Even though the team’s success has not been there, Thornton has continued to stick it out and will return for his final season
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about hype. What are you most hyped about heading into the 2025-26 season? You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”Hype Week” articles here.
As the 2025-26 Ohio State men’s basketball team was being constructed, the primary focus was on retaining the top three players: John Mobley Jr., Devin Royal and, of course, Bruce Thornton.
Now that Thornton has announced he is entering the NBA Draft with the intention of returning to Columbus, Buckeyes fans can get excited about the current three-year starter finishing and ending his career in Columbus. In this day and age, that should be celebrated by fans.
Thornton did enter the NBA Draft, but he was not invited to the combine, and will very likely return to Ohio State after getting feedback from scouts on what he should focus on this year as a Buckeye.
Head coach Jake Diebler announced his return on 97.1’s morning show.
“Bruce Thornton is coming back,” Diebler said on a radio appearance on 97.1 The Fan’s Morning Juice. “He’s going to go through the NBA Draft process — which I’m really excited for him to go through — (to) get feedback. And if he can stay in and be an NBA player, great. Because I think he is an NBA player. Maybe he’s not yet, and if he’s not, he’s going to come back to Ohio State.”
The Georgia native is coming off the best season of his career. He started in 32 games and led Ohio State in scoring at 17.7 points per game, assists at 4.6 per game, and minutes played at an impressive 36.2 minutes per game.
He has quickly been moving up the record books throughout his career, currently ranking 21st in Ohio State basketball history in career points with 1,487, 10th in assists at 408, and seventh in made threes with 159.
With him likely returning to Ohio State, Thornton has a chance to climb up those lists further. He needs 609 points to break Dennis Hopson’s record of 2,096 career points and 36 more starts to break William Buford’s record of 137 career starts.
This is an age where it is easy for players to move schools and change their situation, and that is especially true for Bruce Thornton. Thornton has never played in an NCAA Tournament game in three years as a Buckeye, and has had two head coaches. However, Thornton has been the top performer and consistent with Ohio State for all three years despite others letting him down.
It would have been easy for Thornton to transfer to a top program (he could have transferred almost anywhere he wanted to) and into a better situation. Still, he is committed to helping Ohio State get back to the NCAA Tournament and become a consistent contender in the conference.