Playing on a seven-game exhibition tour with the USA Eagles in recent weeks, P.J. Thompson was tested profoundly.

Whether it was playing against adults in foreign lands under different basketball rules than he's accustomed to or taking on a leadership role on a new team on which he was the youngest member by at least two years, the Purdue sophomore was put in positions of potential discomfort.

"P.J. got stretched," said Luke Simons, one of the organizers on the trip and one of the Eagles' coaches, "and I think he'll tell you that that's really good for him."

The Eagles, a team full of American college players, won six of their seven games against professional, though in some cases short-handed, teams in various Asian countries.

A seventh game ended in a tie. Long story.

Thompson - again, the youngest player on the roster - averaged 8.2 points on 47-percent shooting, making a third of his threes and three quarters of his free throws.

"When I was going well, I was being aggressive," Thompson said. "I know I had either 18 or 21 in one game and was really looking for my shot and being aggressive in the pick-and-roll. In other games, I was really looking to get my teammates involved, so I'd have 18, 21 one game, then four or six or seven the next. I just have to find that happy medium between the two, I think, and have a certain level of aggression while still getting my teammates the ball."

Simon said he noticed a delineation between Thompson playing with confidence and being aggressive and the young point guard being tentative at times.

"It was kind of a tale of there being two different P.J.s, something the coaches said we might see and something I think maybe you saw at Purdue last year," said Simons, a Purdue alumnus. "There were times he played with a level of confidence where he was hard to guard and he really ran us on the court. Then there were times where if he played with a little of hesitation, his decision-making and his ball-handling suffered."

That hesitation might be the cost of doing business in such environments, though, particularly for point guards.

The Athletes In Action-run USA Eagles practiced together no more than a half dozen times before heading overseas. That meant processing new information while acclimating to new teammates and coaches.

But there were times Thompson was rolling, Simons said.

"A lot of it was him getting to 15 feet and making the defense make a decision," Simons said. "A lot of it was with his shooting. He had a couple games where he really shot the three ball well, but when P.J. was really humming, it was with penetration, forcing the defense to make a decision and dumping it into the post or shooting. He has a really nice little 15-foot jumper and if the defense doesn't step up when he breaks a guy down, he can knock it down. The mid-range game was really good for him.

"And he was a great teammate, a great teammate. He came just as open as anybody else did on the trip, open to coaching and instruction, developing on and off the floor. When you travel with Athletes In Action, one of the things we ask is that you be open to the character development and leadership development and biblical principles we're going to bring to our team time, our practices and our games and the kid was moldable and coachable and at the times when he played with some of that uncertainty and we brought it to him, it was always, 'Yes sir' and a nod of the head and away we go."

Thompson believes the experience gained during the trip was important for him headed into a season in which Purdue may need the second-year guard to carry himself like an experienced player.

"The biggest thing I took from the trip was just off the court, learning about myself and my faith and seeing where I am there, what you're really playing for," Thompson said. "I thought the biggest thing I learned was off the court, but on the court I definitely had some success … so I'm bringing a winning attitude back here to work with the guys (at Purdue). It was a great trip, for sure."

Fellow Purdue point guard Johnny Hill figured it would be.

He took part on the same tour a year earlier, as he then prepared for his season at Texas-Arlington, long before he had any idea he'd be finishing his college career as a Boilermaker.

"It's kind of like what I'm going through right now," Hill said Monday on the first day of organized workouts at Purdue now that summer school is in session. "You're put with a (new) group of guys and as a point guard, you have a big responsibility. ... You're just dropped in there to lead these guys in a sense.

"I just think he'll be a lot more aggressive because of it. I haven't been able to get on the court with him yet, but I'm willing to bet that experience made him a lot more vocal. Then beside the basketball, spiritually it helped me out a lot, testing my faith and being around guys who think the same. It was a great experience, one of the best experiences of my life, and I think he's going to learn a ton from it."