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Report: Former five-star recruit Chris Thomas headed to Marshall

Tom Herrion

Marshall head coach Tom Herrion gives instructions to his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kentucky Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, in Lexington, Ky. Kentucky defeated Marshall 82-54. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

AP

Well-traveled JuCo standout Chris Thomas is no longer going to attend Manhattan and is instead headed to Marshall to play his college ball, according to a report from Jon Rothstein, who spent the day at Manhattan’s practice.

Thomas’ status had been up in the air at Manhattan. He’s got a long history of academic issues and was violated his conditional released stemming from driving an unregistered vehicle without a license when he tested positive for marijuana. He was in jail during Chipola Junior College’s trip to the JuCo National tournament.

“We have to make some decisions as a program, is that something that we want to move forward with and that type of thing,” Manhattan head coach Steve Masiello told NYBuckets.com back in June. “We’re going to evaluate that a little more and probably make a decision in the next couple days.”

Thomas’ hoops career has been a whirlwind. He started out at a high school in Denver, but never played for them. He then transferred to Princeton Day Academy (MD) before planning on enrolling at Westwind Prep (AZ). He never made it to Westwind, however, instead enrolling at South Kent in 2011-2012. But in January of 2012, Thomas left South Kent as a 19 year old junior and enrolled at Chipola. His transcript was a such a mess at that point that it seemed unlikely he would get eligible, so he spent a semester at Chipola earning his GED before playing and taking classes this past season.

Last April, Thomas committed to Xavier, but he decommitted from the program in September because he reportedly wanted to go through the recruiting process like his teammates.

Marshall has taken chances on talented but troubled players before. Most notably, they former Louisville commit and top 50 recruit Justin Coleman, whose time at Marshall ended when he whipped out his cell phone on the bench during a game.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.