Chris Thomas (Commit Other)

[blueblob06]

Thanks X-Man. Good to hear.

And we'll only have to wait a year for the trash-talk discussions to heat up again.

[bleedXblue]

Will he play in the 2013-2014 season ?

[PMI]

Will he play in the 2013-2014 season ?

That's the plan.

[kyxu]

That's the plan.

Stress "plan"

I think there are two battles within Chris Thomas' journey to Xavier: 1) his ultimate decision as to where he wants to play college ball and 2) being eligible at the place he ultimately chooses.

I hope it works out for him.

[LA Muskie]

Stress "plan"

I think there are two battles within Chris Thomas' journey to Xavier: 1) his ultimate decision as to where he wants to play college ball and 2) being eligible at the place he ultimately chooses.

I hope it works out for him.

You really think #1 is an issue? I've always thought it was 1) go XU or go pro, and 2) if XU, is he eligible?

[HuskyMuskie]

The only "battle" that Chris Thomas will be fighting is with himself. If he thinks that David Stern will call his name next summer as a lottery pick, consider him gone.

But, if he thinks he can prove himself for a year in a college uniform in order to make himself a top 5 pick--welcome to Xavier.

[kyxu]

You really think #1 is an issue? I've always thought it was 1) go XU or go pro, and 2) if XU, is he eligible?

Probably more accurate, yeah.

[bleedXblue]

Sounds like he has some maturity issues. Hopefully this year he can learn how to play without the trash talking. Not sure I want to go down that road again.

[PMI]

You really think #1 is an issue? I've always thought it was 1) go XU or go pro, and 2) if XU, is he eligible?

Yea this is it. I'm hardly worried about another school swooping in, although you can never rule something 100% out. Here's what I think we've got going for us (and by no means could I put a percentage on the chances of him actually coming to X, but I think it's probably above 50/50.) He hasn't played competitive basketball since an entire full season ago. He's still very young and would just be getting out of high school had he done the regular four year program, if I'm not mistaking. He'll be playing at the junior college level, after missing a year, from which you very, very rarely see a player make the jump straight to the NBA. He has, by all accounts, not even courted the interest of anyone else since he made his commitment to Xavier, and genuinely seems to be completely done with the recruiting process and set on Xavier as the school he's committed to.

He's got the one and done talent and potential, so if he has an enormous year, he may well decide the NBA needs no waiting. He could, however, have a slow start like even the really talented players sometimes do. He could decide that a year in D1 spotlight on a talented contender could go further in getting his stock up. Any number of things could happen. It is a weird feeling though, and will continue to be as we follow his year, because we're rooting for him to be as good and promising as possible, but maybe not so good that he's inclined to make the jump. It's like trying to make the hottest possible pot of water without it all boiling over.

[PMI]

Sounds like he has some maturity issues. Hopefully this year he can learn how to play without the trash talking. Not sure I want to go down that road again.

It's a risk I think I'd be willing to take every single time if I'm Mack. It's not like he has Tony Farmer-like issues. Every issue with maturity I've read concerns his on-court talking. I'd rather see that tone down (I think we've all figured out the potential downside to that) but I'm not going to pretend like it bothered me to see Crawford, Tu and Lyons jawing when we were winning games. Now if it all blows up in your face like it did at the Shootout, then that's no bueno. But I'll trust that lessons were learned from that by the people with more control (coaches and refs.) Believe it or not, Xavier has had LOTS of players with maturity issues go through its program. Some were more visible than others. Thomas is worth it to me.