Sam Thomas Column

SAM’S CORNER: Exhibition review and boyfriend news

Hey Wildcat fans,

I hope you all had the chance to stop in McKale this week and see us in action this past Thursday. We opened up our season against Eastern New Mexico. Although it was an exhibition game, it gave the fans a chance to see the new team. It also gave us an opportunity to play for the first time as a team and get all our nerves out before we start the season.

Believe it or not, even after four years, I still get nervous before all the games. I had butterflies in my stomach leading up to the tip-off. The feeling never gets old. It’s as if I’m a freshman all over again headed into my first game. Luckily, once we start I am locked in and focused on the goal.

A big advantage for these exhibition games is the different lineups we can play. If you missed the game, we subbed five at a time. About every five minutes, we would change the lineup. Each quarter, we switched the lineup by one or two players. This gave the freshman a chance to play with returners and also with their fellow freshmen. I have never subbed five on, five off during my whole career here at Arizona.

I hope everyone can see how this will be our deepest team that we have had in years. Everyone got a chance to showcase their talents, especially our sharpshooters Taylor and Madi.

I am super excited for this upcoming season not only for us, but all the sports. It is special to be a part of a school where all the other sports support each other. For our home opener, the Arizona football page sent us a nice good luck message.

As most of you might have seen, I got a special shout out from Lucas Havrisik, who happens to be my boyfriend. I was not expecting him to single me out especially on the Arizona football page, but he is full of surprises I guess. We have been together for three months, but we came into college together.

We had always been friends, but when COVID hit and our seasons were postponed, we both stayed in Tucson and were forced to hang out because everyone else left. Just kidding, we got to hang out and know each other and became really good friends. Then three months ago, we decided to be more than friends and now we are dating!

I usually don’t talk much about my personal life publicly unless I get asked a non-basketball question in an interview, but that is what this column section is for — to give everyone a chance to know me off the court a little bit better.

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