Perhaps the biggest domino of the Buckeyes’ 2024-25 offseason fell early Thursday morning when head coach Jake Diebler announced that junior guard and three-time team captain Bruce Thornton is planning to return to Ohio State for a fourth and final season. Thornton will go through the NBA draft process and then likely return to Columbus to finish out his collegiate career with the Buckeyes, according to his coach.
“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.”
Thornton’s return is a significant one for Ohio State. The Fairburn, Ga., native is coming off the best season of his career, starting each of the Buckeyes’ 32 games and leading them in scoring (17.7 points per game), assists (4.6) and minutes played (36.2) on his way to a second-team All-Big Ten honor. He had similar production in 2023-24 when he started all but one of Ohio State’s 36 games and led the team in those same three categories (15.7 points, 4.8 assets, 33.6 minutes) while earning a third-team all-conference nod from coaches.
These stats, in addition to his 10.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 games as a freshman in 35 games (all starts), have allowed him to climb up the program record books, currently ranking 21st in OSU history in career points (1,487), 10th in assists (408) and seventh in made threes (159).
Now with another full year in Scarlet and Gray coming in 2025-26, Thornton has a chance to further climb up those lists. If he maintains his 17.7 point average, it would take him 35 more games to break Dennis Hopson’s record of 2,096 career points, while he also needs just 36 more starts to break William Bufurd’s record of 137 career starts.
Aside from potentially setting some program records, Thornton will also be searching for more team success as a senior, especially in the postseason. He has yet to play in an NCAA tournament game in his three seasons with the program, this past year being the closest he’s been to the Big Dance with the Buckeyes being among the first four teams out of the field by the NCAA Selection Committee despite a 2-5 finish to the season.
“This is not how I pictured (my career), but these are the cards I’ve just been dealt with,” Thornton told BSB after the team’s 77-70 loss to Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on March 12. “I’m proud of my journey.”
Thornton will now look to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in his career on a likely new-look Buckeye team in 2025-26, although he will be joined again in the backcourt by starter John Mobley Jr., who announced he is returning for his sophomore season on March 27. Thornton and Mobley will lead a Buckeyes’ backcourt next season that also includes Indiana third-year transfer and former Ohio Mr. Basketball recipient Gabe Cupps as well as rising third-year Taison Chatman, who missed all of 2024-25 after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee before the season.
The Buckeyes are expected to add backcourt depth through the portal in addition to some starting frontcourt production.
