If personality could be measured, Taurean Thompson’s would stand much smaller than his 6-foot-10 body. Wielding the physique of someone who could command a room with purely his presence, he’s not nearly as boisterous as his massive frame suggests.

As reporters stuffed the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center last month for media day, the Syracuse freshman lackadaisically shot baskets alone in the back corner of the gym, deaf to the raucous around him.

Thompson doesn’t care what you have to say about him. All the good, all the bad, all of it compartmentalizes in his mind. In a society filled with noise, this is how Thompson finds quiet. You won’t find him on Twitter or Facebook. He only started using his cell phone again because he came to college.

“I do not care about what anybody says,” Thompson said. “If you say something good it’s going to be motivation, if you say something bad it’s going to be motivation. I keep it to myself.”

The radio silence helps him stay focused, and as an attendee of private or boarding school his entire life, that only fortified his shelter. But the limelight of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the No. 18 ranking affixed to the Orange (1-0) is about to expose Thompson, who in many ways, is ready.

Ready to take the inevitable criticisms of Jim Boeheim. Ready to rein his size and mobility to become a tower within Syracuse’s zone. Ready to flourish on a stage exponentially larger than any he’s seen before, one that contrasts with his keep-to-myself demeanor.

It’s an environment Thompson needs to succeed in to validate his decision to spurn Seton Hall, a school more representative of his academic upbringing with less than half SU’s student population. That’s out of Jim Boeheim’s hands, who has done his part to elevate the status of one of his newest players.

“I think Taurean is more advanced than most freshmen forwards,” Boeheim said. “He’s probably our best mid-post player and making plays out of the post. I think he’s got a chance to help us in there.”

Where Thompson lacks readiness still is maneuvering the zone, something Boeheim cut him some slack for, saying that was normal for a big freshman. Thompson responded with a good showing in the first game of his career, leading SU with seven rebounds against Colgate on Friday.

Make no mistake, at some point Thompson will catch his head coach’s rage in front of thousands. Those fleeting moments can sink players, but Thompson has already hit those depths, largely because of his mother.

Sherese Piper doesn’t hold back words for anyone, especially her son, Thompson. In Syracuse’s first exhibition game, security had to ask Piper to stay seated. Her cheers blend into the crowd, until they don’t. There’s only one fan yelling “Fix it!” when Thompson sinks his shoulders after a misplay, and one fan reminding the 6-foot-10 freshman that every close rebound should be his.

“In my head, my first reaction is ‘Shut up,’” Thompson said, smiling. “But I take it and I say, ‘You know what, she’s right.’ She’s not wrong. She sees me. So I have to take the criticisms. I’m thankful for that.”

If nothing else, Piper’s stern encouragement has given her son tolerance. Thompson used the descriptors “mellow” and “calm” to describe Boeheim, and he dished those without a moment of hesitation. Piper might be the toughest coach Thompson ever has.

She dubs herself the “mirror” for her children, but Devil’s advocate might be a more appropriate name. She refused to let Thompson or his sister set their sights on professional basketball. That’s why Thompson fenced and played soccer. He learned Beethoven on the guitar. He was given sketch pads after Piper observed her son invisibly tracing the Manhattan skyscrapers with his finger as they walked through New York.

As Thompson matured, his mother threw harder-hitting jabs at him.

Is a coach going to play you because of necessity, or is he playing you because you’re that good? Are you not going to succeed in society because you’re a jock? Who are you if I take the ball away from you?

“You’re not a basketball player whose name is Taurean,” Piper recalled telling her son. “Your name is Taurean and you play basketball.”

There’s no venom in her words, just a point: There will be life after basketball. That’s hard to get ready for in a program that’s graduated players to the NBA in four straight seasons. It’s harder when you’ve been over 6-feet tall since fifth grade. But his height is what’s kept him ready for a higher tier of basketball longer than anything else.

Courtesy of Sherese Piper

He was born about 9 pounds, Piper said, and at five months old, doctors could no longer measure him the same way they did other babies. He routinely broke the backboard off his miniature Fisher-Price hoop as a toddler. Proof of Thompson’s birth certificate became a regular request. From enrolling him in kindergarten to playing on a sixth grade AAU team, parents struggled to associate their similarly aged children with Thompson.

“All my life,” Thompson said, “people have been looking.”

Now it’s Thompson’s times to do the same. On an SU team with 7-foot-2 Paschal Chukwu, Thompson’s not the basketball eye candy he once was. He’s not going to be leaned on as a cornerstone in 2016-17 — there’s five seniors for that. Now is the time to look, digest the opportunities he’s given, and know that a more integral role is around the bend with the looming departure of Tyler Roberson and potentially Tyler Lydon.

A lifetime of basketball and guidance from Thompson’s straight-shooting mother has kept him poised for whatever’s next. In the meantime, Thompson is nose-deep into “Mastery,” a former bestseller examining how to become a leader in any field. The book helps get him “thinking about stuff I need to be thinking about.”

In other words, it’s getting him ready. Even more so than he already is.

Published on November 14, 2016 at 11:13 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman