Head Coach of the Wilbur Wright men's basketball team, Carlos Thomas, believes the changes made to the team this offseason have been “night and day.”
Last year's result was not how Thomas envisioned the season going for the Rams, with the team coming out of the season with a 2-20 record in his first year as head coach for the Rams. Coming into the 2022-23 season, Thomas has preached hard work on the court but also has encouraged his team to work even harder in the classroom.
When asked what changes were made coming into this season, Thomas said “the first thing that we needed to do was find student-athletes. If players we recruit to represent Wright are not achieving in the classroom to their full potential, then the chances of us being successful long term on the basketball court, greatly diminish.”
Thomas firmly believes that “success on the basketball court is a byproduct of your work ethic in the classroom.” This belief is one of the main reasons why he has taken a new approach to the classroom aspect of his coaching philosophy. This year Thomas has turned to the student advisors and professors at Wright to make sure that his student-athletes get as much support as possible to achieve success on and off the court.
Changes just haven't been made off the court, but also on. This season the Rams have a completely new and revitalized roster, with no returning players from last season's team.
With a completely new roster, the players can be expected to take some time to develop chemistry – a learning period Thomas is aware of. “It has not been perfect and we will continue to work the kinks out in the process and continue to grow as a unit and a family, but overall the start of the year has been fantastic,” Thomas said.
One thing that Thomas believes hurt the team last year was the lack of a true leader on the team to motivate the players when things weren't going their way. “Having a player on the court you trust goes a long way with the team's chemistry, which is vital for success in any program.”
This offseason Wright was able to land two key transfers to the program that the coaches expect to contribute right away and potentially fill the leadership role that they lacked last season. The first transfer they landed is Wesley Woods. Woods is a 6'0 sophomore guard from Division III Ripon College.
The second key transfer the Rams added this offseason is 6'4 Junior Power Forward Tim Odeyungbo, from Harper Community. Thomas is hopeful that they will bring a veteran presence to the team since they both played at this level of competition before.
This offseason Thomas has taken all of the necessary steps to make sure that the team does not repeat last season’s results. Thomas is looking forward to building a program at Wright that our student body, faculty, and staff can be proud of and take pride in supporting. Thomas also asks for everyone's support this season, as they continue to work hard on and off the court.
If you want to follow along with the Rams this season, their first game of the season is played at Wright on Tuesday, Nov. 1 against College of Lake County. The team’s schedule can be found here.
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