One of Florida’s top targets in 2024 has set his final six making for one of the first big time high school recruiting battles for Todd Golden and his staff since coming to florida.
Dedan Thomas is his name, and he’s a 6’1” pure ball handling point guard that any coach in the country would love to have running their offense. Currently ranked 38th in the class, he’s been recruited as if he were ranked even higher–largely because of the fact he plays one of the most important positions in basketball.
Despite being a 2024 athlete, Thomas plays like a college veteran lead guard already. His poise in the half court is particularly advanced as he waits for plays to develop around him, picking the perfect time to use his dribble to get where needs to go on the floor before delivering to a teammate for an open look. In the full court he’s an instant fast break, as the moment he gets the ball off a defensive rebound or outlet pass he’s looking to push–and often he’s the fastest player on the court.
Perhaps due to his advanced basketball IQ, Thomas is pondering reclassification to the 2023 class. This wouldn’t affect Florida’s interest in recruiting him likely, but they’d almost certainly prefer to keep him in 2024. Coaches want players who can contribute right away, particularly at guard, and staying in his school for as long as possible would make Thomas’ transition to college a lot easier. Additionally, point guards who have reclassified to come to college early have largely struggled in a position where savviness is at a premium. We saw this with a couple of former Florida targets who the Gators lost interest in after they chose to reclassify to college a year early in Carter Whitt and Carson McCorkle. They started their careers at Wake Forest and Virginia, and after things didn’t go well now find themselves at Furman and Wofford. However, the Gators have also had success with Andrew Nembhard who reclassified in order to come to Florida a year early and he was able to be a quality starting point guard from day one. While the Gators did have success with Nembhard, reclassifying has largely not worked out for point guards, and Thomas may be better served to remain in the 2024 class.
Regardless of what class he ends up in Thomas is going to be heavily sought after as seen with the final six schools he announced on Monday.
Along with the Gators there is Gonzaga, Houston, Arizona, UNLV, and UCLA.
Thomas is from Henderson, Nevada, and UNLV was his first offer back when he was in middle school. His father played at UNLV, something that could also play into his decision.
Gonzaga has been “Point Guard U” in recent years, something that helps their recruitment with all ball handlers and is also something that Arizona head coach and former lead assistant at Gonzaga Tommy Lloyd is using to try to court Thomas.
This is going to be a difficult recruitment for Florida’s staff, but these are the battles they wanted to get into when they came to Florida and they certainly aren’t backing off from a fight.
Right now Thomas has only officially visited Houston, and he says he is planning on taking official visits to Florida and UCLA. He also has unofficial visits lined up with Arizona and Gonzaga, and he has of course taken unofficial visits to his hometown UNLV.
Currently there is no timetable on Thomas’ recruitment making his decision to reclassify or not perhaps the most pressing element of the recruitment.