Has anyone ever seen this?

[RainingThrees]

Video of Lance Thomas in high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWauKtDxkZQ

The dude was tearing it up.

[dukelifer]

Video of Lance Thomas in high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWauKtDxkZQ

The dude was tearing it up.
Lance was a very good high school player. High School is high school. I think Lance could break out next season- we have seen glimpses.

[KrazyKfan]

Lance is okay in terms of Duke players. I like his progression because he's becoming more of a hustler on the offensive glass like Kyle but at the same time is showing signs of being a more offensively effective McClure.

People have been saying that Lance is going to break out for a long time. I just don't see it. We need him to be a solid player and hit the glass hard. It would be great if he could score down low, because we need that, but as I said, I just don't think it's gonna happen.

[FireOgilvie]

He has a decent 10 foot jumpshot. The problem is that we already have a bunch of other guys with better jumpshots, so it's not a smart shot.

[arnie]

Yea, for whatever reason he never developed any offensive moves and his rebounding has been sporadic. I like his effort, but it often doesn't work out for him. We will need him next year with David gone.

[rthomas]

Somebody, somewhere always has to be yakking (a synonym for the b word) about something. Lance is doing ok and so are we so just go your merry $#$%^#W^$way.

I'm rthomas and lthomas is the man.

[Greg_Newton]

Thanks for the link. Lance has had a great attitude about playing out of position for pretty much his whole career, and I actually think he was starting to break out a little bit before he hurt his ankle. I really hope one of the MPs can develop into a solid 5 next year so Lance can finally get some minutes at the 4... I could see him being a Jeff Adrien type of power forward for us. Plus, a "big" lineup with Mason/Miles, Lance and Kyle all in at the same time could be pretty effective, IMO.

BUT to paraphrase rthomas, we look great right now, so I'll save the rest of my opinions about next year until April or so. GO DUKE!

[DUKIE V(A)]

I'm a huge Lance Thomas fan. What he does for the team doesn't always show up on the stats. He does the "little" things (that are actually big things).

Here are my favorite things about LT:

1. He is one of if not THE emotional leader(s) of the team.

2. He's an incredibly versatile defender; he can play big guys and smaller guys -- and this helps our defense bigtime.

3. He has a knack for getting that key rebound, putback. Huge for us, back-breaking and demoralizing for our opponents.

4. Smart dude. Rarely does he make a mental mistake on the court. I am trying to thing of the last mental error he has made and just can't come up with any. He does not force things that aren't there. Make no mistake, he could be scoring more in other programs. We don't run much offense through him and most of what he gets he earns by doing the dirty work. Lance checks his ego at the door and does what is best for the team. Not the easiest thing for a great athlete to do.

Thank goodness is has been able to play through his ankle injury. Without him, we are simply not as good.

[RainingThrees]

I'm a huge Lance Thomas fan. What he does for the team doesn't always show up on the stats. He does the "little" things (that are actually big things).

Here are my favorite things about LT:

1. He is one of if not THE emotional leader(s) of the team.

2. He's an incredibly versatile defender; he can play big guys and smaller guys -- and this helps our defense bigtime.

3. He has a knack for getting that key rebound, putback. Huge for us, back-breaking and demoralizing for our opponents.

4. Smart dude. Rarely does he make a mental mistake on the court. I am trying to thing of the last mental error he has made and just can't come up with any. He does not force things that aren't there. Make no mistake, he could be scoring more in other programs. We don't run much offense through him and most of what he gets he earns by doing the dirty work. Lance checks his ego at the door and does what is best for the team. Not the easiest thing for a great athlete to do.

Thank goodness is has been able to play through his ankle injury. Without him, we are simply not as good.

I agree after Paulus leaves he will be the emotional leader of the team. I just want to know if he can still hit that fading jump-shot.

[RelativeWays]

Lance has only two things going against him, one he can't always help and the other, he can.

1. Lance plays out of position a lot for us because our other 5's haven't quite cemented that position. You can tell in those video that he looks more natural playing the 4, he's not much of a back to the basket guy.

2. Lance needs to be more assertive when he takes the ball up to the hoop, he has hops, he has muscle he doesn't need to go for 5 pump fakes to draw the defender. Go up hard, try to draw the foul and try to get the ball in the hoop. I think Lance would be averaging at least 10 pts a game for us if he becomes more aggressive on the offensive end. He obviously has the ability.

[CDu]

Lance plays out of position a lot for us because our other 5's haven't quite cemented that position. You can tell in those video that he looks more natural playing the 4, he's not much of a back to the basket guy.

I agree a lot with this one. Unfortunately for Thomas, we have a pretty gifted player ahead of him at the "4" spot in Singler. Also unfortunately for him, we have a bunch of good individual offensive players and don't have the prototypical playmaker to set up others. Our offense is designed around teh skills of Singler/Henderson/Scheyer, who are great individual scorers. That has limited Thomas's offensive role a lot. Despite this, Thomas has done a solid job adjusting to the role asked of him.

Two other things to note:
1. He was playing against high school players. There is a dearth of guys 6'8" with great athleticism in high school. Thomas had a huge size/athleticism advantage in many/most games in high school.
2. It was a highlight tape. We can probably make a decent highlight tape of his Duke moments too. Not to say that his college career has been similar in accomplishment to his high school career - just that highlight tapes always overaccentuate the positive.

I think Thomas has grown immensely over the years. As a freshman (and even as a sophomore), he really seemed to struggle with trying to do too much defensively. It's almost as if he had more energy than he knew what to do with. He'd pick up a ton of silly fouls far away from the basket trying to overplay on defense. He's cut back a lot in that regard over the years. His defensive contributions have been very valuable.

Offensively, his skill set doesn't quite match what we want from the 5. So he's adapting to try to be productive in spite of this. I don't think he's ever going to be a force in the paint (it doesn't seem to be suited to his game), but he's getting a feel for how to be productive. He's working to get offensive rebounds and putbacks, and is getting better at it (was getting good at it before the injury).

If he had Zoubek's post game to go along with his defense, he'd be the ideal fit. He doesn't have that, but he's doing the best he can to provide impact given the fact that he's out of position.

[CLT Devil]

I think Lance is one of the best leaders on the team, as far as bringing intensity and getting everyone fired up. When we were getting shellacked by Clemson he was the only one on the bench during a timeout getting everyone fired up and getting in his team mates faces...I love that about Lance. He's not really asked to do as much offensively, but he does a good job of what's asked. I think his play last year at the Dean Dome when we won was a huge reason that we won the game...might be his best game yet. I heart Lance!

[1Devil]

I'm a huge Lance Thomas fan. What he does for the team doesn't always show up on the stats. He does the "little" things (that are actually big things).

Here are my favorite things about LT:

1. He is one of if not THE emotional leader(s) of the team.

2. He's an incredibly versatile defender; he can play big guys and smaller guys -- and this helps our defense bigtime.

3. He has a knack for getting that key rebound, putback. Huge for us, back-breaking and demoralizing for our opponents.

4. Smart dude. Rarely does he make a mental mistake on the court. I am trying to thing of the last mental error he has made and just can't come up with any. He does not force things that aren't there. Make no mistake, he could be scoring more in other programs. We don't run much offense through him and most of what he gets he earns by doing the dirty work. Lance checks his ego at the door and does what is best for the team. Not the easiest thing for a great athlete to do.

Thank goodness is has been able to play through his ankle injury. Without him, we are simply not as good.

If you're a Lance Thomas fan because of the intangibles he brings, you must think Dave McClure is a god.

[lifelongdevil]

not to be the rain on everyones parade,

but in that video he is shooting, dribbling, and making some solid post moves that have been conspicuously absent in Durham. I really dont want to be another of the "we need a big man coach" posters, but its interesting to note that lance was ranked(obviously somewhat of a crapshoot) well ahead of deon thompson, who has developed into a really solid player.

[DUKIE V(A)]

Guilty as charged (as being a McClure fan)! I think both he and LT bring a lot to the party and make the team better. Glue guys are important in winning championships. These guys bring their intensity and their D every game. We need them to do their thing (as well as others to do theirs) if we are to advance deep into the NCAA tourney.