For the Thom family, basketball does not end once the buzzer sounds. Bill Thom coaches year round, either for the Hudson Valley team at the BCANY games, or his high school squad during the long winter months. His son Ian is a probable 1,000 point scorer at Croton-Harmon High school. His other son, Billy, works for Division 1 Davidson College in North Carolina. Even his wife was a college basketball player. So it should come as no surprise that the patriarch of the Thom family led his Hudson Valley boys’ team to victory this past weekend, right?
For Bill Thom, winning the tournament was not always a given. He knew the other teams were loaded with skill. He knew that he would be going against future Division 1 level talent, against coaches and players who knew how to win. He knew that he would be going against teams with kids from bigger schools, while a majority of his team were from Class B schools.
Thom spoke about how “we (the Hudson Valley coaches) ran practices as a defensive boot-camp.” This style definitely caught the Hudson Valley players off-guard as many were expecting practices to be full-court scrimmages with a little instruction in between. However, after watching his team practicing passionately , Thom had good reason to be encouraged heading into Johnson City.
“A team where players like each other and believe in each other…you can accomplish great things.” That is exactly what the Hudson Valley team did. Thom knew that once you make it to the playoffs, “anything can happen…especially when the kids believed in each other and our defense.”
After winning the first semifinal game, Hudson Valley knew they had a daunting task ahead in order to beat the Capital District/Adirondack team. Thom wanted to make sure that his team always stayed within striking distance, keeping it under ten points. He said, “I kept telling them to keep it close and we will get them at the end.” Using a “hybrid offense from both Davidson (college) and the New York Knicks and hard-nosed defense,” the game was tight the entire way. Thom used his relationship with former Knicks’ head coach Mike D’Antoni to incorporate some NBA-level tactics. Hudson Valley players Ian Thom and Brendan Hynes combined to shut down Jordan Gleason of Watervliet, one of the best offensive players from the Capital District.
With a major offensive contributor held in check for most of the game, the blue-collared style of defense was clearly evident. Alternating their defensive styles between zone press, match-up zone, a 2-2-1 full court press, and man-to-man, Hudson Valley was in the face of the Capital District team the entire game. The Capital District squad was used to the intense style of defense because they played in a similar fashion. This was noticed by Bill Thom and was vital for the offense he had his team run.
“We ran a basic motion offense,” Thom said. “We wanted to use some motion to get quick hitters.” The final basket of the game exemplified the great basketball mind that the Hudson Valley and Croton-Harmon coach possesses.
With only seconds left in the game, Thom called a timeout. He told his players to be patient and not leave enough time on the clock for Capital District to be able to come back and score. He drew up a play inspired by his son, Billy, and Davidson College. Using a simple misdirection play, Brendan Hynes made a bounce pass to Umar Singh, who had run a back cut to get free and made the game-winning score with 1.5 seconds left.
“If we play Albany (Capital District/Adirondack region team) nine more times, we maybe win two games,” coach Thom said. Luckily for Thom and Hudson Valley, they won the game that mattered.
When asked about the BCANY Summer Hoops Festival tournament M.V.P. Brian Daniels, Coach Thom had nothing but praise for the young man. He told Upstate Scouting Service that Daniels could be an All-American at the Division 3 level. Thom went on to say that Daniels was “a very sensitive and caring kid who wants to do well. This weekend he just played well and got after it.” The tournament is such a great success according to Thom because “no state does it the way we (New York) do. There was a basketball void when the Empire State Games ended and this filled it. The two events (BCANY tournament and the Empire State Games) are very different so I can’t really compare them, but they are both first class.”
One final thing Bill Thom wanted everyone to know was about his own personal coaching experience. “One piece of advice to be successful is to get kids on your team who actually want to be there.” The Hudson Valley team surely seemed to want to be at the BCANY Summer Hoops Festival. The team “played together, believed in each other, and had a great will to win.”
Upstate Scouting Service would like to thank Bill Thom. He knows how to get the best out of his players and they brought home the bragging rights to the Hudson Valley Region. Thom let us know that he would not be coaching at the BCANY games next summer, so we would like to wish him and every other participant good luck in their future basketball endeavors.
Josh Skinner-Staff writer
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