RebKell's Junkie Boards

[SportsPageMike]

Q & A with Mary Thomas (Mel's mom) - A Season Later

By Mike D'Avino: October 4, 2005

It has now been a year since I first interviewed Mary Thomas, mother of Mel Thomas, a sophomore point guard for the University of Connecticut women's basketball team...

http://www.sportspagemagazine.com/published/UConn/q-a-with-mary-thomas-mels.shtml

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[AAEmotion]

Great read mike, Mel's parents both come across as lovely as Mel does. She's a gem to watch during a game - especially when one of her teammates does something good. I can't wait for the UConn / Villanova match up during the season, when Mel and her highschool rival Maria Getty face off for the first time since the Mt Notre Dame team defeated Maria's Eagle's in the Ohio state final in Mel's senior year. With any luck both girls will be on the floor, and able to show every one else why the CJ/MND match up was such a special one each year.

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You stay classless, Australia!

[cthskzfn]

anyone think mary thomas comes across as a whining, little wimp?

[rebkell]

[cthskzfn]

[AAEmotion]

Seriously, get over it moron - she's Mel's mother, of course she's going to react a little differently to other people. For crying out loud. *YOU* are the one who sounds like a whining little wimp.

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You stay classless, Australia!

[cthskzfn]

[VandyWhit]

I'm kinda in the middle on this one. I think that a lot of parents probably feel the same way when their daughters aren't being given the roles or the playing time they think they should have.

But I also think that it isn't wise for parents to talk about them so openly, either with their own children and with the press. It doesn't help their own children to deal with the situation they're in, and when it's put out there on the Internet, it makes them look, as CTH says, like whiners for the whole world to see. Also it's also dissing the players who were on the court instead of their daughter, which isn't good for anybody.

It's also a little hard to tell whether she's joking or serious, or making that kind of a joke that is serious at the same time. In conversation it probably comes across as very entertaining, but in print, it doesn't come across the same way.

It also struck me that Mary Thomas didn't express a single positive opinion of her own about Geno. She speaks favorably of other players' parents, fans, the trainer, her teammates, the camp she went to this summer, etc., but when given the opportunity to say positive things about Geno, she always instead references her daughter's opinion.

Ultimately, that is probably of more interest to readers than how her mother feels, but over all, it definitely leaves you with the impression that she's happy that her daughter is happy, but that she herself still isn't convinced that UConn is the right place for her.

Like I said, that probably isn't the best thing to have out there on the Internet.

[cthskzfn]

nice take, vw.

how in the world could a mary thomas like geno? he didn't play her little girl (who happens to be the bestest basketball player in the whole wide world) against tenn in a nationally televised game!

she should be thanking geno profusely for leaving her daughter on the bench at rutgers. that would've been embarassing.

i understand we don't learn the inflections, tones, facial expressions, etc by reading the interview. but she seems like a jerk to me.

[PUmatty]

[VandyWhit]