Elkins coach Albert Thomas talks Chandler Jacobs commitment to Texas Tech

Texas Tech landed a big commitment on Monday morning from Dallas Baptist, and former Elkins high school, transfer guard Chandler Jacobs.

We caught up with Jacobs' high school coach, Albert Thomas, to learn more about the newest Red Raider.

Thomas has been the head coach at Elkins for 16 seasons, and was named the 2018 NABC Coach of the Year. This past season he led his Knights to an 18-2 record which included three playoff wins.

"He's a great person. He's a great basketball player but he's just as good if not better of a person. He's gonna treat people right, very respectful of his peers, his elders or anyone. If you were to model of how you want someone to be, it would be Chandler Jacobs.

Hard worker on and off the court. Hard worker in the classroom. Hard worker getting his craft right in terms of basketball. He's always a pleasure to work with and I had the pleasure of coaching him for four years.

He was on the freshman team as a freshman but soon thereafter it was easy to see he had bigger things, abilities that he had. From his sophomore year on he was a major part of our team. He's just a really, really good player, really good guy."

"It's funny you ask that because he's one of the guys that could never shoot the ball too much for me. He's always shot the ball well, he's extremely efficient, even as a high school player. He didn't have to take a lot of shots to get production but as a coach you're going 'shoot the ball a few more times Chandler!' because he's shooting such a high percentage.

But he's a good teammate, he got others involved. His senior year he had to carry a heavy load for us offensively but he did it without batting an eye or complaining about anything. He didn't have to be demeaning of others, he's just a great guy to be around. He's a great guy to coach."

"It really wasn't a surprise. Probably the surprising thing, and this speaks a lot to Chandler, is that he stayed for four years at Dallas Baptist. He's the kind of guy that once he makes a commitment to something, he's gonna see it through.

He was under recruited as a senior. He was a division 1 player coming out, but Dallas Baptist showed him love early on and he signed with them during the early signing period. He stuck with his commitment to them. He had a fantastic senior year and people were telling him at that time that maybe he should reconsider but I think, and he also said this about Tech, it's where God put him to be there. I think that was the right place for him at the right time where he was given time to grow, given time to play right away, in a situation where people needed him and he needed them as well.

I think the biggest growth for him is his body. He was kinda wiry out of high school but he's put on some pounds and he's grown into a really, really good athlete physical wise. I think him moving up to the next level is not a surprise, and I expect him to do well because he's always worked with that type of mentality. He's gonna work like he's gonna the best player no matter where he is, and I expect him to continue to do that at Texas Tech."

"I've got a couple of guys. Josh Fanuiel (14 points, 6 rebounds per game) who has some of the same makeup of Chandler, someone that's under recruited. He got hurt last summer so he wasn't able to get on the circuit but he's the type of guy offensively that shoots the ball well, scores the ball at all three levels.

Then we have a kid that's a sophomore, Chris Johnson (16 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists per game), who has an opportunity to be a really, really good player because he's made All-Region honors as a sophomore. He's got an opportunity to be really dynamite as both an offensive and defensive type player. Some similar characteristics to Chandler, probably a better athlete than Chandler was at this point as a sophomore.

So those are a couple guys I would say have an opportunity to be on somebodies radar as time goes by.