Matt Thomas arrested, charged with OWI

Brian Achenbach/Iowa State Daily

Freshman guard Matt Thomas practices his shot. The Iowa State men’s basketball team had an open practice Thursday, March 20 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. 

Max Dible

At 1:49 a.m. June 14, ISU guard Matt Thomas was pulled over by Ames police and subsequently arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

It is Thomas’s first OWI offense.

Thomas, who is 19 and will begin his sophomore year in the fall, was also charged with an “improper brake light,” according to online arrest records. 

Thomas is the second ISU basketball player in two months to be charged with an OWI. Junior forward Abdel Nader was arrested April 12 for the same offense, after which he was suspended indefinitely from the team.

Iowa State’s response to the arrest of Thomas will mirror how the university dealt with Nader’s OWI.

“Coach Hoiberg is aware of the situation. Per our student athlete code of conduct, Matt is suspended indefinitely,” said an ISU athletic department spokesperson.

At around 7:30 p.m. on June 14, Thomas posted an apology on his twitter account.

“Want to apologize to ISU, my team, family, friends [and] community. This isn’t me. I’ll learn from this mistake and be a better person from it,” Thomas wrote.

During his freshman campaign, Thomas was a big part of a limited ISU bench. He played 21.2 minutes per game and averaged 5.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists per contest.