Thomas Clark

Background

Welsh was born in Torrance, California, in Los Angeles County to Pat and Kathy Welsh.

Education

He attended Loyola High School in Los Los Angeles

Career

He was a McDonald"s All-American in high school. At age five, he started playing basketball. As a 6-foot-5-inch (196 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 (21 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.

In November 2014, Welsh committed to play at University of California, Los Angeles over fellow Pac-12 schools California and Stanford. As a freshman with the Bruins in 2014-2015, 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 2005-2006. 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 University of California, Los Angeles"s opening game of the 2015 National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament. Playing the final minutes of the game in place of Parker, he made a key block with 34 seconds remaining and University of California, Los Angeles down by four.

Having played on the United States. under-19 national team over the summer, Welsh"s footwork and fundamentals improved.

With Kevon Looney having moved on to the National Basketball Association (National Basketball Association), he was promoted to University of California, Los Angeles"s starting lineup at center, while Parker moved to forward. In the 2015-2016 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.

On December 3 against Number.

1 ranked team

Welsh tried out for the United States national team in the 2014 International Basketball Federation Americas Under-18 Championship, but was one of the final three roster cuts. The following year after his first season with University of California, Los Angeles, he was one of 12 players selected by the United States. to play at the 2015 International Basketball Federation 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. Welsh played in all seven games, averaging 2.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in 8.9 minutes.

Achievements

• After his freshman year at University of California, Los Angeles, he was a member of the United States national team that won the gold medal at the International Basketball Federation Under-19 World Championship in 2015. In the following game, Welsh scored a career-high 22 on 10-for-12 shooting in an 88–83 win over Cal Polytechnic 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 Number. On January 9, 2016, he had a career-high 16 rebounds in an 81–74 win over Arizona State, which helped University of California, Los Angeles avoid falling to 1–3 in the Pac-12 for the first time in almost 20 years. The Americans won the gold medal after a 79–71 win over Croatia.