By Matt Turer & Chris Parker
Three points are worth more than two.
No basketball team in the history of Missouri high school basketball has embraced that simple mathematical fact more than the Walnut Grove Tigers.
Last year, Walnut Grove knocked down 332 three-point shots as a team, which was the third-most all-time. This year they have established the new state record with 370 makes and counting.
Leading that charge is junior Logan Thomazin who has hit 128 threes this season and is just seven away from tying the career record of 355 with one full season to go.
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His proficiency as a shooter blossomed from one simple fact: he wasn’t good at dunking a basketball.
“I really just started at a young age. I knew I couldn’t dunk very well, so I tried expanding my range and going farther and farther,” Thomazin said. “I was never going to wow people with dunks since I don’t have much of a vertical, so I tried to wow people by scooting my shot back farther and farther.”
Thomazin averages more than 24 points per game to lead the Tigers and has one of the area’s greenest lights when it comes to shooting the ball. The key to his growth in basketball has been his shot selection.
“I think he’s obviously a very confident kid. We give him the green light, which gives him confidence, but to be a great shooter you have to have the mentality that the next one is going in. You have to have a short memory,” Meinders said. “I think that’s something we try to instill in him, that it’s a great shot whether it goes in or not. When it leaves your hand, it’s a good shot or a bad shot. If it’s a bad shot and you make it, it’s still a bad shot. If it’s a good shot and you miss it, it’s still a good shot. So all we ask is take good shots. We can’t control whether it goes in or out, but we can control taking good shots.”
Thomazin’s personality as a shooter has become a program identity out of necessity for a team that doesn’t have a player listed taller than six-foot-four. Hunter Gilkey, Walnut Grove’s top rebounder, is listed at six-feet.
“The whole time I’ve been here; we haven’t had any big guys so we just shoot, shoot, shoot,” Thomazin said.
Last season, Thomazin hit 139 three-point shots, which isn’t bad considering he is a dedicated baseball player who happens to also play basketball.
“He’s a natural. I talked to somebody today, he’s a kid that plays baseball year-round. It’s amazing how good of a shooter he is, and we’ve talked about it, if he played basketball year-round, it’s hard telling what his ceiling would’ve been,” Meinders said.
All the talk of gaudy stats and state records can be fun, but when Walnut Grove takes the court on Saturday against advance Thomazin’s focus will be singular: a state championship.
After coming up short in the state title game a year ago, Thomazin and record-setting teammates desire just one distinction: state champion.
“I don’t care about that (the career three-point record),” Thomazin said. “I just want a state ring. I’m going to be honest. I really don’t care. As long as we get the ring.”
Walnut Grove (29-3) will tip off against Advance (26-6) at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Mizzou Arena in the MSHSAA Class 1 State Championship game.
