Illini Offers 2022 Forward Kyle Thomas, Son Of Late Hoosiers Co-Captain
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- On the first day coaches were allowed to send out offers to Class of 2022 basketball prospects, the Illinois staff were the first to offer a Chicago product with a famous father among Indiana fans.
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was the first coach to send Kyle Thomas a scholarship offer. Thomas, a 6-foot-9 and 220-pound forward from Westchester St. Joseph High School, is one of the highest ranked prospects in the state of Illinois by PrepsHoops.com but still has a long way to go to match the accomplishments of his dad, Daryl Thomas, at the same high school.
Daryl Thomas is more than well known in the Chicagoland area but also among the passionate Indiana fan base as a starter and co-captain on the 1987 national championship squad, the last Hoosiers team to hang a national title in Assembly Hall.
“Being part of that ‘87 national championship puts Daryl in that unique group of Indiana national champions that wind up being beloved not just at that moment, but forever,” HoosierNow/Sports Illustrated publisher Tom Brew said in the a video interview. “He’s certainly going to be forever known to be one of the most beloved characters in Indiana basketball history.”
Daryl Thomas was both a McDonald's All-America and Parade All-America selection in 1983 before leaving the state of Illinois to follow fellow St. Joseph alum Isiah Thomas to play for head coach Bob Knight at Indiana. Unfortunately, Thomas died of a heart attack on March 28, 2018 at just 52 years old.
“He was a much better man than he was a player,” said former Illinois guard Stephen Bardo on Big Ten Network the day Thomas died. “He was a consummate teammate. He probably absorbed Bobby Knight’s wrath and turned it into something positive better than any player during my four-year tenure against Indiana. He was an exemplary human being.”
Daryl Thomas scored 1,095 points in his four-year career at Indiana and may be most remembered most notably for making the pass to Keith Smart for the game-winning shot that lifted Indiana to a 74-73 victory over Syracuse in the 1987 national championship game. Knight has said the decision of Daryl Thomas, who had 20 points in that game, to pass the ball to Smart who had a better shot "the greatest single play I ever had a kid make”.
“He absorbed an enormous amount of grief from Bob Knight and lived to tell about it,” Brew said. “The standing line is that in Bob Knight’s 29 years at Indiana, the player that got treated the worst was probably Daryl Thomas.”
Thomas was selected in the fourth round of the 1987 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings and would play professionally overseas for 13 seasons in the United Kingdom, Poland and Dominican Republic. Kyle Thomas, who is expected to be a leader at St. Joseph’s in the next two seasons for head coach Bill Riley, will now try to live up to his father’s legacy at the traditionally powerful Chicago Private League prep program.
Todd Meier (left), Daryl Thomas and Steve Alford (right) sign pennant for Todd Dovrak, 9, during House visit in April 1987.
IndyStar File Photo
“I’m doing this not just for me, but doing it for my family,” Kyle Thomas told the Chicago Tribune. “I wake up every morning, get ready to go to school and play basketball and get my education. I think about it a lot. That’s my motivation. My goal is to be as good as I can. All my friends talk about my potential. I have the dream of going pro one day.”
Illinois will not likely be the only offer that Kyle Thomas, who averaged 9.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in 20 contests as a sophomore last season, will receive but the Illini have tried to reconnect a pipeline in Chicago by the efforts of Illinois assistant coach Ron ‘Chin’ Coleman, a former Chicago AAU coach and assistant coach at Illinois-Chicago, after signing Morgan Park High School stars Ayo Dosunmu and Adam Miller over the last three years. The Illini are hoping to make a Morgan Park trio as they’re among several power programs hoping to sign four-star 2021 guard Brandon Weston.
Over the next few years, it’ll be interesting to see if the recruiting battle for Kyle Thomas will include his dad’s alma mater or will he try to carve out his own name at a different school.