Oakdale grad Zach Thomas sees dream come true
Bucknell’s Zach Thomas sat on the wood bench in the locker room under his nameplate with a cloth draped around his neck, sapped after playing the hard-pressing West Virginia in an NCAA tournament round-of-64 loss. The Oakdale grad and Frederick County’s all-time leading scorer at nearly 2,300 points smiled through the season-ending loss. The moment is what his dad, Eric Thomas, termed as a “childhood dream.”
“Aside from losing, of course, it was a great experience coming here,” Thomas said after the 86-80 loss on Thursday. “You know, experiencing all the stuff, the press and everything, it’s cool.”
Thomas, Bucknell’s leading scorer at 16 points a game and second-leading rebounder at 6.6, struggled for most the game. Though finishing with 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and one steal, he only made 3 of his 9 shot attempts and turned the ball over four times. He also didn’t make his first field goal until the 18:40 mark of the second half, a layup to cut West Virginia’s lead down to 45-38.
“I could’ve been a little bit more aggressive than I was, but, you know, hindsight is 20/20,” Thomas said. “I’m happy the way our guys.”
Bucknell also yielded 17 offensive rebounds to West Virginia, which turned into 20 second chance points.
“It was tough for us to get rebounds there in the second half,” Thomas said. “That’s where we lost the game, offensive rebounds. … Overall, we played good, though.”
Bucknell trimmed the deficit to three on many occasions, but could never put together the decisive run, and in total, only led for three minutes and 20 seconds.
Alongside with being the team’s top scorer, Thomas helped bring home a Patriot League championship, the university’s seventh conference title ever. It was also their seventh NCAA tournament appearance all-time. He finished 33 of 35 games this season in the double-figure scoring department, including a career-high 27 points against Holy Cross on Feb. 6 and four double-doubles.
In addition to growing an extra inch from 6-foot-6 to 6-7 since graduating high school, Thomas has tacked on 20-plus pounds of muscle while working on his foot-speed to get quicker.
“I’ve always been a scorer, that’s definitely my game,” Thomas said. “The college pace is a lot faster than high school. That was the biggest adjustment at first. Defensively, it’s making sure you’re in the right spots at all times. Anybody at the college game can score, so you have to be attentive at all times.”
Thomas completed his first full season of basketball since his high school days in 2014 after an ankle injury put a damper on his freshman and sophomore seasons. The Ijamsville native will return for one final ride as a senior, hoping to get back to the NCAA tournament and deliver the institution’s third ever NCAA tournament win and its first since 2006.
“It was a great experience for us,” Thomas said. “Hopefully we can get back here.”
And that’s the most important factor of them all: Experience.
“The fact those teams that aren’t apart of [last] weekend had a chance to experience this really is what the tournament is all about,” CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg said last week. “Because now they have an experience and memories that will last them a lifetime going forward. That’s a beautiful part of this. Yes, we move forward with the teams that play today and tomorrow and beyond, but also, how about those kids, coaches and universities that had a chance to be a part of this and what it can mean in their lives.”
Kyle McFadden is the editor-in-chief of The Commuter and has his own weekly column called K-Fadd’s Cauldron. He also co-owns, manages and reports for Maryland Sports Access, where he covers many beats, including Maryland high school sports, college basketball and college football. He’s also a freelance sports journalist for The Baltimore Sun and The Frederick News-Post, covering colleges and high schools.
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