Thomas Newman is 'a natural fit' for Blue Jay basketball team
Feb. 22—JAMESTOWN — Four years ago, Thomas Newman got his first real look at what the Blue Jay basketball program was like.
"I was in sixth grade and lived in West Fargo at the time so I didn't know that I was gonna end up in Jamestown but I watched the Blue Jays' state championship game against Davies," Newman said. "I remember wanting Jamestown to win because I didn't really like Fargo Davies.
"It was really impressive to see how they went undefeated for a whole season," he said in reflection. "It showed that it was possible to have such an incredible season."
Just a few months after watching the likes of Mason Walters and Boden Skunberg on TV, Newman found himself smack dab in the middle of the Buffalo City, face-to-face with the coach that helped guide the Jays to their first state title since 1993.
"The very first time I met Thomas was during his seventh grade football season," JHS head boys basketball coach Jacoby Lloyd said. "I was the seventh grade football coach at the time and he and his mom came to pick up equipment. I knew he had been playing seventh and eighth grade basketball and played on a traveling team in town but I keep my hands off of the middle schoolers and get to know them better as freshmen.
"Last year as a freshman, he was on our sophomore team and played big minutes as a JV player," he said. "You could see that he had potential. He found his playmaking ability halfway through the year and now he's kind of brought that attacking and scoring mentality to our varsity team which has been very helpful."
Newman began his sophomore season on an interesting note.
"He fractured his wrist in football and that took him some time to come back and then he missed our first game because he suffered a concussion in practice and out of precaution we wanted to keep him out of that game so he really didn't have a lot of practice time," Lloyd said. "After he got cleared and reached his required number of practices we gave him some JV minutes to start out with to see how he physically would react to live game reps.
"Since then, we've been working him in slowly and halfway through the year, he had 28 points off of the bench and that was just massive for us," he said. "We kind of realized that this player had to be playing significantly more minutes than he was. The more minutes Thomas gets, good things start to happen for our team and for him."
One of two sophomores on the Blue Jay varsity roster, Newman is shooting 54.6% from the field. His two-point field goal percentage reads 59%. The Jays are +46 when the sophomore is on the floor.
"Coach's expectation was for me to fit in as a role player coming off the bench and I felt that I could help the team coming off the bench so our expectations for me were similar," Newman said. "I have to earn playing time and it isn't just gonna get handed to me."
From the stats, it's pretty clear, Newman's earned everything he's gotten this season.
The sophomore is the Jays' third-best free-throw shooter having drained 59 of his 77 shots to go 76.6% from the stripe. Newman is averaging 11.6 points per game and so far has racked up 221 in his 446 minutes played, for the third-most points accumulated by a team member.
Junior Dalton Lamp is leading the Jays in scoring with 244 points accumulated over 603 minutes played.
"Thomas from a basketball standpoint is very, very simple," Lloyd said. "He plays his style, he doesn't get too flustered in the moment, he doesn't let people change the speed at which he wants to play, he doesn't get wound up — it's nice to have a player on your team who is cool, calm and collected the entire time.
"You don't see him show a full lot of emotion and that's something I really appreciate as a coach," he said. "He's always playing the next play."
Those even-keeled emotions came in handy on Feb. 7 when senior starter Payton Hochhalter was benched with a knee injury nine minutes into the Jays' tilt against Bismarck Century.
"I felt that Thomas was a natural fit from a size and skill standpoint to fill Payton's spot," Lloyd said. "I thought he would give us the same profile defensively where he's going to rebound and defend some of those taller and lankier kids in our conference. I think he's proven his a natural fit there."
Newman has become a bit of a ball hog under the hoop, nabbing a total of 70 rebounds. He has forced 12 steals and blocked a total of three shots. He has only tabulated 25 fouls in his 20 games played.
Still, if you ask him, Newman will tell you he's not solely responsible for the year he's been having.
"The guys older than me have shown me how to win at the top level," Newman said. "Payton is a huge role model. He has won championships before in football and knows how to level. He helps bring our team up when we're down and always goes 100%."
Hochhalter was back playing for the Jays last weekend in Watford City and while he will likely play in the West Region Tournament in the beginning of March, Newman's production will allow for Hochhalter to play fewer minutes if need be.
"It never hurts to have more 6-foot-3, athletic kids who are [physical and long and smart basketball players," Lloyd said. "Thomas knew that I believed in him which instilled some belief in his teammates. He's repaid that and has come out with a lot of confidence and helped our team grow."
