Indiana All Star Game Wrap Up: Deshaun Thomas

Deshaun Thomas is clearly one of the most promising student athletes in the entire nation. The Ohio St. commit had his talents on display last night at New Albany High school in southern Indiana. The junior team was without super smooth 2010 prospect Dominique Ferguson for the game, because of either an ankle or knee injury ( I heard conflicting stories at the game.) suffered earlier in the week. The opposing team's roster featured twelve division one signees and I was interested to see how Thomas would perform against the compilation of truly talented players, and he certainly passed the test.

Ferguson being inactive gave the senior team the ability to double and triple team Thomas at times. It was clear that the goal defensively for the deeper senior team was to deny Thomas the ball. However, Thomas was still able to show why he is a consensus top 10 player in his class. When Thomas did get the ball,(mostly in the post) he would drop step around Stephen Van Treese or Derek Elston only to find the other waiting for him when he rose up for his shot. Thomas did shoot a low field goal percentage, but was able to get multiple put back attempts while constantly banging with two and three bigs. During the melee of Thomas tips he was frequently fouled, resulting in multiple trips to the charity stripe, where he shot well.

Overall this kid is super strong often clearing a crowd when he aggressively goes up to the rack. He did show flashes of his above average ball handling and passing skills. On a couple of defensive rebounds he pushed the ball into the front court and quickly found a slashing teammate for an easy deuce. Thomas clearly has the complete package, all of the tangible and intangible things that you look for in a young athlete. Other than his size and athleticism the noticeable skills that separate this kid from the majority of players are his abilities to score, rebound, run the floor and his passion for the game.

We could have filled the highlight video up with more free throw clips, instead we opted for some warm up footage of Thomas. We were able to catch up with Mr. Thomas after the game and to ask him a few questions. Deshaun is a bright young man, was very polite and gave a good interview. We will have that up soon.