Note #041: Meleek Thomas (Steel City Sniper)
Arkansas men's basketball player Meleek Thomas has declared for the 2026 NBA Draft following his 2025-26 freshman season with the Razorbacks.
In 2025-26, Thomas torched from the floor and at the line, posting these shooting statistics:
- 121/270 2P/2PA (44.8 2P%)
- 82/197 3P/3PA (41.6 3P%)
- 91/108 FT/FTA (84.3 FT%)
Since 1980-81, there have been 21 other instances of an NCAA Division I men's player shooting at least 44.5+ 2P% (min. 270 2PA), 41.5+ 3P% (min. 195 3PA), 84.0+ FT% (min. 105 FTA) in a single season.
Thomas is the only freshman to qualify at those thresholds!
For fun: of the 21, only three were sophomores:
1. Luke Kennard (2016-17) - 149/284 2P/2PA (52.5%), 88/201 3P/3PA (43.8%), 160/187 FT/FTA (85.6%)
2. Allan Houston (1990-91) - 166/319 2P/2PA (52.0%), 99/231 3P/3PA (42.9%), 177/205 FT/FTA (86.3%)
3. Stephen Curry (2007-08) - 155/287 2P/2PA (54.0%), 162/369 3P/3PA (43.9%), 135/151 FT/FTA (89.4%)
And there were four juniors:
1. Allan Houston (1991-92) - 141/296 2P/2PA (47.6%), 82/196 3P/3PA (41.8%), 189/225 FT/FTA (84.0%)
2. Shane Gibson (2011-12) - 166/295 2P/2PA (56.3%), 87/201 3P/3PA (43.3%), 112/130 FT/FTA (86.2%)
3. Shawn Respert (1993-94) - 180/357 2P/2PA (50.4%), 92/205 3P/3PA (44.9%), 142/169 FT/FTA (84.0%)
4. Mike Daum (2017-18) - 177/365 2P/2PA (48.5%), 96/226 3P/3PA (42.5%), 194/228 FT/FTA (85.1%)
Houston, the 11th overall pick in the 1993 NBA Draft, did it twice. He almost did it thrice, but just missed on 3P% (82/198, 41.4) as a senior in 1992-93.
Now, let's remove FTs entirely from the above criteria: the only other freshman besides Thomas, since 1980-81, to hit the 2P and 3P benchmarks was:
His teammate (!!) in 2025-26:
Darius Acuff Jr. - 197/388 2P/2PA (50.8%), 91/207 3P/3PA (44.0%)
That's right, in the last 45+ years only two freshman were that efficient at that volume - and both were in the same year, on the same team!
Acuff Jr. is also a 2026 NBA Draft entrant.
This is Chef Curry's fourth mention:
Note #006 (Jake Hall) / Note #029 (Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn) / Note #034 (Jaylin Sellers).
Same with Daum:
Note #012 (Eian Elmer) / Note #034 (Jaylin Sellers) / Note #040 (Ebuka Okorie).