Brey's favorite Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame in the second round game to defeat the Lumberjacks at the end of the game with six points in a row, including a buzzer beater one and a half seconds before the end, and with a point difference of 76:75 to throw the tournament. This also ended Walkup's career in the NCAA, which was not included in the subsequent NBA draft in 2016 .

After Walkup was not selected in the entry draft of the NBA's highest endowed professional league , he was allowed to play for the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Summer League . Finally, at the end of September 2016, he got a provisional contract with the Chicago Bulls , which they ended four weeks later shortly before the start of the season and Walkup signed a few days later for their newly founded farm team Windy City Bulls in the NBA Development League . At the Windy City Bulls, rookie Walkup played together with the German national player Paul Zipser , who made it into the Chicago Bulls' NBA roster towards the end of the season, while Walkup didn’t do much with his start into a professional career could draw attention. Finally, Walkup signed a contract in Europe for the following season, where he played in the 2017/18 basketball Bundesliga for the German first division club MHP Riesen from Ludwigsburg . In qualifying rounds at the beginning of the season, the giants qualified again for the main field in the Basketball Champions League 2017/18 . After the giants had narrowly failed in the quarter-finals at the premiere of this competition last year against the later finalist Banvit BK , this time they reached the final four after victories in the knockout rounds over the national rivals EWE Baskets Oldenburg and medi Bayreuth -Competition. Previously, Walkup had been nominated for the BBL All-Star Game 2018 at the beginning of the year , after he had already qualified for the three-point throw competition of the best distance shooters. After the end of the 2017/18 season, Walkup moved to Žalgiris Kaunas in Lietuvos krepšinio lyga .

Web links

• easyCredit BBL - Thomas Walkup - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• Men's basketball: Thomas Walkup - Profile on the sports websites of the SFA State University (English, as of 2016)
• Thomas Walkup College Stats - Statistics from college playing times at sports-reference.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ralph D. Russo: Doing it all: Versatile Walkup, Stephen F. Austin face Irish. Associated Press , March 19, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
2. ^ Jeri Martinez: Walkup commits to Stephen F. Austin. Houston Chronicle , November 17, 2010, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
3. ^ Associated Press , John Marshall: Stephen F. Austin pulls off improbable upset of VCU in OT. Houston Chronicle , March 21, 2014, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
4. ^ SFA's Walkup Named Player of the Year for Second Consecutive Season. Southland Conference , March 7, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 (English, media info). 
5. ↑ Chris Johnson: Unsung Thomas Walkup helping put Stephen F. Austin on the map. Sports Illustrated , March 19, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
6. ^ Genaro C. Armas: Thomas Walkup and the Lumberjack look. Associated Press , March 20, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Associated Press , Ralph D. Russo: Thomas Walkup's 33 points key Stephen F. Austin's upset of WVU. ESPN , March 19, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 (match report with statistics). 
8. ^ Nicole Auerbach: Versatile star Thomas Walkup, and his beard, formidable force for Stephen F. Austin. USA Today , March 19, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Associated Press , Ralph D. Russo: Late tip gives Notre Dame 76-75 win over Stephen F. Austin. ESPN , March 21, 2016, accessed April 15, 2018 (match report with statistics). 
10. ↑ Thomas Walkup G-League Stats. Sports Reference LLC, accessed on April 15, 2018 (English, player profile on statistics portal). 
11. ↑ Newcomer from Chicago: Thomas Walkup strengthens MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg. Basketball Bundesliga , August 10, 2017, accessed on April 15, 2018 (media info MHP Riesen). 
12. ↑ Thomas Walkup nominated for ALLSTAR game. (No longer available online.) MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg , January 3, 2018, archived from the original on April 16, 2018 ; accessed on April 15, 2018 (media information). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ https://basketball.de/news/news-europa/thomas-walkup-wechselelt-zu-zalgiris-kaunas  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.