Can Georgia Tech Women's Basketball Coach Karen Blair Fully Unlock D'Asia Thomas Harris' Talent?

Coach Blair has talked highly of Thomas-Harris ability, areas she has improved, and the talented player she is. Will she be the coach to fully unlock her talent?

D’Asia Thomas Harris is looking forward to getting back on the court after she suffered from an injury-riddled sophomore season. She will be a junior in the upcoming season and will be fully healthy.

“D’Asia had an injury and had some limited minutes last year, but those three (Ariadna Termis and Inés Noguero) have been able to give great leadership to our 10 newcomers that we've been able to have on campus,” said head coach Karen Blair.

Thomas-Harris has always had a winning pedigree and won two Southwest Prepartory Conference Championships in high school at Houston Christian in Texas, and was a member of the Cy Fair Nike EYBL team that won the National Girls EYBL Tournament in 2023.

Her collegiate career hasn’t had the same success as her prep career, but she is looking to make amends in 2025. She is only of the few returning players from the Nell Fortner era and will be leaned on heavily for leadership of this group. Her veteran presence and experience will be something the younger players lean on to glean knowledge from and gain their footing.

If Thomas-Harris can provide a scoring punch and another player who can stretch the floor, it could prove valuable to the Lady Yellow Jackets season and push them in the right direction.

First year head coach Karen Blair has been impressed with how hard Thomas-Harris has been working and improving her shot jump, continuing to knock shots, especially from beyond the arc.

“Yeah, I mean, D’Asia right now is working really, really hard. This summer, she's coming back from that injury, and right now she's healthy and she's, and we're working on getting her in shape.  D’Asia is a great talent. Like right now, I think from shooting from the three, she's been knocking down the three for us on the floor,” said Blair.

“I also love her confidence in being able to score in the low block, so she brings a lot of versatility. So for me, my job is to make sure to build up her confidence. Coming back from an injury, sometimes I think as players that can kind of play with your confidence, and my job as a coach is to make sure that she comes back and be the most confident player that she can be, and that's what we're working on right now. She's a special player.”

Coach Blair has 10 newcomers on the roster and will desperately need Thomas-Harris and others to bring them along, get them acclimated, and continue to build the culture of who they want to become.

“I mean, I think one of the things we were really good at was being really intentional with building our chemistry off the court. That's what the summer's for. The summer was building that chemistry on the court. We came in from day one. They knew very much that the pace, a lot of coaches say they want to play fast, but players have to commit themselves to playing fast, right? There's a fitness level that is part of that,” said Blair.

“There's an intensity and a way that we do things in order to be successful, to be able to play that fast pace. This group has embraced it. Like from day one, when we came in here in the summer, they've embraced it. They're learning what it really takes to be able to play 40 minutes at the pace that we want to play at.”