Today Cedar Hill (Duncanville, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 24, 1999 Page: 13 of 20
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TODAY
Thursday, June 24, 1999
Just a reminder:
Performance Unlimited’s
newest production,
“Tom Sawyer,” starts
Friday at the Comer
Theatre in DeSoto.'
Thomas Hill
Lancaster standout to teach youth through special basketball academy
By CHUCK BLOOM
Today Staff
"Any player that comes
through this program is judged
by one standard - Thomas Hill."
- Lancaster Head Boys
Basketball Coach Joe Rushing
"W" t's difficult to go
through life as a stan-
dard-bearer - to be the
best at what you do or
m&b what you've done in the
past. It establishes a person as a
member of an exclusive club
these days - a club with tough
membership qualifications and
even tougher requirements to
remain in good graces.
Role models.
Lancaster native Thomas Hill
does not shrug from that mem-
bership. The 27-year-old former
Tiger basketball star, who was a
high school All-American and a
member of a two-time NCAA
championship team at Duke
University, accepts the mantle
and is working to help other
young student-athletes compre-
hend more than the sport he
loves.
While waiting for the proper
opportunity to play in the
National Basketball Association,
Hill has initiated a lifelong con-
cept through his Thomas Hill
Basketball Academy (in the
middle of a two-week run at
Lancaster High School) to teach
more than dribbling and
rebounding. Hill is also teaching
young people about life, com-
puters and responsibility.
Which is all part of being a
role model.
• • •
^■■■■■Ihomas Hill loved
being in high
school, and no
wonder. He was
JL- (and remains) the
only basketball Converse High
School All-American in LHS his-
tory and a two-time all-state
performer. His No. 10 uniform
is the only retired jersey in Tiger
history. There is a trophy case
near the gym which holds a
myriad of honors that Hill
earned in his four years on the
Lancaster varsity.
"It was a great time to be a
kid," he said. "I remember how
I loved, every day, just going to
school - the
teachers,
the stu-
dents, but
mostly, bas-
ketball."
In just 10
years, Hill
said the
landscape
and the
faces have
changed at
Lancaster
High
School.
"The -
school has
changed a lot since I went," he
said. "The student body make-
up was a little of a mix back
then, which made it a lot of
fun."
Hill's biggest influence was
his coach, Joe Rushing (who will
start his 21st season at LHS as
boys basketball coach in
November).
"He was in his prime, and he
had a lot of energy; he just
wanted to win every game,"
Hill noted. "I can remember
being so excited just to practice
after Coach put me on varsity
my freshman year. From that
d
game," Rushing said,
me
"1 want to give kids a
chance to succeed; for a lot
of kids, playing sports is
the only way to see the
world or go to college;
doing something other than
working at McDonald's
when they are 30."
Thomas Hill
When
e game was on the line, he
was at his best. In his senior
year, we never lost when he
stayed on the floor. When he
fouled out, that was different.
But he would not let us lose.
"His personality was a lot
like mine on the floor. He was
very intense and was all busi-
ness when he stepped on the
floor. It made my job easier."
One of the most memorable
games in Texas basketball play-
off history came in 1989 in the
Class 4A state semi-finals
against eventual champion Port
Arthur Lincoln. Hill led the
Tigers against future collegiate
stars B.J. Tyler (who played at
Texas) and Bryan Sallier (who
starred at Oklahoma).
Lancaster lost 64-62 in over-
time after Hill fouled out with
1:36 in regulation. A three-point
shot, that hit nothing but tne
bottom of the basket, was ruled
too late by game officials.
"I have no doubt that we
should have won the game,"
Hill said. "I remember that we
played really, really well. Even
during the bad moments, I
thought we were going to win."
It remains as Hill's biggest
personal disappointment to this
point in his life.
"My disappointment was
huge," he said. "We should
have been at state three years in
a row. I still think about that. No
matter what happened since, we
should have won a state cham-
pionship. It still bothers me."
As a senior, Hill and the
Tigers lost in the Region 2-4A
finals to Highland Park. Hill
believes that he was a marked
man on the court by opponents
and officials.
"I still think that somehow
the referees had it in for me," he
said. "I don't think that was
something in my head; I don't
think they let me play."
Hill was more ... just a little
bit more than a gym rat. He also
saw a little time on the baseball
diamond as a right fielder, hit-
ting a "career" .333.
"Yeah, I went l-for-3, a triple
in Mesquite against West
Mesquite," he laughingly
added.
But basketball was his future
and more than 250 schools
wrote or contacted him, trying
to get j-jjjj
attend their uni-
versity. He nar-
rowed his
"final" list to 20
schools for pos-
sible home vis-
its.
The final "cut"
came between
the University of
Kansas, DePaul
University in
Chicago and
Duke. DePaul
was merely an
excursion to a
major city, Hill said. The real
decision was between the
Jayhawks (Kansas) and the Blue
Devils (Duke).
After going to Lawrence,
Kan. and visiting with Head
Coach Roy Williams, Hill told
Williams he was coming there
as the two were headed to the
airport at the end of the visit.
But Hill had one trip to take
the following weekend ... to
Durham, N.C., and like many
voung men of 18, he changed
nis mind.
And had a little help doing it.
Duke Head Coach Mike
Krzyzewski made Hill a take-it-
Thomas Hill
before you leave or we're giving
it to someone else.' That's what
it came down to."
The influence of basketball-
crazy Tobacco Road - with
North Carolina, Duke, Wake
Forest, North Carolina State -
was just what Hill was seeking.
"I knew either way I was
going to win, I couldn't lose,"
Hill said. "Coach Williams
understood. He was an assistant
at North Carolina. Heck, he sent
his son to North Carolina."
College basketball in Texas
had not matured to the level
that Hill wanted, so no state
school was on his list.
Except for SMU and that
evaporated the day Skyline
graduate Larry Johnson enrolled
at Odessa Junior College after
his admission was negated by
the new SMU hierarchy (follow-
ing the death penalty scandal of
its football team).
"Had Larry Johnson (who
won a title at UNLV as a junior
over Duke but lost to the Blue
Devils as a senior) gone to SMU,
I would have gone there, too,"
Hill explained. "That was the
plan."
"Any school in Texas is a
football school and I wanted to
go to a basketball school."
uke had been to
the NCAA cham-
>ionships in 1981
Dr
I W (with stars Mike
Gminski and
Gene Banks), losing to Kentucky
in that game, but the Blue
Devils were overshadowed by
archrivals UNC and NC State
(both of whom captured nation-
al titles in the 1980s).
Krzyzewski was about to
change all that with several
superlative recruiting classes,
led by the group that included
Hill and the most heralded
point guard in the country,
Bobby Hurley of New Jersey
and shooting guard Bill
McCaffrey. Two more important
jioivi loved going to the ^ otihe puz^e wem added
A standout performer for four year* * at Duke. Hill was a
favorite performer at Cameron Indoor Stadium from
1089-93.
"In my class, I was the third
on the list in terms of talent,"
Hill said.
Hill received a rude awaken-
ing when he arrived at Duke,
with thoughts of starting for the
Blue Devils dancing in his head.
►ui transferring to ........
Illinois, senior Phil Henderson
returned to Durham and Hill's
minutes got sliced drastically.
"My freshman year was a
huge learning experience," Hill
ia. "To be honest, I wasn't
Today photo by JAIME CARRERO
level. There were a lot of things
offensively I needed to work on
and I understood that.
"Just put me out there ...
that's all I was thinking."
Recruited as a small forward,
Hill played as a shooting guard
for most of his Duke career.
"Offensively, I wasn't a guard
because I never handled the ball
a lot (in high school)," he
added. "That year, 1 got most of
my minutes in practice."
Although he averaged a little
more than 12 minutes per game
and only 3.4 points per contest,
Hill had the thrill of playing in
the NCAA Finals in Denver
before losing to Johnson and the
Running Rebels from Las Vegas
by 30 points.
"That was totally different
and it was when I knew it was
big time," Hill said. "I knew
there were so many facets to
work on simply to play at Duke
and at that level."
From the beginning of his
sophomore year, Hill was a per-
manent fixture in the Duke
starting lineup. His numbers
reflected his outcome of his
hard work (11.5 points per game
as a sophomore with a field goal
percentage of 55.2 percent and
14.6 ppg as a junior with a
shooting percentage of 53.4). In
the NCAA tournament those
seasons, he averaged 10.2 ppg
as a sophomore and 14.8 ppg as
a junior, hitting 50 percent of his
shots from the field.
Hill's maturation as a player,
especially at guard, caused
McCaffrey to eventually transfer
to Vanderbilt in order to start.
Again, Duke made a march
to the NCAA crown, but unde-
feated UNLV and Johnson stood
in their way. In a shocking upset
(considering the result one year
before), Duke beat UNLV and
then defeated Kansas in the
finals. For Hill, it was sweet
irony.
"That's when I knew I made
it," Hill remembered. "I knew I
couldn't go wrong and that
gym
the next season - forward-center
Jssssaag- ar""-1
sail
ready like I thought I was.
proved it.
"And it could be my ego, but
See HILL. Page 8
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Gooch, Robin. Today Cedar Hill (Duncanville, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 24, 1999, newspaper, June 24, 1999; Duncanville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth575404/m1/13/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Zula B. Wylie Memorial Library.