Meet The Player: Thomas Hendricks (2019)
How do you approach each game with your AAU & HS teams?
Thomas: I just tell the team to focus and not get frustrated, if a play doesn’t go your way then just get back on defense and get it back. Just try to motivate my team and help them to keep going no matter what happens.
Q: Being one of the younger players at Westover in your early years, do you feel like that’s helped you now?
Thomas: I feel like it has, playing with older guys, everybody knew what they were doing. However sometimes with guys my age I have to be more of a general and direct them to get to their spots but that’s all a part of my job.
Q: How’s the experience with Team Wall been? As well as playing with your Westover HS teammate Tyron.
Thomas: This is my 2nd year with Team Wall and it’s been a blast, I’m glad the coach picked me up and gave me the opportunity to play with them. Playing with Tyron is fun, I feed off the intensity that he brings so when I see him doing well that motivates me to go and play my game.
Q: You guys played a lot of pressure defense, coming from a program like Westover that is known for defense does that make the transition easy?
Thomas: Yes because we play pressure defense a lot for school ball, we have a lot of guards on this team so if you get tired then you can always get subbed out and rested up.
Q: This tournament is a tune-up for you guys prior to the live period events in the upcoming weeks, what’s some things you guys can take from today as a learning experience?
Thomas: How to break zone defenses, and really knowing our strengths. I really believe if we run more then we will be good, we sometimes wait to get it to the guards but we have a team full of ball handlers.
Q: What’s some things you do to mentally prepare yourself on game day?
Thomas: I listen to music, sometimes I might watch a little mixtape of Kyrie Irving, and he’s my favorite NBA player. He has a killer mentality, opens the floor for teammates, he’s a good ball handler as well. My favorite NBA team is the OKC Thunder though.
Q: What do you feel like you can bring to team on the next level?
Thomas: Bringing lock down defense, distributing the ball, and being a floor general.