May 20, 2010
By Doug Richards
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF men's basketball head coach Donnie Jones announced the promotion of Tim Thomas to assistant coach Thursday. Thomas originally joined the UCF staff in April as the director of basketball operations.
"I am pleased to promote Tim to an assistant coaching position," Jones said. "Tim has a great passion for the game and possesses a tireless work ethic. He has a great relationship with all of our players and will continue to play a key role in their development and success, both on and off the court."
Thomas replaces Brett Nelson, who accepted a similar position at Arkansas. Thomas came to UCF after spending three campaigns as the director of operations at Marshall, where he worked under Jones.
During Thomas' time at Marshall, the Thundering Herd showed great improvement each season, highlighted by a 24-10 campaign in 2009-10. The Thundering Herd went 11-5 in Conference USA play and participated in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament this past year.
Thomas brings extensive coaching experience on both the college and prep levels to UCF. From 2005-07, he served as the athletics director and associate head coach for the postgraduate team at The Patterson School in North Carolina. In Thomas' two campaigns as the associate head coach, the school went 69-7. He was also the varsity head coach in 2005-06, leading his squad to a 25-4 mark.
Before moving to The Patterson School, Thomas was the athletics director and associate head coach at the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. During his tenure, the school produced 30 Division I basketball signees and in 2004-05 finished the year 40-0 after averaging 101.6 points per contest. During Thomas' two years at Laurinburg, the team went 71-6.
During his time as a coach on the prep level, Thomas mentored several future NBA players including Jordan Hill (Houston/New York), Antonio Anderson (Oklahoma City), Joey Dorsey (Sacramento/Houston) and Shawne Williams (Indiana/Dallas).
A native of Wheeling, W.Va., he worked at West Virginia University Institute of Technology from 1994-03, serving in a number of different roles, including women's basketball head coach from 2001-03. He was an assistant men's basketball coach from 1994-01.
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.