Why USC's Saint Thomas can Play Himself into First-Round Contention Next Season

Eric Musselman's team has a lot of cooks in the kitchen at the wing spot – here's why Saint Thomas might be the most ready for the next level.

Jun 22, 2023; Brooklyn, NY, USA; The 2023 NBA draft class poses for photos on stage before the first / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

This offseason, Andy Enfield's departure from USC ended up turning the college basketball world on its head.

The former head coach of the Trojans left his post to take the SMU job in Dallas, which led to a coaching carousel that functionally transformed the college hoops landscape for the forseeable future.

Eric Musselman, the former coach at Arkansas, left to take Enfield's former job, leaving an angry fanbase in the process. But in turn came the biggest shock – John Calipari left a storied Kentucky program to join another storied SEC outfit – the Razorbacks.

This story isn't about these coaching changes, but it is imperative to set the landscape for how all of this happened. Musselman recruited incredibly well in Fayetteville, and it has been no different since his start with the Trojans.

This team has several wings with NBA aspirations, but today, the focus will be on one Saint Thomas, a Northern Colorado transfer who put up absolutely gaudy numbers last season.

His junior year with UNCO, he put up a very impressive 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 steals and shot 47% from the floor. Additionally, he put up 33% from beyond the arc and 87% from the free-throw line – the shooting is very legitimate for a player that stands at 6-foot-7 and weighs 200 pounds.

His game is impressive in a multitude of facets and has been very underrated in the portal and out of high school in general. After playing for Loyola-Chicago for two years and playing a role that didn't serve his interests, his play at Northern Colorado shows that of a player that can be "the" guy, the bucket-getting "dawg" type on a team like USC.

This isn't to say there won't be competition. Desmond Claude of Xavier, Terrence Williams of Michigan, and Chibuzo Agbo from Boise State are all very legitimate wing players that could star on their own teams (and two of them did on their respective teams).

What stands out about Thomas is that he is a player with a multifaceted game, which translates better in a scaled-down role in the NBA. He can do most things asked of him, and whie he's not an elite athlete, he is athletic enough to hang in any league.

USC has built a team similar to what Texas Tech built in the late teens – a roster full of 6-foot-6 to 6-foot-8, athletic wings that can all lock up on defense (or at least can lock up in the context of this specific defense). The physicality is incredibly discouraging to opposing players on offense, and can help to stifle even the best systems.

Of course, multiple of these guys can play in the NBA – ideally for the team and for Musselman, multple of them are taken in the NBA Draft in 2025 to help boost the USC brand post-Enfield. Overall however, Saint Thomas seems the most ready for the league.

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