Chris Monter: Tubby Smith Offers Matt Thomas

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We ae pretty fortunate here in the La Crosse area. We get to see Matt go head to head twice a year with Bronson Koenig. There is good basketball played here in God's Country.
 

This is another one of those lights-out shooters that some people claim Tubby Smith doesn't recruit.
 

playhosea! said:
This is another one of those lights-out shooters that some people claim Tubby Smith doesn't recruit.
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no one has said he doesn't RECRUIT lights-out shooters. he just doesn't SIGN them. big difference. name one "lights out" shooter that tubby has signed at minnesota.
 




Go Gophs eh? said:
Devoe Joe was pretty good....
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Devoe wasn't a sharp shooter. He didn't shoot over 40% from the field in either season he was with Minnesota (that includes 2pt range). He never shot over 39% from 3pt range in either season.

When you say sharp shooter, you hope someone will get you 45% or better from 3pt range. In today's game, really good teams have at least one of those guys, many have two, a few have three. We had Hoffarber (47% his jr year) and no one else. Last year Minnesota shot 32% as a team from 3pt range. That is terrible. We need shooters.

Maybe this Thomas kid can be a help. Zierden would likely give you that kind of shooting, but not sure if this staff likes him enough in other areas of his game.
 

That's an interesting fact that you made up

tjgopher said:
When you say sharp shooter, you hope someone will get you 45% or better from 3pt range. In today's game, really good teams have at least one of those guys, many have two, a few have three.
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Dude, there are few 45% 3 point shooters in the country, much less 2 or 3 per team....Devoe was a good shooter undeniably, no he didn't drain 50% of his 3's, but he also made space for his own shots, unlike blake who usually shot that high because there was a point to get him the ball off of screens. Give Devoe the SG spot, a point like Al Nolen, and screen plays drawn specifically for him, and I bet he'd get you 47%
 

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...r/_/stat/3-points/sort/threePointFieldGoalPct

47 players in the country shot 45% or better from 3 point range last season. A fair number of these were around 2-3 attempts/game which is not a great sample size. I doubt "many" teams have 2-3 of these players. I quickly looked through and didn't notice any team that had more than one but I am sure I could have missed a couple
 


Go Gophs eh? said:
47 players out of how many at the D 1 level? Hundreds?
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Thousands. 345 schools x 12 players/school (approx) = 4,140

If you take the players who actually play (say 8/team) it is more like 2,760

The point is (and I think you were agreeing) very few people shoot 45% from three at the D1 level
 




Go Gophs eh? said:
Dude, there are few 45% 3 point shooters in the country, much less 2 or 3 per team...
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I never said ALL teams have 2-3 sharpshooters from 3pt range. Read my post again. I said most really good teams HAVE AT LEAST ONE. Many have 2 (Purdue, Wisconsin). A few have 3 (OSU). And, yes, maybe 45% is lofty. But, certainly, most really good teams have multiple players who are over 40%. We had no one over 40% last year.

In other words, my point is - if we want to compete for a Big Ten title, we need at least one, more than likely will need two sharpshooters. If we get three, then super. Fact of the matter is outside of Hoffarber, we haven't had that.
 



BleedGopher said:
LaCrosse Tribune: Minnesota makes scholarship offer to Onalaska's Thomas

http://lacrossetribune.com/sports/h...cle_231ac0fe-aab2-11e0-8a84-001cc4c002e0.html

Go Gophers!!
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I really like Thomas. As a Badger fan, I will be very disappointed if he ends up at Minnesota. The UW staff is watching him pretty closely this month, and I really hope they offer Matt a scholarship.

While he is not the greatest athlete, I believe his height (about 6'3" now with some potential to grow - brother is 6'6") and strength will help him compensate. He is an excellent shooter, and a very solid ball-handler and passer. He plays a good deal of PG for his AAU team, but is mostly a SG at Onalaska. I would project him at SG at the next level. As a comparison to another recent UW SG, Matt is similar to Jason Bohannon with his ability to handle and pass from the SG position because of their background as a PG. However, Matt is taller/bigger than Jason, and I belieave a better shooter.

Should be interesting to see who else gets involved with Matt. He was fantastic (i.e. around 30 per game, including one of 42) in the first Milwaukee AAU event during the evaluation period. Another event started today in Milwaukee. As the second event has a better overall field, there will likely be more coaches in attendance. If Matt plays close to as well as he did last week, there will be a lot more interested programs.
 

Are you really going to continue to make stuff up? It's not even true that most good teams have at least one, unless you're counting players that shot over 45% but had very few attempts. I may have missed one, but the only really good teams that had at least one player who shot over 45% were OSU, Pitt, UK, Wis, and Wash. Very, very few have two. Purdue and Wisconsin didn't. Not sure where you got that idea. The only noteworthy team that had two (unless I missed one) was Kentucky. OSU had one player shoot over 45% from three, not three. If there is a team who had 3 players shooting over 45% from three, the team wasn't very good.

tjgopher said:
I never said ALL teams have 2-3 sharpshooters from 3pt range. Read my post again. I said most really good teams HAVE AT LEAST ONE. Many have 2 (Purdue, Wisconsin). A few have 3 (OSU). And, yes, maybe 45% is lofty. But, certainly, most really good teams have multiple players who are over 40%. We had no one over 40% last year.

In other words, my point is - if we want to compete for a Big Ten title, we need at least one, more than likely will need two sharpshooters. If we get three, then super. Fact of the matter is outside of Hoffarber, we haven't had that.
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I like the Matt Thomas offer. I seen Matt play on a couple of occassions, and he has a better handle than Hoff already, and a nice shot to go with it. I like the offer because I see what Tubby is doing here, he is getting a combo gaurd who can play point, just in case Tyus doesn't commit in the next class, but the combo is more of a SG so Tyus wouldn't be detered by us taking a point in the class before him.
 

underground629 said:
Are you really going to continue to make stuff up? It's not even true that most good teams have at least one, unless you're counting players that shot over 45% but had very few attempts. I may have missed one, but the only really good teams that had at least one player who shot over 45% were OSU, Pitt, UK, Wis, and Wash. Very, very few have two. Purdue and Wisconsin didn't. Not sure where you got that idea. The only noteworthy team that had two (unless I missed one) was Kentucky. OSU had one player shoot over 45% from three, not three. If there is a team who had 3 players shooting over 45% from three, the team wasn't very good.
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Damn dude, I already said 45% was lofty. I admitted that. I was wrong on that. I revised to 40% in the very freaking post you're responding to.

As to the point -- we didn't have a 40% 3pt shooter last year. Most really good teams did. OSU had three. Purdue and Wis had two. My point is that most Big Ten title contenders have some sharpshooters. We didn't. We could use a few.

Look, if you don't think we have a need for shooters, fine. I do. That's my basic point. If you want to continue to quibble about something I've already revised after you pointed out the facts, then knock yourself out.

If what you're looking for is that I was lofty on 45%, then for the 2nd time - you're right.
 

@WisBBYearbook Marquette offered Matt Thomas today.

Go Gophers!!
 

Add Boston College to Thomas' offer list. He now has (from BCS conferences) Iowa St., Minnesota, Marquette and BC.
 

Ole, do you think Wisconsin will come calling? How's their scholarship situation standing? I would imagine for a Wisconsin kid, it's quite a bit different getting offered by state "U" vs. a very competitive, yet private uni in the state.

On another note, I find it very interesting how BC recruits the midwest; I know Al Skinner was a strong presence in the region (Troy Bell, Dan Coleman) but I thought it was just connected to him. It seems they continue to be really strong in the region. I imagine there's an appeal for the Catholic kids, certainly.
 

UW is in the mix for Matt, as I'm pretty sure they were at every one of his games during the first July evaluation period, with Bo personally taking in the last three. UW has five openings to fill over the next two classes. 2012 SF Sam Dekker has one of those spots, then they have one more that can be used in 2012. If they do that, they would have three scholarships available for 2013. If they hold the final 2012 spot, they would then have four for 2013. Best guess is they are trying to figure out how/if to use the remaining 2012 spot before moving any further on Matt. Their top priority right now is 2013 PG Bronson Koenig. Sounds like they are still very much in that recruitment, so one of the spots will be held for him. They will likely take a SG along with a PG (hopefully Bronson), but if they do that in 2012, then Matt may not get an offer. Of the the 2012 guards I have heard mentioned with UW, none are better than Matt in my opinion. I think the UW staff is making a mistake in not offering Matt right now. If they continue to slow play him, they may not get him even if they eventually do decide to offer. He has the four BCS offers mentioned above, with some other solid programs (e.g. Notre Dame, Virginia, Michigan) taking a very close look.
 

Tweet from Mark Miller:

"Iowa State, Creighton and Drake attend early morning workout today for Onalaska junior Matt Thomas. Iowa State is all over Thomas."

Go Gophers!!
 

From Mark Miller:

"Northern Iowa and Minnesota visited Onalaska this week to watch Matt Thomas, class of 2013 wing guard."


Matt is expected in Madison for a visit for the Nebraska game next Saturday.
 

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