Where are they now? Tomas Ress.

I thought it would be appropriate to kick off the first "Where are they now?" installment with my favorite former player and every one's favorite Italian, TomasRess.

Tomas Ress was best known for getting sick. A few games into his sophomore season he went into the hospital. A removed appendix and a few blood cultures later the doctors found evidence of staph. He was given powerful antibiotics; training rooms, showers and dressing areas were scrubbed down to prevent an outbreak and Ress was back on the court within a month. Soon the stomach pains returned. An MRI revealed an infected pubic bone (gross) and his season was over.

Tomas came back the next season, but was not the same player. "My shot doesn't go in because I get so tired, my legs aren't into it. I try to work on it, but there's not enough time right now with school, practice, travel and everything." Amazingly enough, his 1.3 point/1.8 rebound season was good enough to catch the attention of an Italian team. Tomas skipped his final year of eligibility and went pro overseas.

When I started this post I expected a majority of the content would address the Tomas's current activities. However, I do not speak (or more importantly read) Italian. He plays on an Italian team. Everything about his current activities is in Italian and Google's language translate feature leaves something to be desired. Here is the best I can do...

His first pro team was Scavolini Pesaro whre his productivity was about even with his finaly year in college: 10 games, averaged 1.4 points and 1.7. His second season with Scavolini Pesaro was an improvement. He played in 34 games, starting in 10 and averaged 3.1 points and 2.7 boards. He now plays from Bipop Carire R Emila, where he started every game after arriving via trade with Climamio Bologna early in the season. He averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 boards, which puts him eighth in team-scoring and second in team-rebounding.

Anyone who watched Ress play will not recognize him in this clip. No he is not the guy getting posterized, or the guy sealing off the lane. He is number 15...