Thomas Kleinschmidt (born February 21, 1973) is a retired American
basketball player and current head basketball coach at
DePaul College Prep High School in
Chicago, Illinois. He was an
All-American at
DePaul University and the first player in school history to win a conference player of the year award.
High school
Kleinschmidt led Chicago's Gordon Tech to a runner-up finish in the 1990 Illinois High School Association's boys basketball tournament. While losing to
Chicago King, 65 - 55, Kleinschmidt, as a junior, scored 27 of the 55 points. During the entire tournament that included four games, he totaled 125 points (31.25 ppg), 38 rebounds (9.5 rpg), 15 assists (3.75 apg), 14 steals (3.5 spg) and 7 blocked shots (1.75 bpg). In 2006, Kleinschmidt was voted as one of the
100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) celebrated 100 years of the IHSA State Tournament in the 2006-07 season. A list of "100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament" was assembled on December 14, 2005. Throughout the state, 281 ind ...
, a group of former players and coaches in honor of the 100 anniversary of the
IHSA boys basketball tournament.
College career
A hotly recruited
small forward from
Gordon Tech in
Chicago, Kleinschmidt settled on hometown
DePaul University. There, he became one of the Blue Demons' greatest players. He was a three-time first team All-
Great Midwest Conference pick and was the
conference player of the year and an
AP honorable mention All-American as a senior in 1995. This made him the first conference player of the year winner in DePaul history. In his DePaul career, Kleinschmidt scored 1,837 points (16.3 per game). He was the first Blue Demon to amass over 1,000 points, 500
rebounds
'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...
, 300
assists, 100
steals and 100
three pointers.
Professional career
After graduation, Kleinschmidt was not drafted in the
1995 NBA Draft
The 1995 NBA draft took place on June 28, 1995, at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It marked the first NBA draft to be held outside the United States and was the first draft for the two Canadian expansion teams, Toronto Raptors and Vancouve ...
. He went to training camp with the
Seattle SuperSonics but was among the final cuts. He then played for the
Chicago Rockers
The Chicago Rockers were a men's professional basketball team based in Chicago from 1994 to 1996. The Rockers competed in the American Conference of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). The team was owned by Chris Devine, a Chicago busine ...
of the
Continental Basketball Association
The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...
during the 1995–96 season, where he averaged 13.3 points per game and made the CBA All-Rookie second team.
From there, Kleinschmidt played in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
Italy and
Venezuela, with his best years coming in the
Japanese Super League for
Bosch,
Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
and
Toshiba. He led the Super League in scoring twice during his time there.
Coaching career
After the conclusion of his professional career, Kleinschmidt sought to enter coaching. He became Director of Basketball Operations in 2009 at his alma mater under head coach
Jerry Wainwright
Gerald Charles Wainwright Jr. (born February 11, 1947) is a retired American basketball coach. Wainwright served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNC Wilmington) from 1994 to 2002, the Universit ...
, but was released when Wainwright was fired at the end of the
2009–10 season. He became a volunteer assistant at York High School in 2010, then became head coach in June 2011. In April 2012, Kleinschmidt left York to return to his alma mater to become the head basketball coach at
Gordon Tech High School
DePaul College Prep is a Catholic high school located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located on the north side of Chicago at 3300 N Campbell Ave. DePaul College Prep is sponsored by the Western Province of the Congregation of the Missi ...
which changed its name in July 2014 to
DePaul College Prep.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleinschmidt, Tom
1973 births
Living people
American expatriate basketball people in Italy
American expatriate basketball people in Japan
American expatriate basketball people in Venezuela
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Illinois
Basketball players from Chicago
Chicago Rockers players
DePaul Blue Demons men's basketball players
High school basketball coaches in Illinois
Kawasaki Brave Thunders players
McDonald's High School All-Americans
Nagoya Diamond Dolphins players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
Shooting guards
Small forwards
Sportspeople from Chicago