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Leslie Thronburg Joins UT Tyler Basketball
Powell High School and Northwest College graduate Leslie Thronburg will continue her studies and basketball career at the University of Texas at Tyler this fall.
Thronburg played three years of varsity basketball for the Panthers, and completed her two-year stint at Northwest this spring. Now that she’s in Tyler, Texas, Thronburg will have to adjust to the competition of the NCAA and life far from home.
“I’m mostly excited, (but) I’m nervous too,” Thronburg said. “It’s a long way from home. It’s a totally new place, new people, new everything. It’s pretty flat here and there’s a lot of trees.”
But Thronburg won’t be the only Wyomingite to join the Patriots this season. In fact, if it weren’t for Casper College graduate (and now fellow Patriot) Shelby Garska, Thronburg wouldn’t have caught the eye of Kevin Baker, the head coach of UT Tyler women’s basketball team.
Baker was in Scottsbluff, Neb., in March to scout Garska at the Region IX tournament, but couldn’t help but notice Thronburg.
“I loved her game and her athleticism is really what caught my eyes,” Baker said. “I thought, ‘Man, I really need to keep an eye on this kid.’”
He did, and now plans to play Thronburg in a versatile role that plays to her strengths — size and athleticism.
As a tall but swift forward, Thronburg will be able to take advantage of defensive mismatches, posting up smaller guards and driving by slower forwards.
“She can do what a lot of players can’t do, which is creating her own shot,” Baker said. “You can make a living off that kid in Division III basketball.”
Scoring will just be one part of her role with the Patriots, who use a full court press from tip-off to the final whistle.
“We’re not going to recruit kids that can’t do that,” Baker said. “Leslie’s so athletic she’s going to be able to do whatever we ask her to do.”
Baker said he is unsure at this early point of the season whether Thronburg will start or come off the bench for the Patriots, who should be a favorite in their conference.
“The only thing that I know for sure is that she will have an immediate impact on our team,” Baker said. “She is going to be on the floor and she is going to be scoring points for us and she is going to be guarding people.”
Thronburg’s family and school backgrounds also impressed the Patriots.
“(We) feel fortunate that she’s come from such a great program there (at Northwest); she comes from a great family,” Baker said.
Her parents drove her to Tyler from Powell Aug. 20.
“I feel very excited and I’m very blessed to have all my family behind my back,” Thronburg said.
Thronburg will study to be a civil engineer at UT Tyler, which has an engineering program that impressed Thronburg during her visit to the campus. Baker said Thronburg and UT Tyler were a perfect match.
“We found out she’s an engineering major and that’s one of the things we do here that’s top notch,” he said.
Thronburg led the Panthers in scoring and assists, was second in steals and third in rebounds during her 2010-11 senior season.
In her NWC sophomore season Thronburg led the Trappers in total rebounds (189) and rebounds per game (tied, 6.3), was second in free throw attempts (109), third in assists (57) and third in points per game (10.2).
UT Tyler is a Division III program that competes in the American Southwest Conference. The city of Tyler has a population of almost 100,000 and sits about an hour and 45 minutes east of Dallas.