ForumsBy Franz Beard
Gatorcountry.com Managing Editor
ATLANTA, GA — Give Adonis Thomas (6-6, 211, Memphis, TN Melrose #13 ESPNU Super 60) his preference and he plays shooting guard every time but he’s pragmatic. “Really, I just want to play, so just put me on the floor wherever you need me and I’ll play,” Thomas said Saturday afternoon at the Georgia Tech Recreation Center where the Wallace Prather Memorial Tournament is being played.
Thomas is a basketball player. Sounds simple but it’s a bit more complicated. Lots of guys play the game. Not many are basketball players.
So what separates guys who just play the game from basketball players?
“You don’t have to give him a position, just put him on the court and he’ll find where he needs to play,” says Eric “Cowboy” Robinson, coach of the Memphis Magic AAU team. “The word with him is versatility. He can be anything you want him to be. He knows how to play the game and he’ll make all his teammates better because he’s out there.”
Thomas, who attended Billy Donovan’s Elite Camp at the University of Florida last year and plans to attend once again this season, thinks he can be a three-position player at the next level although shooting guard is what he considers the best fit. On his high school team, it’s not unusual for him to play offensively on the perimeter and play post defense at the other end of the court. Defensively he says he’s not afraid to guard anyone.
Essentially, you plug him in and he plays.
“I want people to think of me as a player who does what the team needs,” Thomas said. “In college, I think I can help a team a lot of ways and I can probably help at three positions.”
It is that versatility that has the college scouts coming to see him in droves. He’s considered the most versatile player in Memphis since Penny Hardaway although their games are much different. Hardaway was a point guard who could rebound, shoot and play defense. While Thomas isn’t quite the ball handler or passer that Hardaway was, Hardaway was never the post up guy who can take over a game in the paint.
“Penny was a great ball handler and that’s something Adonis has to work on,” Robinson said. “He’s working on his ball handling but that’s what probably sets them apart. Of course, Penny never could go inside like Adonis could, either.”
Thomas played with Bradley Beal (6-4, 190, St. Louis, MO Chaminade Prep) on last year’s USA 16-and-under team that won the championship in the FIBA Americas Tournament in Argentina so he is on everybody’s recruiting map. Right now he says he is in the information gathering phase of recruiting although he does have a number of schools that interest him.
Asked who he likes, Thomas responded with a list of Florida, Memphis, Tennessee, Ohio State, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina and Duke. Asked if he’s got any favorites, the response wasn’t as general but definitely guarded.
“There are some teams I probably like more than others but I’m not ready to narrow things down and go public with it,” he said.
At some point in the summer months he will narrow his list down to the few schools that he will visit officially in the fall. He said he intends to sign in the early (November) signing period but he won’t decide who gets his signature on the dotted line until after he’s made his visits.
“I want to take the official visits before I commit,” he said. “I want to feel what it’s like on campus. It’s not all basketball.”
So what will he be looking for when he’s on campus?
“Academics are first,” Thomas said, indicating that he’d like to get into some sort of business curriculum when he goes to college.
Lots of players give academics lip service. Thomas, however, is a serious student with a weighted 4.3 GPA and a qualifying ACT score.
After academics, he’s looking for a strong campus social environment and a supportive community. When it comes to basketball priorities they are fairly simple.
“It starts with the coach,” Thomas said. “I want a coach who has a good record of being there for his players off the court and developing the players who play for him. Player development is really important to me. Are guys getting better? Is he sending people on to the league (NBA)?”
Other factors in the decision making process are who will share the floor with him.
“Who are my teammates going to be and how do all these guys fit together on and off the court?” he asked. “It’s not about being the star player. It’s about guys fitting together as a team. I’m also interested in style of play and how I fit in with that. All those things are what I have to know. That’s why I’m going to take all my visits and do my homework. I got to know these things.”
PLANNING TO ATTEND FLORIDA ELITE CAMP: Thomas once again plans to be at Billy Donovan’s Elite Camp in August. He said last year’s experience was a good one both in terms of what he learned and some of the VIPs that he got to hang around with.
“I really like Coach Donovan a lot,” he said. “He’s a great coach and he cares about his players. I like that. I also got to hang around with Al Horford and Joakim Noah. That was pretty special.”
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