Feb. 13, 2002
By TOM COYNE
AP Sports Writer
As the Notre Dame students swirl their hands in unison during a cheer, Chris Thomas stands in line in pregame warmup and swirls his hand right along with them.
He bops along with the music as the Notre Dame band plays. When the team is introduced before games, Thomas runs over and shake hands with the leprechaun mascot.
No one is more at home at Notre Dame than the 6-foot-1 freshman.
“I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else. I couldn’t see myself in a different uniform than Notre Dame,” he said. “It’s worked out tons better than I expected.”
Thomas, Indiana’s Mr. Basketball last season at Indianapolis Pike, has been the most consistent player, as well as the most durable, for the Irish (17-6, 7-3 Big East). He has played the entire game in seven of Notre Dame’s 10 Big East games, including a school-record 60 minutes in a 116-111 four-overtime victory Saturday over Georgetown. Thomas had 22 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds in the game against the Hoyas.
Thomas, the conference rookie-of-the-week five times this season, leads the Big East in assist-to-turnover ratio, with 165 assists and 65 turnovers.
His 7.17 assists a game also lead the conference. He is 12th in the conference in scoring (16.6 points), fourth in free-throw percentage (87.5 percent), sixth in steals (2.43 a game) and fifth in 3-point shooting percentage (39.4 percent).
“We had very high expectations for him and I think it’s fair to say he’s exceeded them,” coach Mike Brey said. “Not so much what we saw skill-wise. We knew he knew how to play. I just think with his poise and his composure for a freshman he really handles himself a little bit more like a junior.”
Brey said he has tried to treat Thomas similarly to the way Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski handled Bobby Hurley more than a decade ago.
Brey was an assistant coach at Duke when Hurley was a freshman. Hurley, a two-time All-American, led the Blue Devils to consecutive national championships while becoming the NCAA’s career assist leader.
Like Krzyzewski with Hurley, Brey handed the ball to Thomas on the first day of practice and has let him make his mistakes. Brey said he’s been careful to try not to overcoach Thomas.
“I don’t want to kill his creativity,” he said.
Thomas said he knew what Brey wanted on the court.
“He expects me to make mistakes, because of the tempo I play and the style of play. But he expects me to make the right decisions,” Thomas said.
Brey also has pushed Thomas to be the leader even though he’s playing with seniors Ryan Humphrey, David Graves and Harold Swanagan and junior Matt Carroll. It’s been difficult at times. Thomas said he was surprised at first how much his teammates looked to him for leadership.
“I would almost sometimes like it if they would tell me what to do,” he said.
Thomas is becoming more comfortable with the leadership role, Brey said.
“He’s taken control at times because he hates to lose. But he almost waits to see, ‘All right, is it all right if I do it Ryan? Dave, is it all right if I do it? Matty? All right, I’m going to do it,”‘ Brey said. “I think we’re getting to the point, ‘OK, just go ahead and do it from the beginning,’ because he has great instincts.”
About the only thing Thomas doesn’t like so far at Notre Dame is all of the attention. He is pestered by people showing up at his dorm looking for an autograph and people calling him at all hours begging him not to leave Notre Dame early.
“I’m not even worried about that. I want to make my name here. I want to make history,” he said. “I want to keep this program going. Leaving early is the last thing on my mind.
Thomas, who had a 3.13 grade-point average last semester, said he wanted to earn his degree and become an academic All-American. He also wants to help build Notre Dame into a national power.
“My goal is definitely team success, success for the program. I want to take the team as far as it can go,” he said. “If I don’t break any records – scoring, assists, any thing like that – and our team went as far as it could, I’d be satisfied.”