UH’s Thomas was double trouble for Cal Poly

The awestruck look on 6-foot-9 Cal Poly forward Karlis Garoza’s face when Hawaii’s Mike Thomas blocked his shot Wednesday night was priceless.

But, like the second consecutive double-double Thomas turned in, it figures to be something of a regular occurrence this season as he roams the Big West Conference, a man among boys.

Wherever he turned — scoring, rebounding, defending and blocking shots — the 6-foot-7 Thomas was the difference in the Rainbow Warriors’ 57-45 home conference opening victory.

Thomas had more trouble with the socks and his first set of shoes, which he soon changed out of in favor of a higher heel pair with glistening gold heels, than anything the Mustangs (6-11) could throw at him, including a double team.

In a league largely devoid of athletic big men, Thomas has been ruling the landscape, his game-high 22 points raising his conference average to 18.7 points a game in the ’Bows 2-1 start.

Compare that with the 11.5 he was averaging in the nonconference portion of the schedule and you can see why Thomas has the most reasons of anybody on the UH roster to welcome the opening of Big West play.

“It’s just the way I like it against them,” Thomas said. “Every time you play against Cal Poly, it’s tough, it’s gritty. You go hard against those guys inside. I’ve been here five years. It’s a personal thing for me. … I love those games.”

His game-high 11 rebounds and two blocked shots — the only shots blocked by anybody in the game — underlined the dominance of the fifth-year senior from Woodland Hills, Calif. Three of his five blocks this season have come in the Big West as he has returned from an injury-enforced redshirt season.

Moreover he held his opposite number, Luke Mielke, to four points on 2-for-7 shooting and none of the Mustangs’ bigs had more than that.

It is a far cry from portions of the Diamond Head Classic, where he was appearing on ESPN’s SportsCenter for the wrong reasons, posterized after being dunked over by Miami and Davidson and sidelined by foul trouble.

But from the Princeton game on it has been game-on for Thomas, who has largely avoided foul problems and found his game in helping to lift the ’Bows to an 11-5 record.

“I learned that I just have to be myself and not put too much pressure on myself to be something that I’m not,” Thomas said. “I just have to trust the process and play within myself.”

Wednesday night, he played an ironman 37 minutes, second only to Sheriff Drammeh’s 38.

Good thing, too, because it took the Rainbow Warriors a while to warm up to the weapon they had inside. Thomas didn’t get his first point until 8:06 was left in the first half on the back end of a pair of free throws. And his first field goal didn’t materialize until the final two minutes, two seconds of the half.

But, from then on it was Thomas’ show as he managed 7 points over the final three minutes, 44 seconds.

The only thing that kept him from approaching a 30-point night was free-throwing shooting, where he converted on just eight of 15 attempts.

On this night and, indeed, most nights in conference play, Thomas might be the only one who can slow himself down.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.