Junior guard Jake Thomas said it’s fine if people label him a shooter.

Just know he will bring much more than three-point shooting to the Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball team.

“I don’t want to be strictly that. You can’t play here by just being a three-point shooter,” Thomas said. “You have to be good at everything else. That’s fine to be called that, but I have to do a lot more to be able to play more.”

The Racine, Wis. native transferred to Marquette as a walk-on this past summer and will sit out the 2011-2012 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

Thomas’ broken wrist the summer before his senior year of high school limited his exposure to collegiate coaches. Even a state title that winter didn’t bring in many offers, and he ultimately chose to be a South Dakota Coyotes.

With the Coyotes, Thomas averaged 13.4 points per game and connected on 178 3-pointers over two seasons. He was named an honorable mention of the All-Great West conference team his sophomore year.

But Thomas decided shortly after his sophomore season that he wanted to be closer to home. So he made a call to another Racine native who had transferred to Marquette: redshirt sophomore forward Jamil Wilson.

Rivals in high school, Wilson let his eventual teammate know that Marquette was a good school, but that he would need to be ready for the workload.

“He told me I needed to be ready to work and that it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve ever done before,” Thomas said. “He was right.”

Coach Buzz Williams awarded Thomas a scholarship in September for the upcoming season. But now he faces the same situation Wilson, who sat out last season as a transfer student, faced a year ago.

Thomas is allowed to practice with the team and sit on the bench at home games but is not allowed to travel with the team. Thomas said Wilson has advised him on what to expect from this season.

“He told me to stay motivated,” Thomas said. “You’re going to feel away from the team when they travel, and you’ll feel like a regular student. You just have to keep your head up, get in, lift and do all the workouts and stay positive through it.”

When Thomas gains eligibility in 2012, Wilson said the Golden Eagles will gain a true offensive threat that goes beyond shooting threes.

“A lot of people know him as a shooter because that’s one thing he displays really well,” Wilson said. “He’s a good all-around player. He can score, he can put it on the floor and he’s actually pretty athletic when it comes down to it. He can finish around the rim as well.”

For the time being, it’s unclear where Thomas will fit in next season.

“We’re still trying to figure out this year’s team,” assistant coach Aki Collins said. “No disrespect to Jake, but we’ve got some time to figure out where he’s going to play. We did the same thing with Jamil. He’s here. He’s a piece. We’ll figure out where he fits in when we get to that.”

Thomas said he will be ready to contribute however the team needs him to, and will accomplish that by working this offseason to improve his game.

“I know they’re not going to have many people at my position, so I know if I improve defensively and everything else, I should be OK,” Thomas said. “I just have to get stronger and physically be ready to go.”