Welcome to the Family Malcolm Thomas!

Excellent get! I was hoping he’d commit. Was a Villanova redshirt, so four years of eligibility. If he’s as good as his clippings, I’d like to think all or at least most of those years are spent at Dayton.

Congrats to the entire boatload of people that now factor into recruiting. This is a great addition to the program. I know a bunch of the decisions today are 80-90% cash. I want to believe there are still players out there who at least go 50-50 on the best program to help them get to the next level. I’ve lost all reality anyone factors in a degree these days when looking at a school. But if this player can come here and work his backside off for 2 more years, maybe 3, I know this coaching staff will move heaven and earth to get him drafted. It can’t just be all about what you can get for next year. The long game is now 2-3 years of hard work that can set you up for life. UD has 3 former players on that track. If AG & Company can get a 4th, it will help future recruiting big time. A factor of 3 is a trend. 4 or more is golden.`

Highlights from him at Dematha

Won the Nova Slam Dunk Contest this past fall as a true freshman

https://twitter.com/NovaMBB/status/1837527173244080472

Personally, I like a big man whose first instinct is to dunk.

I would like to see Frenchie develop that instinct.

The kid is an athlete, and I hope he has good floor instincts, a three point shot and defense.

Anybody know why he redshirted?  Is there an injury history to worry about here?

I like this and the fact that he is dunk first means aggressive to the basket. I can't help think back to 2020 when at time it seems like Obi played a little outside and Jordy played middle creating mismatches. Maybe (just maybe) we might see a little of that this year with LeTang popping out and Simon and Thomas playing the inside role?????????????

If Simon can find and channel his inner Dennis Rodman, that would be huge

I'll take a vicious dunker.  We needed more of that last year.

Hit the weights young man! 

What an Endorsement about AG and this school from Etan, Malcolm's Dad: (he posted this on Instagram)

Proud Parents Moment:
So last year at Villanova didn’t go as planned for many reasons. After Malcolm committed, months later the leading scorer in the country Eric Dixon @cantguardric decided to return for his 6th year, so everything changed for Malcolm. Nobody really thought Eric was gonna come back but he did and there was no way on earth Malcolm was gonna get much opportunity to play so we all thought it would be best for him to redshirt and take the year to learn, improve, etc etc. Eric really took Malcolm under his wing. They worked out outside of practice a few times every week. So no it wasn’t what we planned, but he made the most of it.

Then, Coach Neptune, the coach who recruited Malcolm gets fired and in comes Coach Kevin Willard with a reputation of let’s just say not being truthful and honest and trustworthy but we wanted to give him a chance and not go by what everyone else says, and……..let’s just say he has that reputation for a reason.

So we go into the portal and our first zoom is with Dayton. And from the jump Coach Anthony Grant was literally everything me and my wife Nichole have prayed for in a coach for Malcolm, but we didn’t want to jump to conclusions. We had a lot of schools who were interested and were planning on taking our time and going through the whole process.

But then we took a visit to Dayton and they knocked it out the park. The entire coaching staff just felt genuine, not like you were being sold snake oil or being hustled by a used care salesman. There was an immediate connection.

They made no promises but their offense is geared to someone like Malcolm succeeding. They broke down to us how they see him in the @obitoppin_1 mold and how much they would value him.

You know when you have that feeling that something is right for you from the beginning and everything that transpires after keeps re-confirming that ? Well, that’s how this was. We met the President of Dayton, Eric Spina who was the Vice Chancellor at Syracuse while we were there and the excitement was literally reflecting off of him.

Dayton may not have been on our radar before, but now, we are excited to join the @daytonmbb family🙏🏾
#GodsPlan

Eric Dixon, great, great player, tough for anybody to get pt ahead of him.

Very nice to read such a complimentary post on the university and coaching staff. Kevin Willard, meanwhile … well, let’s just say he’s basking in a lot of shade. Ouch.  

I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that this has become a business but it’s nice to be reminded that there are still people out there that raise their kids right.  It’s even nicer that a lot of these kids and their families seem to be attracted to UD and our staff.  I’m excited to see Malcolm on the court!

It starts with great parents and it looks like the UD family just picked up a talented young player but also a home run pair of parents that will influence others as the year progresses. Those types of parents are worth as much as their talented son for a culture that makes UD so special. Welcome to the family Ethan and Nichole! And thank you for doing it the right way in raising Malcolm. 

Quite complimentary endorsement.

You can't teach height, and you can't teach that sort of athleticism. You don't want a team with only pure athletes (Brian Gregory) and you don't want a team with only "crafty" players (Purnell). You need a balance. So I have no issue if the kid isn't the greatest shooter, we need a little attitude. Someone who scares the other team into protecting the rim a little, and can intimidate when protecting our rim. 

I will say I don't love dad throwing the coach under the bus. Nothing to be gained. You transferred. It's over. You're pissed, I get it, and probably have every right to be. But be a grownup in a world full of children -- just look around, we have plenty of infants in positions of power. 

I think he handled it ok. We don’t know any of the details…as it should be. He didn’t really air any dirty laundry. It’s a social media post that he probably wrote with friends and family in mind - meaning those people would be wondering what happened. He seemed to have given enough to quash the inquiries but not too much to reflect badly. In today’s Post-before-you-think…in my opinion he took the high road way more than throwing the coach under the bus.

Has potential. Redshirt-Freshman hasn't played in an actual college BB game but the ingredients are there. If he comes in the summer AG and staff have the opportunity to get him on the right track. As Rollo says , 'hit the weight room', work on his skills, etc.

Could be an Obi like. If he blossoms mid year hope he sees the benefit to sticking around for a few years like Homes did.