Even though it is football season, college basketball season is just around the corner with the Buckeyes tipping off on Nov. 3. There were a lot of roster changes for the Buckeyes heading into the 2025-26
season, and over the next couple of months we will be dropping one player preview a week to get you caught up on the current roster.
The Bruce Thornton File
Name: Bruce Thornton
Position: Guard
Class: Senior
High School/Former School: Milton High School
Hometown: Fairburn, Ga.
Weight: 215 pounds
Height: 6-foot-2
Breakdown
Thornton has racked up accomplishments since arriving in Columbus. He was voted All-Big Ten Second Team in 2025, All-Big Ten Third Team in 2024, NABC All-District Team in 2025, the Emerald Coast Classic Most Valuable Player in 2023, the Big Ten All-Tournament Team in 2023, and was Academic All-Big Ten in 2024 and 2025.
In his career, Thornton has played 102 games, starting in all 102. He has averaged 14.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 46 percent from the floor, 37.4 percent from three-point range and 83 percent from the free-throw line. He has averaged 33.4 minutes per contest as a Buckeye.
Last season as a junior, Thornton averaged a career-best 17.7 points per game with 3.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists. According to Ohio State Athletics, he became the fourth Buckeye over the last 12 years to average 17 points in a season (E.J. Liddell, Keita Bates-Diop, D’Angelo Russell).
Last season, Thornton had 148 assists and just 47 turnovers, leading the Big Ten and finishing top 10 nationally with a 3.15 assist-to-turnover ratio. He shot over 50 percent from the floor and was a career-best 42.4 percent from long range
As a sophomore, Thornton played in and started 35 games and led the team in scoring (15.7 points), assists (4.8), steals (1.2) and minutes played (33.6). His 4.0 assist-to-turnover ratio was second-best in the country, and he became just the third player in program history with more than 100 assists and fewer than 50 turnovers in a season.
As a freshman, Thornton was thrown into the fire, starting in all 35 games that season. He averaged 10.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. He recorded a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio while playing a team-high 30.5 minutes per game and led the team with 29 steals and scored in double-figures 19 times with four 20-point games.
Before getting to Columbus, Thornton was a consensus four-star recruit by ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports and the No. 42 prospect overall and No. 8 point guard according to 247Sports. Thornton was named Georgia’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior, averaging 17.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.5 assists at Milton.
Thornton led Milton High School to the Class 7A state title as a junior and a final national ranking of No. 7, earning the school’s first trip to the GEICO National Tournament. He scored over 1,500 points in his career at Milton, and was a three-time first team All-State selection.
Expected Role
Bruce Thornton is one of the top point guards in college basketball, and will lead the Buckeyes for one last time. He has a chance to break the program’s all-time scoring record and games started. Dennis Hopson currently is the all-time leading scorer at 2,096 points, while Thornton sits at 1,487 points for his career.
If they play 35 games this season, Thornton will need to average 17.4 points per game to break the record. Also, he is currently at 102 games started. William Buford holds the record with 137 starts, so Thornton would need 36 starts to break that record.
Thornton’s role is very simple. He is one of the best guards in the conference and has to be the senior leader for this Buckeye team. Thornton’s production has been consistent throughout his career, but he has yet to play in an NCAA Tournament game and has one year to change that.
The Buckeyes opened up the season on Monday with a 118-102 win over IU Indy. Thornton had 26 points, five rebounds, four assists and one turnover on 7-for-10 shooting in 35 minutes played.
