Kingston Thomas heads to La Lumiere for senior season in Indiana

Kingston Thomas picked La Lumiere because the next stop had to feel bigger, faster and less forgiving than what he had already conquered at East Lansing. The 6-foot-5 guard-forward is heading to La Porte, Indiana, to join a national program that lives in the deep end of prep basketball, and his arrival shifts both his own ceiling and La Lumiere’s profile for the 2026-27 season.

Thomas leaves East Lansing after helping the Trojans go 55-3 over the past two seasons, a run that included a Division 1 state championship in 2025 and a runner-up finish in 2026. The 2025 title was East Lansing’s first boys basketball state championship since 1958, and Thomas was central to it, finishing the final with 19 points and 12 rebounds in a 66-46 win over Wayne Memorial. A year later, East Lansing fell 54-50 to Rockford, closing a two-year stretch in which Thomas established himself as one of Michigan’s most productive wings. As a junior, he averaged 14.0 points and 6.0 rebounds and earned all-state recognition from both the Michigan Sports Writers and the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan.

La Lumiere is a fitting landing spot for that resume. The school is an independent, co-educational boarding and day prep school founded in 1963, and its basketball program has long operated as a national proving ground. La Lumiere says six of its players have been McDonald’s All-Americans, including Jaren Jackson Jr., Brian Bowen, Isaiah Stewart and JJ Starling, with Darius Adams and Jalen Haralson added to that list in 2025. The Lakers’ national team also showed again this spring why the program remains a heavyweight, going 2-0 in North Carolina to lock up an EYBL Conference Tournament berth and then knocking off No. 3 Spire Academy 81-73 on Feb. 28.

For Thomas, the move is about daily competition as much as long-term branding. Ray Mitchell has framed La Lumiere’s EYBL Scholastic schedule as one of the toughest environments in the country, the kind that can expose weaknesses and accelerate growth for a player with Division I offers from Michigan State, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Robert Morris and Miami of Ohio.

The transfer also underscores a broader trend: out-of-state stars keep using Indiana prep schools as their final launch pad. Thomas, the son of former Michigan State player David Thomas, who was part of the Spartans’ 2000 national championship team and now works in MSU athletics, arrives in La Porte with a winning pedigree and a spotlight already attached. East Lansing loses a centerpiece and a major chunk of its scoring load, but the Trojans believe another wave is ready. La Lumiere just gained one more piece built for that level.