Sam Thomas always trusts Wildcats assistant coach Salvo Coppa. He helped her develop into one of the best defensive players in the country while at Arizona.
Before she went up the road for a tryout to become a professional on a training-camp contract with the Phoenix Mercury, Thomas spent extra time in the gym with Coppa to prepare for the next level.
And when she was selecting a team to play for overseas after the WNBA season ended, he gave some important guidance: Sardinia has the most beautiful beaches in Italy.
βSalvo was definitely right about the beaches. You can trust Salvo on his word about that,β Thomas said with a laugh.
βSalvo taught me so much with the skill work. He taught me footwork, especially getting me prepared for overseas with all the different traveling and all their violations. Heβs been helping me a lot. I probably should have learned some Italian from him while I was (in Tucson).β
Thomas said it wasnβt only Coppa, it was Arizona coach Adia Barnes, whose team team is awaiting its placement in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Barnes prepared Thomas for everything thatβs come after graduating last May with her masters and playing five seasons as a Wildcat. That includes being a professional basketball player for the Mercury and Dinamo Sassari in Sardinia, as well as navigating through life.
βAdia taught us how to be women off the floor,β Thomas said. βItβs hard overseas to make that connection with fans because I donβt speak their language and Iβm going to be gone in seven months. Itβs not like they can really feel that connection.
βAdia taught me to be a good human being. I say βhiβ to people. I say βCiao,β and it just melts their hearts and they look so happy.
βThat aspect of who you are off the court really matters and will help you on the court with your fanbase, your love and just being a confident and happy player.β
Stat-sheet stuffer
In her first season overseas, Thomas is averaging 9.3 points per game, shooting 50% from the field and 36% from the 3-point line. She is averaging 2.5 assists and has 41 steals and 18 blocks in 22 games.
Thomas is doing her usual, in other words β stuffing the stat sheet. In a Euro Cup game, she collected a season-high eight steals, scored 20 points (6 of 9 from the field) and blocked two shots in a 68-65 win over Kortrijk Spurs. In a regular-season game in December, Thomas helped her team to victory with 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc for 12 points, three blocks, two assists and two steals.
βMy confidence has grown,β Thomas said. βIβm a more competent 3-point shooter, and Iβm more of an attacker, I would say, because they need you overseas to score the points as the American. Having that be my job and knowing now Iβm actually getting paid to score, it puts that extra pressure on you, but itβs kind of a good pressure.β
On the roster of a Mercury team that is full of All-Stars like Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith, Thomasβ role in her first season was to defer. She saw limited action in 24 games as a rookie, averaging 4.9 minutes. She made the AP WNBA All-Rookie Team.
Thomas has a few more regular-season games left, will play in the Italian Cup event, then the playoffs. She returns to Phoenix at the end of April to start training camp for the Mercury.
USA ... and βDβ
Despite being asked score more, Thomas is still a defensive player at heart. She said that itβs a focus for teams overseas. They apply full-court pressure, and everyone is pressuring, not just the guards.
However, the perception in Italy is that Americans donβt like to play defense. They were a bit surprised to see Thomasβ tenaciousness on that side of the court.
βThe very first game I ever played there, I got interviewed and one of the reporters asked, βItβs very weird that you play defense as an American because most Americans come overseas and donβt want to play defense.β I got a laugh out of that one, but I think theyβre just shocked by it,β Thomas said. βI still want to value my defense. Itβs a good challenge for me too. Especially as itβs different schemes. Iβve been trapping ball screens my entire life at Arizona, and we donβt do that overseas. Itβs learning a different route to get over screens, get through them.β
While her game generally has translated overseas, there have been other adjustments to make.
βThey call a lot of fouls, and I donβt think they are used to bigger-build women,β Thomas said. βFor example, Joyner (Holmes) is my teammate. If she blocked someone, they call a foul whether it was a foul or not just because sheβs so much bigger. But she can drive and two girls will jump on her back and theyβll be like, βOh, no foul call,β just because I feel like they feel bad for the girls.
βI get called for travels all the time. On a post move, you have to dribble the ball before you even move your pivot foot.
βOverseas they play more into the shot clock, kind of like Washington does this year. They take the entire 24 seconds β run their offense and get the best shot out of that more so than just kind of playing one-on-one basketball.β
Thomas said sheβs learned a lot about herself as a person. Exploring a different country on her own and being far away from her family has been hard. At times she wanted to go home, but she stuck with it. It helped that when she got a break in the schedule, she went to Greece to visit Mercury teammate Megan Gustafson. They visited two islands, Syros and Paros, along with Athens. And in February she was back in Tucson β her second home β for the Stanford and Cal games.
βItβs such a nice feeling just to know that Iβm not playing basketball here, but people still care about me as a human being and what Iβm doing. Theyβre all asking me how my experience is,β Thomas said. βJust knowing that Iβve made an impact on this community and these fans just by playing basketball and doing what I love. Putting a smile on my face, saying βhiβ to everybody and knowing how long of a way that goes. I feel that.
βIt truly does feel like a second family.β
Rim shots
Thomas is not adventurous when it comes to food. She passed on the octopus and pigs feet covered in mozzarella, but sheβs enjoying the pasta and pizza in Italy. Still, she looked a little skinny and not as jacked as she usually is on a recent trip back to Tucson.
βWe need to get on the new system of knowing kilograms and all that because I donβt know what Iβm lifting over there,β Thomas said. βHonestly, I think itβs the food. I eat pasta and pizza every day, and Iβm like, βIβm going to gain so much weight; like, I need to stop eating.β And then Iβm not even gaining any weight because they donβt have any preservatives or anything like that.
βEven Adia was saying she eats so much (in Europe) and she doesnβt even gain a pound. Itβs so hard to gain weight over there because the food is so healthy. Itβs a good problem to have, but I think I just need to take some protein or something to get my get my weight back up.β
Arizona dropped three more spots in the AP poll β to No. 24 β that was released Monday morning. The Wildcats have lost three consecutive games to Oregon, Oregon State and UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament. The latest ESPN Bracketology has UA as a 6-seed playing in South Bend, Indiana.
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