 |
| |
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|||
EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|
Closer Look Thomas inspired by cousin's cancer
By Seth Davis, Sports Illustrated ATLANTA -- To Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, soft is a four-letter word. So with his team leading an undermanned Gonzaga by just five points at halftime last Friday night, the scarlet-faced coach stalked into his locker room and began ripping his players, one by one. He had some especially choice words for David Thomas, a 6-foot-7 senior who had no points and just two rebounds in the half. Even worse, Thomas had badly blown a breakaway opportunity by attempting a twisting, reverse layup instead of trying to dunk. In other words, by playing soft. "If somebody saw you play that half," Izzo said, "he'd be disappointed." Izzo didn't say who "somebody" was, but Thomas understood all too well. Izzo was referring to Wayne Thomas, David's 37-year-old cousin who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Last Monday, David returned to his native Canada to visit Wayne in the hospital, and Izzo knew the situation was preying on David's mind. Acutely aware that Thomas would play a critical role in the game plan he devised for the South Regional final against Temple, Izzo brought Thomas into the coaches locker room just before the Spartans took the floor. Once again, Izzo talked about Wayne, inviting David to, as Izzo put it later, "put a smile on [Wayne's] face while he's lying in that hospital today." "I knew when he left the locker room he was going to play well," Izzo said. "To tell the truth, though, I didn't know he was going to play that well." Good thing he did, because otherwise the Spartans might be spending next weekend in East Lansing instead of Minneapolis. Thomas, who had a career-high 14 rebounds during Michigan State's second-round win over Fresno State, poured in a career-high 19 points in the Spartans' 69-62 victory over Temple. A versatile role player who had averaged 4.8 points coming into the game, Thomas rang the bellwether in the game's opening minutes by knocking down two long jumpers from the left corner on the Spartans' first two possessions. He added seven rebounds and two steals, and he hit the biggest shot of the afternoon when he buried a 3-pointer with 1:01 to play to put Michigan State up by eight. "I think David knew he didn't play well the other night and I told him he didn't play well the other night," Izzo said afterward. "That's what I love about the guy. He's very mature and he doesn't take things personally." Thomas' emergence as a scorer on Sunday resulted from Izzo's plan of attack against Temple's vaunted matchup zone. In an effort to counter the Owls' habit of swarming the ball, Izzo installed a 2-1-2 offensive set that planted 6-9 senior Andre Hutson at the foul line, where he could reprise his days as a high school quarterback and distribute the ball to the Spartans' wing players. Hutson, who was the Spartans' leading scorer in the postseason, accepted his non-scoring role with customary grace, and he executed Izzo's plan perfectly. Still, someone else had to score, and that someone turned out to be Thomas. "I give credit to David for hitting those shots, but he had open shots and he's supposed to hit open shots," Izzo said. As a fifth-year senior, Thomas is the only player in the Spartans' locker room who knows what it's like not to win a Big Ten championship. Throughout his career, he has quietly fulfilled whatever secondary roles Izzo has asked him to play. Last year, when Mateen Cleaves was out with a broken foot, Thomas even took over at point guard, even though he had never played the position before, not even in high school. On Sunday, with the cousin he loves fighting for his life back home, Thomas was asked to play a different kind of role, and play it he did. On this day, at least, David Thomas was a shooting star.
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
