Thomas athletics photo

Levi Barnes of Thomas College is not necessarily a player most people have heard of, and with good reason. He didn’t go to a well-known high school. He’s not especially flashy or media concerned, and he wasn’t an attendee of a brand name youth basketball camp.

But he is the fourth leading scorer in Division III men’s basketball, at 24.5 points per game. He also is shooting 51.3 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point range and 86.7 percent from the free-throw line. In addition, Barnes has scored more than 15 points in every game he’s played this season but two. He’s scored 30-plus points seven times and 40 once.

Yet, what’s truly interesting about Barnes is that he’s not impressed by his own achievements. He doesn’t relish in the spotlight nor does he really say much at all. He’s a soft-spoken Mainer, who, after an international basketball career, would like to work with kids from his hometown of Skowhegan.

“My main goal after college, besides playing overseas, is to go back to my old high school and teach,” Barnes said. “It’s been also a dream of mine to go back, give back to those kids and give those kids a dream and that inspiration.”

Although a composed young man, Barnes still has that fire and a pretty big chip on his shoulder, which comes from not going to a competitive high school nor living in a big place and always being discounted.

“I’ve been looked down [on] all my life, through high school, through the recruiting process — not being recruited heavily,” Barnes said. “I took that as a challenge, and I think I’ve responded to the challenge fairly well.”

Those slights are also what led Barnes to Thomas. After being recruited by four schools, most of which were in New England, it was former Thomas coach T.J. Maines who pressed the right button and got Barnes to come to Waterville.

“[Coach T.J. Maines] didn’t promise me anything. He didn’t promise me playing time. He didn’t promise me that I’d start. He didn’t promise me anything, and I took that as a challenge that I can play at this level.”

And play he has. The junior guard averaged 15.7 points his freshman year and 17 points per game his sophomore season. Most striking has been his steady statistical improvement over three seasons of play. Barnes has increased his field goal percentage four points (47 percent to 51 percent), his 3-point percentage almost nine points (from 35.3 to 44) and his scoring average 8.5.

What has made the 6-foot-2, 180-pound kid from southwest Maine so successful is that basketball is his religion, his life and his craft. When it comes to priorities, there are only three in Barnes’ life, in no respective order.

“It’s basically school, basketball, family-life,” he said.

His coach, Geoff Hensley, who saw Barnes play AAU ball while in high school, echoed his player’s commitment and basketball DNA.

“Levi’s always in the gym. He’s always in the gym getting up shots or trying to improve some other areas in his game. … He’s really a professional basketball player playing Division III.”

In May 2014, Hensley replaced interim coach Dick Whitmore, who took over for Maines in February of the same year. So the Thomas Terriers and Barnes have seen a lot of turnover and system changes, which could certainly account for the mediocre to subpar records the team has put up over these past three seasons. The Terriers were 13-12 overall and 9-9 in the North Atlantic Conference in 2012-13. They were 11-15, 11-7 NAC in 2013-14 and 12-14, 10-8 NAC.

Thomas lost to Castleton, 70-60, on Tuesday in a NAC tournament quarterfinals game; Barnes had 17 points and three rebounds.

Make no mistake, though, Barnes is the consummate team-player and sacrificial star, with almost a Buddhist approach to scoring and offense. He defers and lets the game provide for him.

“I’m not the kind of offensive scorer to try to force things. If two guys come to me, I’m not going to try to force a bad shot up. I just try to let everything come to me,” he said.

That type of mentality also means that sometimes he may not take his team or the game by the reins and control it. Yet, in talking to Barnes one learns that he always considering a larger, more honorable sense of things.

“Winning is the No. 1 goal in mind, of course,” Barnes said. “But, my goal is just to become a better teammate, a better player and a better citizen every day.”

If Barnes becomes a better person than he is a basketball player, the world will gain a great man who can bottle a dream in his jumper and send it home.

Northeast represents in Team of the Week for Feb. 16-22

Three players from schools in the Northeast region made the Team of Week: Lucas Hausman from Bowdoin, Jordan Rezendes from UMass Dartmouth and Julie Frankian from Worchester State.

A junior guard averaging 20.6 points per game for the Polar Bears (18-7, 7-3 NESCAC), Hausman had 37 points in a NESCAC quarterfinal against Williams on Saturday. He scored 25 of those 37 points in the second half, helping his team overcome an 11-point deficit and beat last year’s NESCAC tournament runner-up.

To say that Rezendes had a good two game stretch last week is a severe understatement. The junior guard had 31 points and 10 rebounds against Rhode Island College on Feb. 17 and scored 51 points, breaking a UMass Dartmouth single-game scoring record, against Keene State last Saturday. He also grabbed six rebounds and made six assists in the last regular season game of the year.

To follow all of that up, Rezendes took his No. 3 seeded Corsairs (14-12, 9-5 LEC) the No. 6 seed UMass Boston Beacons, 98-82, on Tuesday in a LEC tournament quarterfinals game. Rezendes scored 35 points and hauled in six rebounds to take his team into a semifinals matchup with Rhode Island College on Friday.

Frankian, the Lady Lancers senior guard-forward, had a nice 26-point, six-rebound game against Framingham State on “Senior Day.” In the Lancers (16-9, 7-5 MASCAC) penultimate regular season game, Frankian had 26 points to go along with six rebounds and two steals against Fitchburg State.

She helped extend her team’s fortunes Tuesday, with a win over Salem State, 78-63. Frankian had 12 points, six assists and five rebounds in the MASCAC tournament quarterfinals win.