To get a more thorough picture of Thompson, I reached out to Ryan Priest, of uwdawgpound.com, the University of Washington's SB Nation site. Here is what I learned, following by some analysis of how I feel Shaq will help the Panthers this season. Thank you, Ryan.
CSR: Do you know what subject Shaq majored in?
UDP: From what I can tell on GoHuskies.com (the official site of the University of Washington's Department of Athletics), that information was never published, at least in an official capacity. According to this article in The Sporting News, he earned a degree in American Ethnic Studies, but I've never seen that corroborated elsewhere.