Little Rock Parkview freshman Dallas “Slim” Thomas has gained several college basketball offers in the last few days and it's no surprise to his head coach, former Arkansas great Scotty Thurman.
Thomas (6-7, 170 pounds) has been offered by Arkansas, Memphis, Illinois, Texas A&M and Houston in the past week.
“Not surprised at all,” Thurman said. “He has tremendous upside and obviously that is what the offers are about — his upside. He has a chance to be really special. He can handle the ball for someone his size. He is long and rangy and can really shoot the ball at a high clip, and ultimately is a team guy.
“That’s what I like most about him. He is a team guy and is not all about himself. He has some leadership capabilities and he is real young, but we are trying to get him starting to put those on display. I think the sky is the limit.”
Thomas played on Parkview’s ninth grade team during its season, then was moved up by Thurman.
“We brought him along slowly,” Thurman said. “The middle schools were not able to compete that entire last year because of covid. We didn’t want to move him up just because of potential.
“He played the ninth grade season and kind of dominated that. Then he came up and played a couple of games with the JV and it was obvious we needed to bring him on up to the varsity.”
Thurman was impressed with how Thomas adjusted quickly to the high school level.
“I thought he did a good job of picking up things at a different pace than the ninth grade,” Thurman said. “I thought he came in there and just put himself in position to be one of the key guys we counted on.”
Parkview lost in the Class 5A semifinals to eventual state champion Jonesboro.
“He came from the ninth grade and became part of the core group toward the end,” Thurman said. “I think he is someone we are going to be counting on the next three years. I think he is going to have a tremendous role in what we are trying to do here.”
The barrage of offers was likely due to a few factors, Thurman said.
“I think it was a combination of things,” Thurman said. “I had a few people reach out to me, asking me what I thought since I have coached on that level.
“I think they also saw some clips of him playing with his Bradley Beal (AAU) team he plays for in the spring and summer and were streamed on line. Also you know how it is once one team offers, here come the others and everybody wants to move that direction.
“I think a lot of it is potential, a lot of of it is the competitive nature of the business now, especially with people (college recruiters) not being to get out for a while now.”