All we know for sure is that Thomas is off to a good start. I think the biggest concern with him is the injury bug. He had quite a few at MSU. What would be real nice is if makes it big and shows what a stubborn crew the Big Sky officials might be. My opinion is that they just didn't like the guy, so they flagged him on anything that looked close to being holding or pass interference. He was a smack talker and I don't care for that, but I would think the Big Sky officials could handle that a little better. However they are just "part-time" employees and most have other jobs, so I can cut them some slack, but the way they handled Thomas wasn't fair.
One other thing about the Big Sky officials that I was told the other day is that one of them (John Maloney of Helena) is Bobby Hauck's uncle. I was also told he's not too bashful about sporting his Griz gear around. I guess he can't ref UM games, but the Big Sky administration folks haven't realized he could affect the outcome of other games that factor in to how sits in the standings. From what I've seen Mahoney is just as good as the other officials and he is a referee (boss ref), which speaks to his abilities and standing with the other officials and Big Sky adminstration.
It isn't fair to anyone as it's just as likely that he over-corrects by making calls against the Griz as he does for them. It's also just as likely that he is completely fair. Point is that he's the only one who knows for sure, while the players, coaches, fans are just supposed to have blind faith.
Mike Saia was a basketball official in the PAC-10 and when his brother became an asst. coach at UCLA under Lavin, he couldn't officiate any PAC 10 league games. His brother just got on at USC recently with Bibby's staff and I believe Mike has discontinued officiating all together.