Chris Thomas to Xavier

Chris Thomas, the Rivals No. 1 shooting guard in the Class of 2013, has committed to Xavier.

He will have three years of eligibility beginning in 2013.

“I think it came down to his relationship with Coach [Rasheen] Davis the past few years,” Chipola (Fla) College assistant Pat Blake told SNY.tv . “With all the moving around that Chris has done, I think Coach Davis had been the consistent presence and consistent coach in his life.

“To me, there wasn’t really ever another school in the picture.”

Thomas is currently at Chipola but he sat out this season after making previous stops in his home state of Colorado, Bowie (Md.) Princeton Day, Phoenix (Ariz.) Westwind Prep and South Kent (Conn.). He will suit up next season.

“With Chris, he really likes Xavier because the assistant coach, Rasheen Davis,” Latonia Smith, Chris’s grandmother, told SNY.tv, last fall. “He really likes the way Rasheen communicates with him and encourages him and is always in his corner, so he really likes that about him.”

Smith has always been a very talented wing player but has had his issues in the classroom and in terms of maturity.

“Chris can be as good as he wants to be,” South Kent coach Kelvin Jefferson told SNY.v last fall. “Chris can score on all three levels. Chris is going to get bigger and stronger and the nice thing about him is, just on top of scoring, Chris can play the point. You can move him over to the one and let him run the show. He’s a very unselfish player and he’s a kid that I think would do anything I asked him to do in order to win.”

He added: “He’s gotta raise his basketball IQ. He’s gotta be a better defender and we gotta spend a lot more time in the weight room but the sky is the limit for the kid.

“We’ve had some good players and if he continues to develop, he can be one of the best players that ever came through the gym here.”

The story was first reported by Scout.com.