Lance Thomas discusses his Duke experience with graduation a day away
You are leaving college as a national champ and Duke grad. How does that feel?
I couldn’t have asked to leave any better way. From the basketball side, it was really tough. To come from losing our first game in the tournament to leave by winning the whole thing… there’s no better way to leave. On top of everything, my family was very happy for me to win a national championship ring. My mother’s ultimate goal was for me to come here and get a degree. I am very excited.
Why is the academic part so important to you and your family?
You can’t play basketball forever and this is one of the most elite universities in the world. I am a day away from being a graduate and alum of Duke University. Sunday is going to be a really good day for me.
You seem really at ease and happy. Is it the diploma or the trophy?
It’s both. Four years of basketball, four years of tough academics at this university to get to the finish line… I’m very excited. I haven’t been this excited in a long time. I’ll be able to share this moment with my family. I was able to share the national championship with my teammates, coaches and my family partially. When I get that degree, I’ll be able to celebrate with my family and Brian and Jon as well. We came together, we’re going to leave together.
You commented at the banquet that one of your motivations as a senior leader was to make sure the freshmen don’t have to go through what you went through in your first year. Explain that.
We learned the hard way. Losing tough games, losing three or four in a row and having to figure it out on our own… Our coaches had our backs, but as players you also look to your hero on the floor and we didn’t have that, and it was kind of depressing. We were just in there working as hard as we possibly can and still coming up short. I don’t want them to have to go through that, that was a really tough time. You start to question yourself, and when that happens your confidence is down and you have no edge. It’s tough to play like that. I told those guys, “you don’t want to go through what I’ve been through, you don’t want to experience that, it’s not fun.” But us going through that, I feel like it prepared us for what we went through this year and we’ve seen every possible situation we could. We lost games, we lost close games, we won close games, we blew teams out. To be able to show them the way, where our freshmen see what it means to have good leaders on the team, I hope that’s a dress rehearsal so they know what to do when their freshmen come in. I think Miles, Kyle, and Nolan, they’ll be ready for leadership roles because they were really into it when we were out on the floor, and they were definitely paying attention to what we said. I feel like when it’s their turn to lead they will be prepared.
You know how hard it is to win the big one but the younger guys don’t have your same perspective. What prevents them from being over-confident next year?
If they have that attitude, they’re going to get dragged through mud. They’re going to get beat really bad and that shouldn’t have to be their wakeup call. They know on a day-to-day basis what we had to do to win not one game, but just to win in general. They know the level of practice. Our preparation was the key to everything so if we don’t have that, we don’t have the best chance to win. The best things happen when the players are the ones making sure things are going right in practice so the coaches don’t have to.
What advice would you give to the returning players from a leadership standpoint?
Don’t be afraid to hear your own voice and don’t be afraid to confront. If you think something isn’t right and you see it, say it. One of the worst things is letting a problem linger and that’s something that I did early in my career. My advice would be to not be afraid to hear your own voice. Speak up.
What did you confront?
I was a vocal leader of the team so when it came to practice, I was the one trying to rile people up. My teammates saw the level I did that at and they saw the results from it and they were good. I just hope it rubs off on whomever is going to be that person because it’s key. You need to have that person who’s going to have that voice that everyone respects.
You’re in one of the best photographs from Indianapolis (see below). You and the team are on the podium and Coach K’s head is rested on your chest. Talk about that moment.
Coach has been all that and more for me in my four years here. When we hugged at that moment we were just both overwhelmed with emotion. Coach knew what it took for us to get there. When we lost to VCU my freshmen year, in the locker room we were all crying and pissed off and Coach looked at us and told me, Jon, Gerald, and Brian “you’re going to win a National Championship.” He told us that. And we looked at each other like “come on we just lost in the first round.” We were just so mad that we lost the first game. Hearing him say that, and it actually happening, I think that was also going through his head. He told us we would do it, and we did. When I hugged him I didn’t want to let him go. Coach has always been there for me and I’m glad that we were able to share that moment.
How would you summarize your relationship with Coach K?
Coach is honest. He’s not going to tell you just what you want to hear, which is great. Coach has always been honest with all of us. He has a high level of confidence all the time. Going into every game and practice, he always acts as if we’re not going to lose, there’s never a losing mindset. We’re going to win. I didn’t really understand it as a freshman. I was trying to figure everything out. But as I became an upperclassman on the team, I saw how consistent he is throughout the years. The guy hates to lose and he’ll do anything in his power not to lose. All of us have that mindset now, whether it’s in basketball or the real world. That’s big time. Not many people have that. That’s something that’s he’s given me and I’ll never let it die out.
What’s an example of a time when Coach was brutally honest with you?
I came in as a freshman, I thought I was a lot better than I was… a LOT better than I was. Coach was like, “you think you’re good enough to be in the pros, but you have a LONG way to go a long way to go.” As a player I had a nice ego coming out of high school. I was like “alright” and he didn’t play me. That was probably the wakeup call. He didn’t play me when were at the Garden. That was motivation to listen. Whatever Coach told me to do, I would do it. If he said “Lance run to Chapel Hill and back” I would do it, and I wouldn’t question it. That was a time when he was brutally honest with me and it definitely worked out.
We saw a different LT this year and you certainly helped propel this team to a national title. What changed?
My whole mindset. I was placed in a leadership role and I didn’t want to let my teammates down. I didn’t want to lose any sprints in practice, I didn’t want my teammates to ever see me weak or tired. And I wanted to set the tone for Miles and Mason. They’re going to be great. They’re really good players and I hoped they saw the confidence I had this year. Once they get their confidence, they’re going to be great. I was very hungry this year, I knew I had to go all out. I didn’t try to act out of character while playing. If there was a rebound there, Brian and I were fighting for it. I didn’t see the opposing team going for the rebounds like we did. When you do drills everyday, it’s me, Brian, Mason, Miles, we’re the ones fighting each other everyday. Literally, there were times when we were about to get in fistfights with each other doing certain drills. That type of camaraderie helped develop the edge we had as a team and it started with our frontcourt. We just had that mindset that it was us vs. them and we were going to go for it. I was very hungry this year, the hungriest guy out here.
How would you describe yourself and how your background coming in meshed with your teammates and the program?
I’m definitely a goofy guy. I didn’t come here and feel like I had to change myself. I’m always going to be me. It’s good to keep that because I don’t want to be someone different. I’m me and that’s all I know how to do. I’ve been able to be me around my teammates, even around the staff. Our staff knows that I’m a clown. But when I’m on that court, all of that is out the door. I’m a different person on the court, that’s the only time I switch personalities. That’s natural, it’s not something I try to do. It just happens. I’m just glad I had great teammates that I could be myself around and they could be themselves around me, crack jokes, and play jokes on each other in the locker room. I never felt like I had to be another person, I’ve always been myself… My teammates adapted to me, I was a jokester. The coaches adapted to me as well. They knew what I did well, what I didn’t, and they set the environment where I can be myself and be a Duke Basketball player.
What has it been like sharing your journey with your fellow seniors?
We’ve been through a lot together and I think that’s why we’re just as close as anybody. We have a really strong friendship and gained an extra amount of trust going through some tough and great times together. I’ll do anything for any one of those guys, any one of my teammates, any of them. That type of bond doesn’t develop by just knowing a person for a couple of years. I feel like I have the type of bond with Brian and Jon like some of the guys I grew up with and that says a lot. We’ve been through so much together and we made it to the top. We finished strong. When you go through things like that with people, you don’t forget.
Talk about your boy Zoubs in particular. You spent four years of your life battling with him on the court in practice. I am sure your relationship on and off the court is a story in itself.
Brian is the toughest person I’ve ever met in my whole life. Brian has been through way too much. From his injuries to his feet… a seven-footer breaking his foot. Imagine running, sprinting, changing directions, all of that weight that you put on that foot for four years, and he thought it may never heal. But Brian stayed hungry. He was angry from his injury. When his foot was bothering him, he was pissed. He wasn’t relieved to get a day off of practice. He was really mad about that. I saw it and it made me mad because I knew how bad he wanted to get out there. But despite all that, our senior year, our last go round, he turned into a monster… A man amongst boys and that was the turning point for our team. Regardless of the shooting threes and scoring, if Brian didn’t pick it up the way he did we’re not national champions, we’re not in the Elite Eight, we’re not in the Final Four, it’s not happening. I know his value to the team because I was on the road with him everyday and I know how bad he wanted it. He proved a lot of people wrong. I wasn’t surprised at all, I was happy for him. But I would never show it because I didn’t want him to be satisfied. When we were in practice I pushed Brian, Brian pushed me, we pushed each other. He’s just so mentally tough to go through all that at the highest level, breaking his foot left and right and not playing that much, then when you get the ball you try to make a move, you get called for traveling, foul troubles. He overcame all of that. I’m very proud of him, Brian’s one of my favorite teammates.
How about off the court? What’s your relationship like with Zoubs?
Brian’s a clown. He’s very funny. Brian can quote any movie. When he does that I get lost. He’s a really good guy, very funny, he likes to play practical jokes.
What will happen to your relationship in the years ahead?
We’ll always be in touch. We’ll definitely keep in contact, we’ll find a way to speak. And the relationship we have doesn’t require speaking to each other all the time for that fire to still be there. Brian is definitely one of my favorite teammates and I’m kind of mad that I’m not going to get to play with him anymore. I’m actually really mad about that. I just wish we could’ve kept it going. We’re not going to wear the Duke uniform anymore. We’ll never play in Cameron again, but we won the fourth one here and we left our marks definitely.
What were you thinking when Brian went to the line at the end of the championship game?
I had no doubt that he was going to make his free throws. We do drills when we’re all tired and you either make it or you miss and keep running. Brian has been put in that position a lot in practice. Brian has been very clutch with that. We probably ran twice because of him. He’s been in that position a lot, so when that moment came and he didn’t even have to do a sprint before it, I knew he was going to make his free throws. He missed the second one on purpose, but that second one would’ve been nothing-but-net.
Talk about your other fellow senior, Jon Scheyer…
Jon is a great guy. He’s really competitive and loves the game. We compliment each other really well. He’s been a really good leader by example. He wasn’t the vocal guy, I was. But Jon would set the standard with his actions and he was a great teammate.
What was your relationship like away from basketball?
We crack jokes at each other all day. We’d play Rock Band or something like that. Jon likes to watch movies and play video games. Occasionally I would join him because I thought I could beat him at certain games. Half the time I lost and he’d tell me to go buy the game I lost to him in and then try to beat him.
Off the court, what do you take away from Duke?
This will always be home. Separate from the coaching staff, you have President Brodhead, he’s a really good guy. Dr. White, everybody that’s a part of the program… Coach’s daughters, Mrs. K and their grandkids… Those are relationships that will last forever. They’re great people who’ve been there for me and were easy to talk to. I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss being able to see them whenever I want. Coach turned me into a man here. I came a boy, I leave a man. I’m 22 and learned so many values here just being under Coach’s arm. He took me under his arm when I got here and it’s hard to believe he is about to let go, but I’m more than ready for it. I’m not even nervous about it. Nothing’s going to stop me. I’ve been through a lot here and it made me stronger, so I’m ready for whatever life has to throw at me. I have the best coach to thank for it.
