After completing a dominant season as a transfer portal star at Albany, Sebastian Thomas transferred back to the University of Rhode Island to flip the script and show off his refined skills.
Michael Kelly, Sports Reporter for the Albany Times Union talked about Thomas’ magical season with the Great Danes.
After two difficult growing years at Rhody, Thomas took a trip to play at Albany where he nearly averaged 20 ppg and was named to the Second Team of the American East Conference as well as its leading scorer.
“It was a good time to pick up Thomas because Albany was playing at the Broadview Center — a new arena,” said Michael Kelly. “The fans took an instant interest in Thomas. One of the reasons I think was because he is left handed.” “Since Albany did not have a good year (only winning nine games), he was given the keys to the proverbial Albany hoops car,” Kelly added. “On any given night he is capable of scoring 30.”
As far as stats were concerned, his field goal attempts increased from 188 at URI to 506 at Albany. In terms of three point percentage, Thomas started his freshman year at Rhody shooting 21 percent, then 25 percent his sophomore year. At Albany his shot a respectable 29 percent.
Another area of improvement has been his foul shooting which went from 36 percent his freshman year to 77 percent his junior season. And his attempts tripled from Rhode Island to Albany.
Thomas’ breakout game occurred when he poured in 42 points against UMASS Lowell, who is one of the best teams in the American East Conference.
Kelly believes Thomas would have been a First Team American East selection if Albany had a better record. He was relegated to Second Team instead despite the fact that he lead the Conference in scoring.
Thomas is a Workhorse
Thomas started all 32 games at Albany and played the entire 40 minutes seven times. Kelly said that he never saw him tired throughout the season. He is definitely fit enough to withstand even Tom Thibodeau’s playing time expectations.
Initially, Thomas wasn’t interested in transferring to Albany. He literally wouldn’t answer Albany Head Coach Dwayne Killing’s phone calls. But Killings was persistent and Kelly believes Thomas liked the fact that he was literally given the keys to the proverbially car to run the team.
It’s unknowable if Thomas — also affectionately called “Bassy” — will be able to match or possibly exceed last season’s performance with the GreatDanes, but who is a better judge than the Rhode Island Basketball’s brain trust.
