Growth of Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton impressed opposing coaches, players
DeAndre Haynes didn’t just try to recruit Bruce Thornton once.
First, as an assistant coach under John Beilein at Michigan, Haynes thought the bruising point guard from Georgia would be a good fit for the Wolverines. And then, when Haynes moved on to an assistant job for Mark Turgeon at Maryland after Beilein left the school in 2019, Haynes attempted to coerce Thornton to join the Terrapins.
Neither overture worked. Now Thornton, with a year as the starting point guard at Ohio State under his belt, is a primary reason for hope that better things are ahead for the Buckeyes than last year’s 16-19 record.
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It’s not a surprise to Haynes, who just finished his second season an assistant at Marquette.
“He’s just a leader,” Haynes said prior to playing Vermont in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. “Leader, to me, is making the people around you better, and that’s everyday. That’s what I see in him. I saw it in AAU. His coaches always used to send me clips and I loved that about him. He’s a great, young point guard here (at Ohio State).”
Haynes knows what it takes to win in the Big Ten, and what kinds of guards get you there. At Michigan, Haynes arrived in 2017-18 and helped work with a young backcourt featuring sophomore Zavier Simpson and freshman Jordan “Swaggy” Poole. Simpson, a lightly used reserve as a freshman the year prior to Haynes’ arrival, increased his production all four years and earned second-team all-Big Ten honors in both his junior and senior seasons.
Poole, a reserve on that 2017-18 team, became a first-round NBA Draft pick after his second season with Haynes. And at Maryland, he helped fourth-year guard Anthony Cowan Jr. earn first-team all-conference honors.
There was a common thread among those guys.
“That’s one thing I always teach our players is, if you wanna be good, you’ve gotta put in the work,” Haynes said.
It’s an approach that helped Thornton turn the 2022-23 season around, both individually and collectively. Through 13 games, Ohio State was 10-3 and Thornton was averaging 10.4 points and 3.7 assists with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1. Then the Buckeyes lost 14 of 15, securing their first year of missing the postseason since 2017, and although he was struggling Thornton was continually praised for being an everyday guy in practice.
Amid that tailspin, Thornton was promoted to team captain. At the end, he was named to the Big Ten all-tournament team, becoming only the 10th freshman in league history to do so. He finished the season having played more minutes than anyone else while averaging 10.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
His growth throughout the season was noticeable to his opponents, especially late. When the Buckeyes hosted Michigan State on Feb. 12, second-year guard Jaden Akins said Thornton was “on the scouting report, but it was more about everyone else.” When the teams met in the Big Ten Tournament on March 10, it was a different story.
“He was the main guy this last time because he was going on a run, going on a tear,” Akins said before playing USC in Nationwide Arena. “He was basically our main focus (that) last game. You’ve got to give him credit. He works. He got better throughout the season and he’s a good player.”
In his final eight games of the season, Thornton averaged 16.4 points and 3.0 assists. In his final three games in the Big Ten Tournament, Thornton dished out 15 assists with zero turnovers as the Buckeyes put together a run that ended with a semifinal loss to No. 1 seed Purdue.
In that loss, Ohio State was playing its fourth game in as many days and fatigue clearly kicked in. It was the only game in the final eight in which Thornton didn’t score in double figures, and it came against a familiar face: Purdue first-year guard Fletcher Loyer, who had played Thornton during their AAU days.
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“The Big Ten Tournament, you could just tell that level of confidence just rose,” Loyer said prior to playing Fairleigh Dickinson at Nationwide Arena. “It was a rough season for Ohio State, but they got going there in March and you could tell all their confidence levels were just up a bit. A guy like Bruce, he was a great defender in the Big Ten Tournament too and he just got to his spots and hit shots.”
The offseason will now be critical for Thornton and the Buckeyes, who remain in the market to add some experienced backcourt depth via the transfer portal. How much growth can happen between Thornton’s first and second years will be as instrumental in helping Ohio State get back into the NCAA Tournament as anything.
Time will tell. But so far, the early returns are encouraging.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State foes saw growth in freshman Bruce Thornton
