Matt Thomas is really good.

[CycloneWarning]

Shame Jake did not get more love when he played for us. He was put in a bad spot of having to handle the ball too much for a couple of years.

But, wow, he hit 47% one year? That is amazing.

 

[ISU42]

Must have been a case of the vocal minority getting their opinions out more

I don't know there were a ton of people on here ragging on him and tweeting at him.

 

[heitclone]

Naz is one of my favorite Cyclones of all time but his sitting out was a blessing in the long run, its pretty obvious that Matt is just a better overall player. It's crazy to think how different of a player he would be if Naz never sits. 2 months ago ANYONE would have said Naz was more the more important player, now would anyone trade Matt for Naz?

 

[cyowan]

Nice work, OP. Over the last two seasons my buddy and I have been saying to each other just how much the Hilton crowd wants this kid to succeed. When he was struggling the crowd would collectively hold their breath when he shot a 3 in anticipation of exploding if he hit it, and now getting to explode when he's hitting them consistently. It's been a pleasure to watch him develop not only as a shooter but as an all-around player. Glad to have him in a Cyclone jersey. He's turned into one of my favorites.

 

[JohnnyFive]

I dont remember who said so I cant give them credit, but, they said Thomas in high school/AAU was lights out when he could get a good feel for the game by being on the floor for long periods and he could get 10-15 shots a night in the flow of the game. It's hard to do that in spot minutes, which is what he dealt with when Fred was here. You can see what they were talking about now that he can be himself and find his shot in the flow of the game. His pull-up 3's and step backs were what I remember seeing most of on his recruitment videos, and we're seeing that now that he feels comfortable and doesnt have to worry about going back to the bench if he misses his first shot or two.

 

[jsb]

Shame Jake did not get more love when he played for us. He was put in a bad spot of having to handle the ball too much for a couple of years.

But, wow, he hit 47% one year? That is amazing.

jake was voted one of the top 20 players when Iowa state celebrated 100 years of basketball. That's a lot of love!

 

[jsb]

Naz is one of my favorite Cyclones of all time but his sitting out was a blessing in the long run, its pretty obvious that Matt is just a better overall player. It's crazy to think how different of a player he would be if Naz never sits. 2 months ago ANYONE would have said Naz was more the more important player, now would anyone trade Matt for Naz?

lets not get crazy. I wouldn't want to trade Matt. But I wouldn't want to trade Naz either.

 

[State43]

Thomas is playing excellent ball this year. I don't understand the mentality of sticking it to posters who were critical of his many liabilities his first 2 seasons though. I get the people tweeting him and out right trashing him were douchebags but It was clear he was a bad defender, limited offensively and wasn't accurate enough from three to warrant minutes in tight games.
This year, he is playing like a whole new man and I am getting those struggling seasons help drive him to the success he is having now. Hard work pays off.

 

[Clone2Dbone]

Right now when he gets to the free throw line, he's the one guy on the team I feel confident about EVERY time.

 

[SCyclone]

We all know Thomas' story, losing his Dad and then another role-model type guy shortly thereafter. I think he was kind of a lost soul when he got here, and then Otz left and then Hoiberg left and he probably felt really unlucky. And so he hit the booze pretty hard.

But to his credit, he picked himself up and worked his butt off and made himself a very good defender. And of course now we are seeing what made him so special in high school. I think we can all feel pretty fortunate that Mr. Thomas is a Cyclone.

This overall is a very special group in terms of how closely they have bonded with the fans - not only Thomas, but Niang, Morris, Naz, and others too. Enjoy these next few weeks, fellow CFers.....before you know it, they will be gone.

 

[clone52]

Matt talks about how he worked on his footspeed this offseason and we can all see the difference. I hope he works on his ball handling like that this next offseason. If so, he can be the total package.

 

[mj4cy]

If next year's team has good spacing, we'll be a dangerous 3 point shooting team.

 

[Clone9]

Let's not forget that Matt has picked up his shooting while at the same time being asked to chase around the opposing team's best guard for many of the games as well. You could even argue that he is on the floor for his defense, and that the shooting is a "bonus". That is one heck of a bonus.

 

[NATEizKING]

Our whole starting lineup is just ******* awesome.

 

[ILiftWithRoyce]

I was just looking at some numbers this morning and found that since Thomas has taken over a larger role (the Iowa game is when I started counting) he is averaging 12.6 points per game while shooting 46.7% from behind the arc. That is REALLY good. To put that in comparison, Tyrus McGee led the NCAA a couple years ago shooting 46.4% from three.

Thomas has done this while playing a somewhat limited role. I think that we have all seen how good he can be when given extended minutes. He was ragged a lot during his first two seasons for not putting up big numbers right away, but with more confidence and playing time this season he has been money.

He currently sits at 134 career three-pointers made. He’s averaging 3.1 3’s per-game in the last 16 games. If he continues that production over the course of the rest of the season he will end up somewhere between 165-175 career 3-point field goals. Next year he should see an even bigger role and should be one of our go-to guys. Matt Thomas has a very real possibility to become Iowa State’s all-time leader in career three-pointers made. If he ends the season at 170 3’s he would need 101 to top Sullivan’s mark of 270. Given that we will probably play around 35 games enxt season that would require him to make 2.88 per game (a mark that he is doing right now).

Next year Matt very well could be the best shooter in the conference and maybe top-10 nationally (If you take his 46.7 mark, he would rank 10[SUP]th[/SUP] in the country right now). He will also be expected to take more shots, so these numbers could drop, but that’s besides the point.

Matt is currently hitting 44.3% of this 3’s (along with 46.7% in the last 16 games). Here’s a list of a few player’s best shooting year in terms of 3-point %.

Tyrus McGee-46.4%
Scott Christopherson-45.6%
Fred Hoiberg- 45.0%
Jake Sullivan-47.2%
Dedric Willoughby-45.1%

Granted a lot is going to happen over the next year or so, but it just goes to show don’t rip players for not producing right away. Buddy averaged 7.8 points per game and shot 23.8% form behind the arc his freshman year. He’s running away with the POTY award during his senior season and shooting a blistering 50% from three and averaging 25.7 points per game . Players take time to develop, not everyone is an all-star right away. 2 years ago everyone hated on Matt Thomas and he could walk away being statistically the best 3-point shooter we’ve ever had. I think that he is capable of being an All-Big 12 type of player next year.

I finished reading this and first thought was "MT is going to be as good as Buddy Hield next year". Kool-aid: engaged.

 

[Dingus]

Thomas is playing excellent ball this year. I don't understand the mentality of sticking it to posters who were critical of his many liabilities his first 2 seasons though. I get the people tweeting him and out right trashing him were douchebags but It was clear he was a bad defender, limited offensively and wasn't accurate enough from three to warrant minutes in tight games.
This year, he is playing like a whole new man and I am getting those struggling seasons help drive him to the success he is having now. Hard work pays off.

Exactly. His first 2 years he didn't play as much simply cause he didn't do enough to warrant it. My opinion the last 2 years was that I liked his all around game, but as he was a liability on defense he had to be a knock down shooter or you couldn't really put him out there. Now he's so good on both ends of the floor that you can barely take him out.

I hope Monte comes back and goes through the Matt Thomas defense drills next summer. If he could improve to a similar degree on D he'd be a 1st round pick for sure.

 

[VeloClone]

when Matt doesn't hesitate when shooting, I bet he hits 75% of them. If he pauses for s split second, they are no good.

This is true for many rhythm shooters. He has been better at a hesitation 3 this conference season than in the past when it was almost always a miss. In addition, many shooters cannot hit them consistently if the have to move laterally or jab step and step back but Matt has been deadly with both of those.

 

[ISU42]

Thomas is playing excellent ball this year. I don't understand the mentality of sticking it to posters who were critical of his many liabilities his first 2 seasons though. I get the people tweeting him and out right trashing him were douchebags but It was clear he was a bad defender, limited offensively and wasn't accurate enough from three to warrant minutes in tight games.
This year, he is playing like a whole new man and I am getting those struggling seasons help drive him to the success he is having now. Hard work pays off.

I'm glad he didn't transfer like some of those "critical" posters suggested.

 

[Cychl82]

I think its funny how folks here on CF basically anointed Thomas as the career leader in 3pt field goals before he even stepped foot on campus. That was followed by him being the scape goat and being ragged on by most on here for his first couple years. Now it has gone full circle with praising him as possibly passing Sullivan as ISU's best career long distance marksman.

I'm not ragging on the OP or anything, just an observation.

I would say that being the case if OP had previously publicly bashed Matt Thomas.

 

[CycloneVet]

Next year he will be helped by Naz. Have to cover both those guys.

Bombs away, next year could be very similar to Clyburns year, which I would take in a heartbeat right now