BOSTON – Deshaun Thomas realized his gift to score the basketball in the fourth grade. It was then when he found he could put the ball in the basket in a variety of ways.

So on Friday, in the grand stage of the Elite Eight, one step away from New Orleans, when Thomas was asked about his reputation as a ‘gunner,’ his Ohio State teammates burst out in laughter. Thomas joined them, wide-grinned as he said that he just loves to score.

Afterward, as Jared Sullinger continued giggling to his right, Thomas had to wipe his right hand over his mouth to close his smirk.

‘They just laugh at it because that’s me,’ Thomas said. ‘But I take great pride in my jumper, my shots.’

Thomas’ pride and confidence in his ability to score has exuded itself for the last month. He’s averaged 20.7 points over his last 11 games. And the Ohio State forward has become transcendent in the NCAA Tournament. He scored 31 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the second round against Loyola (Md.) and 20 first-half points in OSU’s Sweet 16 win over Cincinnati. The sophomore leads all players with 75 points in the tournament thus far, and will look to keep his hot stretch going and extend the Buckeyes’ season as the No. 2 seed squares off with No. 1 Syracuse at 7:05 p.m. in the TD Garden on Saturday.

The description of Thomas as a gunner is spot on. He has attempted 12-plus shots in 12 of OSU’s last 13 games. But he’s also developed into a savvy rebounder and dishes out the occasional assist.

‘He came in with the mentality of being a scorer, and the one thing in the two years he’s been here, we’ve talked a lot to him about there’s so many other ways that he can affect our team in a positive way,’ Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said.

Thomas entered Ohio State with a scorer’s disposition because that’s exactly what he was at Bishop Luers High School in Fort Wayne, Ind. He led the state in scoring in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 30.3 and 31.8 points, respectively. He ranks third all-time among Indiana high school players in career points scored.

Thomas said the ball was always in his hands in high school.

‘That’s what I do (is score),’ Thomas said. ‘I always joke with Will (Buford), that one assist I have a game will be to him, and it would be a game changer. I love to score. I’m sorry.’

Things have come easy to Thomas on the basketball court ever since he discovered his abilities in fourth grade. In middle school, he was taller than everyone, so he continued to score.

He recalls a game in middle school in which he put up a triple double – 44 points, 33 rebounds and 11 blocks.

Thomas was so successful at Bishop Luers, helping the team to back-to-back state titles, that his number was retired in June of his senior year.

But the transition to Ohio State did not come with ease. As a freshman last year, he averaged just 14 minutes per game. He scored 7.5 points per game in such limited minutes, but he needed to build his all-around game.

‘He came a long way,’ Sullinger said. ‘People tease him about how many shots he takes, people talk about his shot selection, but if you knew what DeShaun did in high school to the point where the ball was in his hands every time and he could take whatever shot he wanted to take because his high school team allowed it, you would be shocked from where he came from.’

Thomas improved this season, but things really began clicking for him down the stretch. It started with the Buckeyes’ loss at Michigan on Feb. 18, when he scored 25 points and finished with 13 rebounds in 40 minutes.

His 25 points were nearly half of Ohio State’s 51 total points.

Thomas has been in double-digits ever since that came, taking over as the star player on a team with a potential top-10 pick in next year’s NBA Draft (Sullinger) and a preseason All-Big Ten guard (William Buford).

‘He hurts you outside and inside,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He shoots the ball and just makes everything. Every time I watch him play, he makes every open shot he gets. Mid-range, he can go get it on the boards.

‘He’s a great player, a really great player.’

While Sullinger is a primary focus for Syracuse on Saturday, Thomas has been the player who makes teams pay when the Ohio State big man gets all the attention. He consistently gets six or seven rebounds, and he’s 7-of-15 from beyond the arc in NCAA Tournament play.

He’s found his rhythm down the stretch of this season and has been the perfect complement to Buford as an outside shooter.

He’s still a scorer and a gunner at heart. But he has made good decisions and taken great shots to put Ohio State in a position to reach the Final Four.

‘I’m staying really grounded,’ Thomas said. ‘People are starting to notice now what DeShaun can bring to the table.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on March 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr