Thomas Welsh (basketball)

Early life

Welsh was born in Torrance, California, in Los Angeles County to Pat and Kathy Welsh. At age five, he started playing basketball. He attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles. As a 6-foot-5-inch (1.96 m) freshman, Welsh played basketball on the junior varsity team, where he was ranked eighth on the team's depth chart. He was promoted to the varsity team as a sophomore, moving up the depth chart to seventh. He did not become a starter until his junior year, by which time he had grown to 7 feet (2.1 m). Still, he was only considered a prospect for mid-major colleges at the time, or perhaps a redshirt at a Pac-12 Conference school.

The following summer, Welsh performed well with the Los Angeles Rockfish, the longest ongoing high-school all-star program in Southern California. He emerged as one of the top centers in California as a senior, and was selected for the 2014 McDonald's All-American Game, a rarity for a player who did not receive national recognition as a junior. He was rated as a four-star (on a scale of five) recruit.

College career

In November 2013, Welsh committed to play at UCLA over fellow Pac-12 schools California and Stanford. As a freshman with the Bruins in 2014–15, he spent most of the season as a backup to junior Tony Parker. Welsh played in all 36 games, starting in three, and averaged 3.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. He led the team in blocks, averaging 1.1 per game as a reserve. He became the Bruins' first 7-foot player since Ryan Hollins in 2005–06. In the season opener against Montana State, Welsh scored 14 points in 13 minutes of play. He had six rebounds and four blocked shots in 22 minutes in an upset victory over SMU in UCLA's opening game of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Playing the final minutes of the game in place of Parker, he made a key block with 34 seconds remaining and UCLA down by four.

Having played on the U.S. under-19 national team over the summer, Welsh's footwork and fundamentals improved. With Kevon Looney having moved on to the National Basketball Association (NBA), he was promoted to UCLA's starting lineup at center, while Parker moved to forward. In the 2015–16 season opener, Welsh had his first collegiate double-double with 12 points and career-highs of 10 rebounds and five blocks in an 84–81 overtime loss to Monmouth. The blocks were the most by a Bruin since Travis Wear's five in 2012. In the following game, Welsh scored a career-high 22 on 10-for-12 shooting in an 88–83 win over Cal Poly. On December 3 against No. 1 Kentucky, he registered game highs of 21 points and 11 rebounds and outplayed highly-touted Wildcats freshman Skal Labissiere in an 87–77 upset win, the Bruins first victory since 2003 over a No. 1 ranked team. On January 9, 2016, he had a career-high 16 rebounds in an 81–74 win over Arizona State, which helped UCLA avoid falling to 1–3 in the Pac-12 for the first time in almost 20 years. After UCLA lost three of four games in mid-February, Welsh became a reserve after he offered to coaches that Parker could take his place in the starting lineup; the senior Parker had been benched in favor of a quicker Jonah Bolden. The Bruins lost their final five games to finish with a 15–17 record. Welsh ended the season with an 11.2 scoring average, and led UCLA in field goal percentage (59.0), rebounding (8.5) and blocked shots (1.0). He ranked seventh in the Pac-12 in rebounding, second in offensive rebounds per game (3.2), and third in field goal percentage.

UCLA began 2016–17 ranked No. 2 after starting 13–0, the first time they were undefeated in non-conference play since they won a national championship in 1994–95. Welsh was leading the Bruins in rebounding again, but had missed the last four games with a bruised right knee. He returned with a strong performance in the conference opener, but the Bruins suffered their first defeat in an 89–87 loss to No. 21 Oregon despite Welsh's 20 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. On February 19, 2017, he scored 16 points and had a season-high 16 rebounds in a 102–70 win over their crosstown rivals, USC, ending a four-game losing streak against the Trojans. On February 25, Welsh scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half to lead No. 5 UCLA to a 77–72 win over No. 4 Arizona, which also snapped their conference rivals' 21-game home winning streak. In the Bruins' regular season finale, he had 13 points and 11 rebounds and also made his first career three-point field goal in a 77–68 win over Washington State. The Bruins ended the season 31–5 after losing in the Sweet 16 of the 2017 NCAA Tournament to Kentucky. For the season, Welsh averaged 10.8 points along with team-highs of 8.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, and he received honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 team. Although he was not listed in most mock drafts, he declared for the 2017 NBA draft. After attending the NBA Draft Combine but not hiring an agent, he withdrew his name from the draft to retain his college eligibility.

National team career

Welsh tried out for the United States national team in the 2014 FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship, but was one of the final three roster cuts. The following year after his first season with UCLA, he was one of 12 players selected by the U.S. to play at the 2015 FIBA Under-19 World Championship in Greece. He was not considered a top contender when tryouts began, but he made an impression with his rebounding and perimeter play. The Americans won the gold medal after a 79–71 win over Croatia. Welsh played in all seven games, averaging 2.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in 8.9 minutes.