By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Former Burlington School basketball player Jamarii Thomas is making the rounds in the Southeast.
He has landed on South Carolina’s roster for a senior season after several other stops.
Thomas played two seasons for UNC Wilmington before a strong 2023-24 season for Norfolk State. He averaged 16.9 points per game and was named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.
From there, he opted to look for another college program, committing to Virginia Commonwealth this spring. That didn’t last long before he decided to head to South Carolina.
Thomas had 10 games of 20 or more points for Norfolk State.
With Norfolk State, he played a season with former TBS teammate Kuluel Mading, who began his college career with two seasons at Buffalo. Mading started in 29 games and averaged 5.6 points last season.
Ex-Elon players find new teams
Guards Max Mackinnon and L.A. Pratt have left the Elon men’s program following the season and have entered new programs, including one going to a team in Elon’s conference. Both players are rising juniors after two seasons with the Phoenix.
Mackinnon, who was the 2022-23 Rookie of the Year in the Coastal Athletic Association, has joined the team at Portland.
Mackinnon was second on Elon’s scoring list in both his seasons, posting 11.4 points per game as a freshman and 12.1 as a sophomore. Mackinnon, who shot 36.4 percent on 3-pointers, was the only player to start all 32 games for the Phoenix last season.
Portland plays in the West Coast Conference, which has Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s among its members. An early 2024-25 roster for the Pilots lists four players, including Mackinnon, from Australia.
Pratt is a new member of the team at Northeastern, which like Elon is a CAA school. Pratt provided 6.9 points per game last season, when he was a starter in seven games.
Before attending Elon, Pratt had committed to Duquesne.
