- Mel Thomas
-
Mel Thomas 
Mel Thomas College Connecticut Sport Basketball Position shooting guard Jersey # 25 Class Graduated Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) Nationality USA Born August 26, 1985
Cincinnati, OhioHigh school Mount Notre Dame High School,
Cincinnati, OhioAwards CoSIDA Women's Basketball Academic All-District I First Team Medal record Women's Basketball Competitor for 
United StatesPan American Games Gold 2007 Brazil Team Competition Melanie Eileen "Mel" Thomas was born August 26, 1985 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Jeff and Mary Thomas [1] She is an American basketball player who played for the University of Connecticut Huskies from 2004-2008.
Contents
High school
Thomas won many awards during her High School basketball career for Cincinnati’s Mount Notre Dame High School. As a junior, she averaged 18.3 points, 5.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds while leading Mount Notre Dame H.S. to a 23-3 mark and a regional finals appearance. As a senior, she led the Cougars to a perfect 28-0 record and a Division I Ohio State Championship. She averaged 20.4 points 5.4 assists and 4.0 rebounds, and made several All America teams. Thomas was named a WBCA All-American.[2] She participated in the 2004 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored two points.[3]
College
Thomas chose UConn over schools like Duke, Ohio State, and Cincinnati. Thomas struggled during her freshman season. In her sophomore season, she was named the BIG EAST’s Most Improved Player. She started all of the Huskies’ first 28 contests before sitting out the final two games of the regular season with a sprained right ankle, which she got in the Syracuse game on February 2, 2006. The next season (junior) was her breakout season. Thomas started in all 36 games as the Huskies’ shooting guard and tallied doublefigure points in 16 games, including three 20-plus scoring efforts. She made at least one 3-pointer in 35 of 36 games. In her junior and senior seasons, she co-captained the team with Renee Montgomery. She spent the summer prior to the start of her junior season playing for the USA Pan American Games Team, which became the first U.S. squad to capture the gold medal at the Pan American Games since 1987.[4] In her senior season, Thomas scored her 1,000 point of her career against the Virginia Cavaliers on December 5, 2007 in a 75-45 UConn win.[5] Nine games later, her season was cut short due to tearing her ACL and lateral meniscus against Syracuse on January 15, 2008. On January 21, 2008, against the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, Thomas was honored with her 1,000th point ball in front of a sold-out crowd at Gampel Pavilion.[6] While sidelined with the injury during her senior year she wrote in a diary everyday and it later was made in to a book that she published called "Heart Of A Husky".[7] She finished her UConn career with 1,098 career points, and is in the Top 5 in 3pt FG's made with 224 career three pointers.
Pro career
Thomas was hoping to be an early second-round pick or late second-round pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft, but she went undrafted because of the ACL injury.[8] In October 2008, Thomas made it back to the court to play in her first professional basketball game for the Irish League's Waterford Wildcats. She scored 33 points in her first game.[9] Thomas played for the Wildcats in Waterford, Ireland for one season. In March 2009, she was added to the Seattle Storm training camp roster along with Kasha Terry.[10] Since July 2009, she is playing for Artego Bydgoszcz in the Polish league PLKK.
Awards
- 2003 — Ohio Girls Basketball Magazine Dream Team selection[11]
- 2002 — Adidas Top Ten Camp Underclass All-Star
- 2002 — Street & Smith All-America Honorable Mention
- 2003 — Street & Smith All-America Honorable Mention.
- 2003 — USA Today Super 25 choice
- 2003 — Nike All-American
- 2004 — McDonald’s All-America Team
- 2004 — WBCA All-America Team
- 2004 — Associated Press Ohio Co-Player of the Year
- 2004 — Cincinnati Metro Player of the Year
- 2004 — Ohio Ms. Basketball (2004) awarded by Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association[12]
- 2006 — Big East Most Improved Player[13]
- 2008 — CoSIDA Women's Basketball Academic All-District I First Team[14]
University of Connecticut statistics
Mel Thomas Statistics[15] at University of Connecticut Year G FG FGA PCT 3FG 3FGA PCT FT FTA PCT REB AVG A TO B S MIN PTS AVG 2004-05 29 54 136 0.397 26 84 0.310 28 42 0.667 56 1.9 54 31 4 20 526 162 5.6 2005-06 35 135 276 0.489 76 177 0.429 46 59 0.780 83 2.4 66 40 6 53 1043 392 11.2 2006-07 36 120 291 0.412 87 205 0.424 51 56 0.911 97 2.7 63 29 4 24 1146 378 10.5 2007-08 16 57 134 0.425 35 89 0.393 17 17 1.000 47 2.9 44 16 0 15 457 166 10.4 Totals 116 366 837 0.437 224 555 0.404 142 174 0.816 283 2.4 227 116 14 112 3172 1098 9.5 External
Notes
- ^ "2007-08 UCONNHUSKIES". UConnHuskies.com. http://www.uconnhuskies.com/datadump/WBasketball/2008/MediaGuide/Players%20%2859-86%29.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
- ^ "2004 WBCA High School All-Americans". WBCA. http://www.wbca.org/education/wbca-events/wbca-high-school-all-america-game/past-hsaa/. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- ^ "2004 WBCA High School All-America Game". WBCA. http://www.wbca.org/education/wbca-events/wbca-high-school-all-america-game/box-scores/. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- ^ "FIFTEENTH PAN AMERICAN GAMES -- 2007". USA Basketball. http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=wpag_2007. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ^ http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/120507aaa.html
- ^ http://media.www.dailycampus.com/media/storage/paper340/news/2008/01/22/Sports/Thomas.Contributes.Despite.Injury.Honored.Before.Game-3161070.shtml
- ^ Thomas, Mel (2009). Heart of a Husky. Keen Custom Media. ISBN 978-0-9647083-3-4.
- ^ http://www.norwichbulletin.com/sports/x450927710
- ^ http://soxanddawgs.com/2008/10/27/mel-thomas-scores-36-in-her-first-professional-game/
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Groeschen: Prep insider". CINCINNATI.COM. http://cincinnati.com/preps/2003/03/30/wwwprep1a30.html. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ^ "OHSBC MS. BASKETBALL". http://www.ohiobkcoaches.com/Awards/Ms_Basketball.html. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
- ^ "Media Guide". p. 135. http://www.uconnhuskies.com/datadump/WBasketball/2009/Media%20Guide/129-160.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ^ "Mel Thomas Named To CoSIDA Women's Basketball Academic All-District I First Team". http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/020708aaa.html. Retrieved 2009-06-11.
- ^ "Media Guide". http://www.uconnhuskies.com/datadump/WBasketball/2009/Media%20Guide/129-160.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
Connecticut Huskies Women's Basketball Maya Moore 3,036 | 2 Tina Charles 2,346 | 3 Nykesha Sales 2,178 | 4 Kerry Bascom 2,177 | 5 Diana Taurasi 2,156 | 6 Kara Wolters 2,141 | 7 Rebecca Lobo 2,133 | 8 Renee Montgomery 1,990 | 9 Svetlana Abrosimova 1,865 | 10 Ann Strother 1,699 | 11 Shea Ralph 1,678 | 12 Barbara Turner 1,629 | 13 Swin Cash 1,583 | 14 Wendy Davis 1,552 | 15 Jennifer Rizzotti 1,540 | 16 Cathy Bochain 1,534 | 17 Asjha Jones 1,502 | 18 Kalana Greene 1,444| 19 Peggy Walsh 1,413 | 20 Chris Gedney 1,409 | 21 Tamika Williams 1,402 | 22 Leigh Curl 1,388 | 23 Jamelle Elliott 1,387 | 24 Carla Berube 1,381 | 25 Sue Bird 1,378 | 26 Charde Houston 1,365 | 27 Laura Lishness 1,303 | 28 Kris Lamb 1,244 | 29 Jessica Moore 1,223 | 30 Meghan Pattyson 1,106 | 31 Mel Thomas 1,098 | 32 Ashley Battle 1,054 | 33 Amy Duran 1,000 Categories:- 1985 births
- People from Cincinnati, Ohio
- Basketball players from Ohio
- Connecticut Huskies women's basketball players
- McDonald's High School All-Americans
- American women writers
- Living people
- Basketball players at the 2007 Pan American Games
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