Isaiah Thomas Wins the Pac-10 Tournament

Over the weekend Pac-10 basketball fans watched in awe as Guard Isaiah Thomas won the Pac-10 Tournament. The tournament victory was clinched by Thomas when he sank a buzzer beater in overtime to defeat the Arizona Wildcats. The game has been described by some (Dave "Softy" Mauler, etc) as one of the greatest college basketball games ever played and Thomas dominated it. However, it wasn't just the finale that Thomas dominated. During the tournament, he played 123 out of the 125 possible minutes, scored 59 points, accumulated 30 assists (A tournament record) and grabbed 10 rebounds. All and all he was a unstoppable force during the three day stretch.

Against his hated rivals, the Washington State Cougars, Thomas started out slow and struggled to stop the Cougar star Klay Thompson who scored 43 and setting a Pac-10 Tournament record. At half time it looked liked the Cougars were ready to run away with it leading 40-32. However, with Thomas's help, this game turned into a real nail bitter. Thomas dropped 21 points on 8-13 (61.5%) shooting and dished out 11 assists to squeak by the Cougars 89-87.

In the semi-final, against the University of Oregon Ducks, Isaiah scored 10 points, a rather pedestrian total as far, as he is concerned. However, to counter his low scoring output, Thomas stepped up his passing game. He finished the game with 12 assists. He so overpowered the ducks that Coach Lorenzo Romar even let him sit for 2 minutes. In the end, the Ducks were just no match for Isaiah and lost 69-51.

 

Then for the biggest game of the entire tournament, against a national ranked opponent, Isaiah produced his greatest performance. During the Arizona game Thomas scored his tournament high of 28. He complimented his impressive point total with 7 more assists and 5 rebound. Even more important with his back to the wall and the Wildcats closing in on victory Thomas hit a 3 pointer and then setup to more to push the game into OT. It was there that Thomas completed his biggest moment yet. In the final seconds of OT, with the scored tied at 75, Thomas drained a jump shot to clinch the Pac-10 Tournament victory and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.



Isaiah Thomas is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. He made it to the sweet 16 last year. Now, with this years NCAA Tournament bracket set, if Isaiah Thomas is to keep winning he has his work cut out for him. In the first game, he faces the Georgia Bulldogs. If he can keep up his torrid pace and move onto the second round he will, most likely, be forced to play a perennial powerhouse in the form of the North Carolina Tarheels. Neither of these games will be easy wins and Thomas is to advance to the sweet sixteen again, he will have to play his heart out. I for one am hoping he can do just that.



"Thank you for winning"

Source: Yahoo Sports