Liberty guard attracts attention from UNLV, other DI schools
Never mind the Tuesday blowout victory.
Liberty boys basketball coach Kevin Soares determined on the ensuing Wednesday in early February that his players would benefit from additional conditioning after practice. So he brandished the runner-up plaque the school had begrudgingly claimed after losing to Bishop Gorman in the annual Tarkanian Classic and raised it to his head while the Patriots sprinted from sideline to sideline — as if to ask, “Are you satisfied with second?”
Dedan Thomas Jr. wasn’t, isn’t and won’t ever be.
The sophomore was so distraught after that December loss that he wouldn’t leave the visitor’s locker room until the crowd had departed, determined to feel every bit of the sting that accompanied the first loss of his varsity career. Along with the sting that filled his lungs and stomach during this particular series of sprints amid the maximum effort that ensured he finish first or second.
“Every single practice, every single day at school, if someone brings it up — that’s really all we’re working toward right now. Beating Gorman,” said Thomas, beads of sweat still brimming from his brow. “Ever since I’ve been watching basketball here, that’s the only team that’s been winning. I just want to beat them.”
At 16, Thomas is a shrewd and relentless competitor, packaged as a benevolent 6-foot left-handed point guard with a penchant for passing and serene sense of confidence that has helped key the most successful season in program history. The Patriots will play in the Class 5A state tournament for the first time this week, giving their star player an opportunity to avenge the defeat and showcase on the state’s biggest stage his standing as one of the best players on the West Coast.
Recruiting services such as Rivals and 247 Sports consider Thomas one of the top 60 players in the 2024 graduating class, and UNLV’s coaching staff is prioritizing his recruitment. Just like Jerry Tarkanian prioritized that of his father, Dedan Sr., who played the point during Tarkanian’s final season with the Rebels.
“I would love to see him play for UNLV, but I would also love to see him make his own path and do what makes him happy,” the elder Thomas said. “His main goal right now is to win a state title. … The core of him is competing — and basketball.”
Born into basketball
He goes by DJ and knows exactly who he is, having heard the stories, watched the game tape and studied the box scores his father used to fill. As the oldest of four born to Dedan Sr. and Tina, his childhood was a crash course on basketball history and strategy — taught mostly by a selfless man who would dribble, drive, pass and probe his way to an average of 7.9 assists in his final 57 games at UNLV.
Not that he’d have it any other way.
“Everyone would just tell me all these good things about him. I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever, it’s no big deal,’” said the younger Thomas, who was in fifth grade when he grasped just how good his dad was at basketball. “I’d hear all these things about him, but I couldn’t believe that he was my dad.”
Thomas was a week old when he attended his first practice at the Tarkanian Basketball Academy, stationed in a cradle on the sideline while his father coached eldest son Keenan’s team. He was 5 when his father founded West Coast Basketball, the club program with which he developed the steely edge he has today.
Top local players such as Troy Brown Jr., Ray Smith, Markus Howard and Chase Jeter trained under the elder Thomas at Christ the King Catholic Church and West Career Technical Academy, where his program was headquartered before its relocation to Impact Basketball.
His namesake would gleefully stand on the baseline to watch and emulate their commitment to the unglamorous but necessary parts of player development: the fundamentals.
“That’s really all I worked on,” DJ said. For hours after school every day, eventually adding strength and pliability training to his regimen.
Like other wunderkinds, Thomas would compete with older kids — such as senior forward Joshua Jefferson, who also stars at Liberty — when he began playing organized basketball as a second grader. But only under the condition that he endure the most rigorous coaching in the program to negate any perceived nepotism.
He would come off the bench and play out of position because he wasn’t big or strong enough to man the point, learning the subtleties of the shooting guard spot instead. Plus “we could always make him a point guard,” his dad said, because of the way he had learned to read the floor.
In seventh grade, Thomas began manning the point and blending the sets of skills he had spent the previous years cultivating under his father’s guideful watch. The following year, he powered Jack Lund Schofield Middle School to the city championship, playing on and off the ball. Or on the block when he had to.
“It’s not about the numbers. He knows if he checks the boxes, all of that stuff is going to take care of itself,” said Dedan Sr., who ranks sixth at UNLV in career assists. “He’s never been one of those kids that thought about himself.”
Leading at Liberty
Thomas’ unselfish nature and studious approach make him the ideal point guard to play at Liberty under Soares, a Gorman alumnus who holds the career assist record at UNR. Jefferson, one of the state’s top seniors and a Saint Mary’s signee, is the perfect pick-and-roll partner for Thomas who can finish at the rim or pop for open jumpers.
Unsigned senior wing Aaron Price runs the floor and scores at the basket, and junior guard Angelo Kambala is one of the state’s best shooters.
A collection of reliable role players helps support Thomas, who averages 12.9 points and 5.5 assists, shoots 49 percent from the field and has a 3.8 GPA.
He doesn’t dominate the ball, preferring instead to advance it to open teammates in transition. He’ll slither around a ball screen, drive, kick and relocate in the halfcourt, waiting to pounce on defensive mistakes. He studies Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving, Paul for his pick-and-roll brilliance and Irving for his creativity in one-on-one situations.
Play the pass, and he’ll score at the basket with an offensive arsenal that includes hesitations and fakes that befuddle defenders and create crevices through which he can finish. Help too much and get picked apart by pinpoint passes to shooters and cutters who flow around his movements.
“His basketball IQ is really good for someone his age,” Soares said. “It’s a coach’s dream to be able to coach a kid like that.”
Along with UNLV, Louisiana State and Washington State have extended scholarship offers to Thomas, and he says Arizona, UCLA and Stanford are among the other programs interested in him. He knows UNLV will continue to court him, too, but insists he isn’t focusing much on his future with more high school basketball on the horizon. Namely, the Class 5A state tournament, which begins Friday in Reno.
The Patriots lost again to the Gaels in the regular season and on Friday in the Southern Region championship game, but Reno offers one more opportunity at redemption.
“He never wants to lose in anything,” said Jefferson, who averages 18.0 points and 10.2 rebounds. “He has that dog in him. People think he’s a cool laid-back dude. But he can take your head off if he really wants to. And as he gets older, that killer instinct is going to keep getting bigger and bigger.”
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.
