What continues to drive Jamarii Thomas in his final year of eligibility at South Carolina
When Jamarii Thomas moved into his new Columbia apartment this summer, he hung up a reminder on his wall of what the end goal for him has always been.
“I’ve got a little March Madness towel hung on my wall. So every time I walk out, I see it,” Thomas told GamecockCentral.
It’s a reminder of what he’s still working towards. In his first three years of college basketball at two different schools, he never made the NCAA Tournament. He played on good teams each season but always came up short in the end.
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Instead, he’s had to settle for watching the tournament on TV. It’s not always the most enjoyable experience, especially around that time of year in March.
“I watch a lot of basketball. So I watch the tournament, and seeing how I haven’t made it yet, it’s nagging me a little bit,” Thomas said.
But with one year of eligibility remaining, Thomas feels he’s in the best position possible to reach that feat. He joins a South Carolina program that made it to March Madness for the first time since 2017 last year. And with a strong team in place, he believes the Gamecocks can get back and go deeper this time around.
“We have a lot of guys. We’re deep, so deep,” he said. “I feel like we can, but we’ve got to get there first. We’ve got to win the games to do that. Making a run would be big for me, it would be big for the team, big for the coaches. This team’s going to be really special.”
Thomas joins the program at the near-perfect time. South Carolina will have to fill out two starting guard spots after losing both Meechie Johnson and Ta’Lon Cooper from last year’s squad.
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Previously playing at UNC Wilmington and Norfolk State, Thomas has been a regular starter in each of the last two seasons. He had a breakout year with Norfolk State in 2023, averaging a career-high 16.7 points per game on 40.4 percent shooting.
So far in practice, he’s been impressive on both ends of the floor. He figures to be an early and likely candidate to start at the guard position for the Gamecocks.
“I’m really aware and athletic. I like to play fast, play in transition,” Thomas said, describing his game and how he likes to play.
Outside of making the tournament, Thomas also has other goals for himself. He knows playing in the SEC will be much different than what he experienced at his former mid-major schools. So there’s more work that comes with preparing for that level of competition.
“I want to become a better basketball player, like understanding the game more and different situations — things like that,” he said. “But the end goal is to get to the tournament. I haven’t been to the tournament, so I want to get to the tournament for sure.”
