Lance Thomas

Thomas was born Apr. 24, 1988 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey for his freshman and sophomore campaigns. For his years as an upperclassman, he attended St. Benedict's Preparatory School. There, he led the team to two Prep A Division New Jersey State titles with a 56-3 record. During his senior campaign, he averaged 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds. Following his senior year, he played in the 2006 McDonald's All-American game. He was considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com. Before playing collegiately at Duke, Thomas won a gold medal for the USA at the FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship. Thomas had a standout senior campaign at Duke, where he was named to the ACC All-Defensive Team while averaging 4.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.8 combined steals-plus-blocks. Despite being a highly touted recruit for Duke, Thomas was never a star. He learned his role and stuck to it. The 6-9 forward was a relentless defender and brought plenty of intangibles to the Blue Devils. On offense, he was opportunistic but rarely had plays called for him. Thomas started 18 games as a freshman and averaged 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds. He backed up players such as Josh McRoberts and fellow freshman Gerald Henderson. The Blue Devils were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by VCU. The forward started 28 of 32 games as a sophomore, but his numbers (4.3 points 3.3 rebounds) did not change much. Duke won its first NCAA Tournament game against Belmont before losing to West Virginia. As a junior, the New Jersey native came off the bench for the majority of the season and backed up Kyle Singler and Brian Zoubek. The Blue Devils advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Villanova. Everything came together in Thomas' senior season. He was a co-captain of the team with Jon Scheyer. The squad won the NCAA Championship by beating Butler in the finals. Thomas played in 140 games for the Blue Devils and averaged 4.6 points and 3.6 rebounds.