One of the more controversial recruits of the Craig Esherick era, Harvey Thomas' stay at Georgetown proved unproductive, whereupon his transfer led him into one basketball's most tragic scandals.

Thomas was the kind of recruit Georgetown was expected to avoid. As a sophomore in Fredericksburg, VA, Thomas began an odyssey which saw him placed in four different high schools over the next three years. At Mt. Zion (NC) Academy, he played alongside future NBA star Amare Stoudamire and West Virginia guard Jonathan Hargett, averaging 19 points and 14 rebounds per game, but when their coach had a disagreement with the school, he moved the team to a new school he founded, Emmanuel Christian Academy, which folded before the 1999-2000 season.

Thomas then traveled to Rockville, MD, playing alongside Tony Bethel and Drew Hall at Montrose Christian. Ranked as the #2 power forward and the #20 recruit nationally by Rivals. com, Thomas committed to Georgetown in the summer of 2000. But following a dispute with Montrose coach Stu Vetter, Thomas then relocated to Memphis' Hamilton HS, whereupon the state athletics association barred him from varsity play.

Despite being Craig Esherick's top recruit for the 2001-02 season, Thomas had issues from the start. He sat out the first two games due to eligibility issues, and never earned a starting role, averaging 5.2 points in 28 games. He scored a season high 14 versus Syracuse, but reached double figures in just three other games.

At season's end, it was announced Thomas would transfer to Daytona Junior College, and unusual step for a college freshman. "Harvey Thomas and I have decided that he would be better served spending some time at another school," Esherick said. Despite claims that Thomas had an open door to return to Georgetown, Thomas soon quit Daytona and enrolled at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Junior College, averaging 15 points a game. Thomas never returned to Georgetown.

In April 2003, Thomas signed a letter of intent to attend Baylor University. "We are thrilled to have a player the caliber of Harvey Thomas as part of our program," said Baylor coach Dave Bliss. "He continues our efforts towards being more of a full-court basketball team."

Without a place to live at Baylor that summer, Thomas moved in with two players, Patrick Dennehy and Carlton Dotson. Dennehy had recruited Thomas to Baylor, but the two had a falling out, with Dennehy accusing Thomas of theft and later purchasing a weapon for self-protection.

On June 25, 2003, Dennehy was reported missing. What followed was an attempt by Baylor coach Dave Bliss, a nationally successful coach at Oklahoma and SMU, to cover up Dennehy's death to protect payments he made to Dennehy to attend Baylor.

Bliss attempted to portray Dennehy as a drug dealer to cover up the story, cruelly saying that "We can get out of this. There's nobody right now that can say that we paid Pat Dennehy, because he's dead." Bliss' guilt was exposed by an assistant coach, Abar Rouse, who secretly taped the conversations.

During the disappearance, Dennehy's girlfriend had reported in the press that Dennehy and Dotson were threatened by someone, identified in reports only as "Harvey". Though Thomas later passed two polygraph exams to prove his innocence, Bliss was recorded as placing blame on Thomas. "That [expletive] will lie when the truth's easier," Bliss said. "He'll do anything, and the reason is because we did it for Harvey. You know? I mean we stuck up for him. That's why we're in this jam, is we stuck up for Harvey."

On July 21, Dotson confessed to murdering Dennehy. The body was located in a gravel pit outside Waco four days later. Bliss was fired, Rouse was blackballed by the coaching fraternity for producing the tapes which implicated Bliss, and Baylor was put on six years probation for a variety of infractions which confirmed a lack of institutional control in the program. Players quickly scattered from the program, but Thomas opted to stay. Thomas averaged 15.6 points for the Bears in 2003-04, earning third team all-Big 12 honors.

Harvey Thomas opted for the NBA draft in 2004, but was undrafted. A run of overseas and minor league basketball followed before Thomas returned to Fredericksburg.