Scarlet Sunrise: Bruce Thornton not going to quit on Buckeyes down the stretch
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Bruce Thornton not going to quit on Buckeyes down the stretch
A day after Chris Holtmann was surprisingly fired midseason, Aaron Craft stopped by practice at the Schottenstein Center. A linchpin of the Thad Matta era, the Findlay, Ohio, native is synonymous with Ohio State men’s basketball in the 2010s.
Craft played point guard for the Buckeyes from 2010-14, starting 112 games in the process while earning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year twice and leading the Buckeyes to back-to-back Elite Eights, including a Final Four appearance in 2012.
Craft showing up to the facility Thursday sent a strong message to Ohio State, particularly to the program’s point guard of the present.
“It showed a lot, especially how Buckeye Nation — even alumni that played here at Ohio State — just care so much about the players, about the program,” sophomore Bruce Thornton said.
“And the excellence that they want brought here. So when you see a player like that with that caliber, with stats and accolades that he had at Ohio State, for him to come the next day to practice and watch us and give us some great words of advice to just keep playing, keep having that confidence [and] greater things are ahead — it was very good for our team.”
Ohio State is 14-11, including 4-10 in Big Ten play. The Buckeyes are second-to-last in the Big Ten standings, only ahead of Michigan, which they lost to last month in Ann Arbor. Ohio State hasn’t won a “true” road game since New Year’s Day last year, a drought that now spans more than 400 days.
Luckily for the Buckeyes, who are now led by interim head coach Jake Diebler, they’re at home for a Sunday afternoon matchup with No. 2 Purdue.
The Boilermakers were just named the No. 1 overall seed in the in the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee’s bracket preview. They’ve lost only twice all year.
At this point, though, Ohio State is playing with house money — and a Thornton-led team that hasn’t thrown in the towel, even after the coach that recruited them is gone.
“I’m not finna go nowhere,” Thornton said. “I’m gonna finish the season out strong like how I started. … I’m not gonna quit on my teammates, definitely not on my coaches and especially not on Buckeye Nation.
“All my teammates are on the same accord. We’re gonna finish it out the right way, and whatever happens, happens.”
One of four sophomores to start every game for Ohio State this season, Thornton is first on the team with 15.8 points per game. He also ranks third in the country with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.93:1.
Although his shooting numbers have taken a dip this season, the Alpharetta, Georgia, native has once again proven to be the voice of the locker room. He said he spoke to his teammates in the wake of Holtmann’s firing and emphasized simply that, as crazy as this week has been, “life happens.”
“It’s really how you move on from it and continue to get better each and every day,” Thornton said. “I feel like me just instilling that confidence back in my teammates that we still got things to finish, we still got hardware to go get even though we not have the best record right now.
“I feel like the next couple games in our in our regular season, I feel like we can go get those. And in the Big Ten Tournament I feel like anything can happen, especially with what happened last year.”
Thornton’s referencing, of course, Ohio State’s head-turning, four-game run in the Big Ten Tournament last year that took the conference by storm. As a No. 13 seed, the Buckeyes reached the semifinals.
They bowed out to Purdue.
They’ll get their first crack at the Boilermakers since then Sunday when reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey and Co. enter the Schottenstein Center.
Ohio State has lost nine of its last 11 games. The Buckeyes have an interim head coach and have just a 1.4% chance of making the NCAA Tournament, according to BartTorvik.
They have nothing to lose.
And they haven’t lost what they easily could have in the last few days.
“The confidence I feel like we still have,” Thornton said. “We’re going to just keep moving on.”
Thornton added Friday: “We’re gonna take today, get better today, understand what we got to do to beat Purdue. And I feel like everything will take care of itself.”
‘I needed to be the best version of me:’ Jake Diebler approaching interim role with urgency, passion and stewardship
Jake Diebler has taken over as interim head coach following the firing of Chris Holtmann. Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith made the decision to move on from Holtmann with six regular season games left this season and four years left on the seventh-year head coach’s contract because “a spark of energy was needed.”
Smith hopes that Diebler can give the Buckeyes that spark down the stretch of the 2023-24 campaign.
Diebler has learned under the Drew family, Thad Matta, Holtmann and others in his career, but, going into this interim head coaching role, he knew he couldn’t try to be any of them, or anyone else for that matter.
“I needed to be the best version of me,” Diebler said.
For the full story, go here.
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This time, we took a look at the fourth-year Buckeyes, several of whom made the decision to put the NFL Draft on pause and run things back in Columbus for one more season.
One of the four players featured earned first-team All-Big Ten recognition from the media in 2023. Check it out here.
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Counting down
Buckeyes vs. Akron: 195 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 286 days
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