If Tom Knight had an outsized ego to match his outsized body he might feel the eyes of a home state when he runs onto the basketball floor at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

He doesn’t, so he won’t.

“My role is to be the first big man off the bench,” says Knight. “My job is to help out on defense, block shots, get some rebounds. Do my best.”

Like it or not, fellow Mainers see him in a different role. The big kid from the small western Maine town of Dixfield is a standard-bearer for the state’s big-time college basketball fans. He is a 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward for Notre Dame.

He is Darren Mastropaolo, the Falmouth star who helped Bucknell upset Kansas 64-63 in 2005. He is Nik Caner-Medley, who left Deering High in 2002 for defending national champion Maryland and repeat trips to the NCAA tournament. He is Ralph Mims of Brunswick and Florida State. He is T.J. Caouette of Winthrop and Villanova.

He is one of only a handful of Mainers this year playing Division I men’s basketball and the only one at its highest level. Notre Dame is 21-10, ranked 23rd in this week’s AP Top 25 and the third seed in the Big East tournament.

The Fighting Irish drew a bye for the tournament’s first round and play the last game in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

The team was already in Manhattan on Tuesday to work out kinks after the flight from Indiana, practice, and watch first-round games. Villanova plays the University of Southern Florida in tonight’s last game. That winner gets Notre Dame.

“We’ll have some free time,” said Knight. “Some of us have been up to Times Square.” People on the sidewalks noted the tall men wearing Notre Dame gear.

“They knew we were in town for the tournament. This is New York.”

Away from Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Ind., Madison Square Garden is Knight’s favorite place to play basketball. “It’s got so much history. The way the lighting is, you look up in the stands and everything’s black. You can’t see anyone. But you know they’re there.”

Knight averaged just under 3 points and 2 rebounds a game, in about 9 minutes of playing time. He got into 27 games and started three times. The first came against Maine in early December at Notre Dame.

From the Maine bench, assistant coach Ed Kohtala watched his nephew walk to center court for the tip-off. Kohtala’ sister, Kathy, is Knight’s mother. Knight’s father, Karl, was Kohtala’s teammate at Mt. Blue High in the mid 1970’s. Kohtala was the best man at the wedding.

“To hold someone as a baby and watch the process of him growing into his body was something special,” said Kohtala. “For just a second or two at the tip-off I became his uncle again.”

Kohtala has recruiting duties this weekend and doesn’t expect to be in Madison Square Garden with Kathy and Karl Knight. He’ll watch the Big East tournament on television.

“To see his adjustment to the physical wear and tear of Division I basketball, to see the way his body has changed and the level of conditioning he’s at . . . if not for the phenomenal development of Jack Cooley (6-9 forward and Big East Conference Most Improved Player), Tom might be out there getting more minutes.”

Kohtala heard the whispers three years ago when Notre Dame was recruiting Knight that his nephew might not have the talent to stick. That Knight would play more at Maine. That Knight could help Maine reach the NCAA tournament for the first time ever.

“A person needs to know how good they can be,” said Kohtala. “Tom wanted to know. Sometimes there is the perception that being from Maine can hold you back. Tom has goals and aspirations that would make us all proud.”

A junior in the classroom, Knight is a second-year player on the court. He redshirted his freshman year. He’s growing into his future. Ask him if basketball is still fun and his answer bounces back through the telephone. Oh, yeah.

He knows who he is: a 20-year-old transitioning from the secure cocoon of a Class C Maine high school to the competitive intensity of Big East basketball that would intimidate others. He is not yet a star or a starter. Sometimes, the days he ducked his head to enter Dirigo High classrooms seem so long ago. Sometimes it’s like yesterday.

“I hear Dirigo won the state championship. That’s great. We couldn’t get it done my last year.” Over background noise from somewhere in Manhattan, I thought I heard laughter.

Knight is still moving on.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at: ssolloway@pressherald.com

Twitter: SteveSolloway