Bruce Thornton is a college basketball throwback who finally dragged Ohio State to March Madness

CHICAGO — Bruce Thornton had every opportunity to leave. He was one of the best players in men’s college basketball at the sport’s most important position, but everyone else around him wasn’t holding up their end of the bargain. Thornton was too good to end his college career without ever playing in the NCAA tournament. It would have been understandable if he thought he had to say goodbye to Ohio State to finally get there.

Only 22 players in men’s college basketball stayed four years at one school among power conference teams. The list includes UConn’s Alex Karaban with his two national championship rings, Purdue’s Braden Smith with a national championship appearance, and Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey, who is in March Madness every year. Thornton is on the list too after refusing to give up on the Buckeyes, and now his college career is finally getting the send-off it deserves.

Ohio State beat Iowa, 72-69, to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2026 men’s Big Ten tournament on Thursday. Rival Michigan is waiting on Friday, but Ohio State should already feel safe about their place in the March Madness bracket after Thornton led the team to a fantastic closing stretch of the season that now includes four straight wins.

Thornton was electric against Iowa in his matchup with another star point guard, Bennett Stirtz, who is considered a much better prospect at the NBA level. It didn’t look like it on Thursday: Thornton played his bully-ball ground game to get to his spots as a scorer and keep Ohio State a step ahead the whole afternoon. He finished with 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field while adding six rebounds, three assists, and only one turnover.

This was Thornton at his best, showing everything that has made him one of college basketball’s most reliable guards for the last four years.

“His on-court impact has been really special,” Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler said after the win. “You see the efficiency that he plays with.”

Thornton is efficient in everything he does, and it makes his impact even bigger than his gaudy per-game averages of 20.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, and four assists per game. He’s posting 67.1 percent true shooting, a top-20 in DI, and a ridiculous number for anyone let alone a ground-bound guard. He shoots 77.7 percent at the rim, 58.4 percent from mid-range, and 40 percent from three. Beyond the buckets, Thornton also has a +3.2 assist-to-turnover rate, an elite number for such a high-volume ball handler.

Thornton is No. 8 in college basketball in BPM this season, a box score-based metric that estimates a basketball player’s contribution to the team when that player is on the court. He’s No. 2 in the country in BartTorvik’s metric Points Over Replacement Per Adjusted Game at +7.4, trailing only National Player of the Year and rightful No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Cameron Boozer at Duke.

Thornton isn’t one of these point guards who pounds the air out of the ball, either. He’s been unlocked as off-ball player this year next to backcourt mate John Mobley Jr., not just spacing the floor as a shooter but also bending defenses by zipping around screens with the defensive attention he always demands. His efficiency is again elite on these play-types, as he’s scored 1.293 points per possession on spot-ups and 1.288 PPP on screens, both excellent numbers.

“What we’ve been able to do as we constructed this roster is put multiple playmakers out on the floor so we can move him into different areas and different spots, and he doesn’t always have to playmake with the ball in his hands and the guys can create some stuff for him,” Diebler said after the game. “He got a couple of catch and shoot threes today that those other guys craeted for him and that versatility for us, I think makes us really hard to guard.”

Thornton committed to former coach Chris Holtmann way back in Nov. 2020 as he was starting his junior year of high school ball. He was the No. 47 overall recruit in the 2022 RSCI, the most highly-touted of four top-65 recruits Holtmann brought in that year. It goes without saying that Thornton is the only player still in Columbus: Brice Sensabaugh was a one-and-done to the NBA, Roddy Gayle left for Michigan after his sophomore year, and Felix Okpara bounced for Tennessee that same offseason.

Thornton has been Ohio State’s constant the entire way, staying at the program through massive changes to the NIL and transfer portal, two different head coaches, and tons of different teammates. He’s played his game the whole time, eschewing above-the-rim athleticism — he has two dunks in 4,527 career minutes — to grind out efficient offensive possessions on the floor for himself and his teammates.

Thornton has never been the type of player who sees his name pop up in mock drafts, but there he was at No. 53 to the Chicago Bulls in ESPN’s latest projection. He was never going to get taller or more explosive by staying four years in college, but he did master his game to such an extreme degree that it would be foolish to bet against him making it at the next level eventually.

A player like Thornton was simply too good to graduate without ever playing in the NCAA tournament. Leave it up to the senior guard to drag his program across the finish in his last chance.