The Biggest Win of the Doherty Era
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
Posted: Thursday, May 18, 2000

Notre Dame, Ind - The Notre Dame basketball team had a lot of big wins this year, but first year coach Matt Doherty may have gotten his biggest win of his very young tenure at Notre Dame Monday when Indianapolis Pike High School start point guard Chris Thomas gave Doherty a verbal commitment to enroll at Notre Dame for the 2001-2002 season.  The commit marks the first time in a long time that Notre Dame has gotten a genuine All American quality point guard to pledge to the Irish.

When Troy Murphy came to Notre Dame, he was considered a good talent, but he was not listed as a legitamate All American talent coming out of high school.  Thomas however, has a very good chance at being a McDonald's All American for the Irish.  The closest that Irish have gotten to landing a McDonald's All American in recent years was when Macloed would stop at Mickey D's for dinner on his recruiting trips.

Besides being a prime time talent, Thomas gives Doherty exactly what he needs - a point guard.  Jimmy Dillon was a warrior and  was an outstanding representative of Notre Dame.  He wasn't however, what you would call a super star point guard.  Dillon ran the offense well but he wasn't much of an offensive threat and it took a little while for him to get used to being a starter.   Thomas, however, is a prime time scorer and court general and will run the Irish offense like a well oiled machine.

This past season Thomas averaged 24.3 points a game while dishing out 4.7 assists a game and grabbing 5.6 boards.  He possess great passing skills and can play shooting guard as he has in the past.  He is more suited for point guard in college however and should be able to step in start as a freshman since the only point guard on the 2000-01 Irish roster is Martin Ingelsby and he will be a senior this year.

Notre Dame's incoming class of Torrian James, Chris Markwood, and Tom Timmermans is solid, but it lacks a super star.  Chris Thomas however will fill that role in the Class of 2005 for Notre Dame. 

Just imagine a front line of Harold Swanagan, Ryan Humphrey, and a back court of Chris Thomas and Matt Carrol - that team would be down right nasty.  The chances of Murphy staying another year after his junior year might not be great, but that starting five with someone with David Grave's talent as the 6th man would rule the Big East.  That might be looking a little to far ahead, but Notre Dame basketball is back and is staying back.

Doherty had another point in Ryan Walcot from Arizona who would be eligible for this upcoming season if he wanted him pretty much.  Doherty however waited on Thomas and it paid off.  Walcot is a quality point guard but is not the scoring threat Thomas is.  Walcot however is cousins with NBA and former #2 overall pick Mike Bibby so you know he had a lot of competition growing up.