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PG Bruce Thornton (All-B1G, All-American, 4X Captain, tOSU all time scoring leader)

Bruce Thornton’s Loyalty and Leadership Lead Him to Ohio State’s All-Time Scoring Record

March 8, 2026 by Caroline Rice
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Senior guard Bruce Thornton added another milestone to his Ohio State career Saturday, becoming the all-time leading scorer in program history during the Buckeyes’ 91-78 win over the Indiana Hoosiers.

Thornton entered the game needing 12 points to pass former Buckeye standout Dennis Hopson atop the program’s scoring list with 2,096 all-time points. He reached the mark in front of a historic sellout home crowd at the Schottenstein Center with 18,809 in attendance, finishing the afternoon with 25 points and seven assists as Ohio State secured the victory, likely clinching their spot in the NCAA Tournament.

For Thornton, the achievement is one he admitted he never expected when he first arrived in Columbus.

“With all of the great players that came through here and played at a very high level and put this place in great positions. I never thought this would ever be a thing,” Thornton said. “If you told me freshman year this could happen, I would tell you to get out of my face.”

The senior guard has built his place in the Ohio State record book through steady production over four seasons. After arriving as a highly regarded recruit out of Milton High School in Fairburn, Georgia, Thornton quickly established himself in the Buckeyes’ lineup, starting all 35 games as a freshman during the 2022–23 season. His role and production continued to grow each year, eventually placing him among the most accomplished scorers in program history.

Thornton averaged 10.6 points per game as a freshman, then jumped to 15.7 as a sophomore, 17.7 as a junior and 19.9 per game this season. A three-level scorer throughout his career, he has shot 37.9 percent from three-point range and 48.2 percent overall from the field while posting a career effective field goal percentage of 55.6 percent.
His senior season has been the most efficient of his career as he has carried a significant offensive load for Ohio State.

Thornton is shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from three this year, producing an effective field goal percentage of 62.3 percent, the best mark of his Buckeye career.

Thornton has also been recognized for his production within the conference. He earned second-team All-Big Ten honors during the 2024-25 season after being named third-team All-Big Ten the year prior. He has also excelled academically, earning Academic All-Big Ten recognition in both of those seasons, and graduating in December of 2025 with a degree in Sport Industry.

Beyond scoring, Thornton has been one of the most productive playmakers in program history. He ranks third all-time at Ohio State with 528 career assists and owns a career assist-to-turnover ratio of roughly three to one. His assist numbers dipped slightly late in the 2024-25 season when the Buckeyes began using him more frequently off the ball, but his ability to create for others has remained a key part of his game.

Thornton has also made an impact on the glass despite his size. Entering Saturday’s game, he was just nine rebounds away from becoming only the second player in Big Ten history to record 2,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists in a career.

Before the game on Saturday, Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler reflected on the consistent efforts Thornton has shown throughout his career and the work that went into reaching the milestone.

In an era where many players transfer and move on to find better opportunities, Thornton stuck it out at Ohio State through the ups and downs and was the piece of the program that Diebler built his team around when taking over as head coach.

“It speaks to the consistency, the talent, the work ethic, just the person that Bruce is,” Diebler said. “He’s worked really hard and earned what he’s got.”

Thornton’s impact has extended beyond scoring. Over the course of his career, he developed into one of the program’s leaders and became the first player in Ohio State history to serve as a team captain for four consecutive seasons.

“My mom always told me, if you’re going to start something, you have to finish,” Thornton said. “Everything is different now with NIL and the portal changes, but I just stay true to who I am.”

That mindset helped define Thornton’s time with the Buckeyes as he remained with the program through all four years of his career during an era where roster movement has become common across college basketball.

Diebler is not the only coach to recognize just how rare a player like Thornton is.

“He’s what college basketball is all about,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said after the Buckeyes beat the Boilermakers last Sunday. “He could’ve ran, he could’ve transferred, he could’ve done all that stuff but he stayed and he competed. He fought himself to be in this position. He has a lot of individual accolades, but I know the way he’s wired, good for him to be the all-time leading scorer, but I know he’d trade that to get in the NCAA Tournament. He’s about winning. He’s not about himself. He’s not about the fluff. He’s not about the attention-seeking behavior. He’s about winning, being a good teammate. Dudes like that are gold.”
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Indiana at Ohio State, Sat. 3/7, 5:30 ET on Fox

Just sayin': Some really good photos of the game.

Photo Gallery: Bruce Thornton Makes History as Ohio State Downs Indiana 91-78 on Senior Day​

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2027 FL DB Zayden Gamble (Verbal Offer)

Four-star safety enjoying his time at Ohio State​

Two safeties in the 2027 class already committed for Ohio State, the Buckeyes are off to a strong start, but looking to add to their defensive secondary with additional top targets.

Using these spring practice sessions as the perfect opportunity to host multiple recruits, Wednesday saw the Buckeyes bring in Florida native defensive back, Zayden Gamble. A product of the prestigious St. Thomas Aquinas program, the Buckeyes have had their fare share of success with the school over the years, but it’s been a bit since their last commit came from the Florida powerhouse.

A 5-foot-11, 195 pound athlete, Gamble is the No. 195 player nationally and the 18th best safety per the 247Sports Composite grades. Nearly 50 offers to his name though, Gamble is one of the top players in the country regardless of his ranking and Ohio State thinks so too.

Schools such as Georgia, Florida, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and several others are on his list, but being in Columbus looked like time well spent as Zayden took to his social media to share multiple examples of his visit.

The Buckeyes making his top ten schools update in early February, Gamble made it clear that following his recent Florida visit he had the Gators as his leader, but Ohio State will have something to say about that with this latest trip.

Plenty of time for him to still decide, it’s likely the Buckeyes did their job in leaving him impressed. Getting some time with the head coach certainly doesn’t hurt either.

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2025-2026 College Basketball General Discussion

It's actually hilarious that Auburn spent $8 million on players that lost 16 games.

The hacks will keep screaming "but but #1 schedule!!!" but conveniently leave out that they lost to bad teams like Ole Miss and Mississippi State down the stretch which will ultimately be what keeps them out of the tournament
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2026 Spring Practices, Spring Game, and other Tidbits

Observations and Video from Ohio State’s Second Spring Practice of 2026

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Ohio State held its second practice of the spring on Thursday, and media members who cover the team were allowed in once again to watch the first hour of practice.

As was the case on Tuesday, the open practice window consisted primarily of individual drills, but concluded with a 7-on-7 passing period in which the offense and defense went head-to-head. Ohio State’s top three quarterbacks all looked sharp during that period, as Julian Sayin, Tavien St. Clair and Justyn Martin combined to complete every pass they attempted.

Sayin kicked the practice off with a fiery speech to the team during its pre-practice huddle, as the Ohio State quarterback was the player called upon to speak to the team before practice on Thursday after safety Leroy Roker took on that role Tuesday, showing how his leadership growing entering his second year as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback.

Some more observations from what we saw at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Wednesday, including the versatility of freshman offensive weapon Legend Bey and how several receivers looked during the open practice window.

Legend Bey utilized all over the place

Legend Bey’s versatility and explosive athleticism have been major talking points from Ryan Day and recruiting experts since the saga that led him to Ohio State, and those traits were on display during Thursday’s open practice window.

Bey rolled between running back and wide receiver in the Buckeyes’ position drills, ensuring he worked out of the slot and out of the backfield. He was also one of six Ohio State players returning punts in practice, joining wide receivers Brandon Inniss, De’Zie Jones, Jeremiah Smith, Chris Henry Jr. and Phillip Bell.

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The No. 126 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings, Bey’s best chance to see the field regularly as a freshman could come as a return man. Day has often entrusted punt return duties to sure-handed veterans – mostly Inniss the past two seasons – but Bey getting early looks there could build trust in him from Ohio State’s coaching staff. Kickoff return is another potential role for Bey as a freshman.

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2025-2026 College Basketball General Discussion

The $10 million club: College basketball's portal recruiting hits unthinkable levels of financial chaos

The price of talent is spiking to record amounts -- again -- now with hundreds of millions at stake in college hoops' unregulated economy​

491352411_1046731143993193_3615697912189917483_n.jpg


Three years ago, Nijel Pack left Kansas State and signed a two-year NIL deal that paid him $400,000 per season to play at Miami. It made him, at that point, the highest-paid player in college basketball and predictably precipitated geyser-like response. Shock, awe, cynicism, celebration, criticism, admiration, you name it.

Pack's publicly disclosed contract by a high-profile Miami booster made national news and signaled a dam-breaking event amid an uncertain, fledgling era of college athletics that guaranteed one thing and one thing only: NIL agreements would get exponentially more excessive in the years to come. All the way back in 2022, it was hard for some people to wrap their minds around the idea of a college basketball player with minimal name recognition earning a $400K/year contract.

Three years later, the size of Pack's payday barely registers as a headline-worthy transaction in college athletics.

Here's what $400,000 will get you for one season in 2025: a mid-major guy who averaged fewer than 10 points on a non-NCAA Tournament team. This isn't hypothetical; that very thing has already happened multiple times in recent weeks.

Nowadays, the sport is producing millionaire players on the regular.

Piloting through the portal to roster-build has never been more cumbersome — yet simple. The more money you have relative to the schools you are competing against, the easier it is to recruit the players you covet most.

More than 2,000 men's Division I basketball athletes entered the portal in the past three-plus weeks (it closes April 22). Almost all have done so to achieve a better situation and, most importantly, find more money. That is what is driving the overwhelming number of these transfers. Money, money, money ... and more money.

Five years ago, more than 4,400 Division I men's basketball players were legally and collectively paid a grand total of $0 in NIL earnings. That number is now promised to be in the hundreds of millions.

"It's insane," one high-major assistant told me late last week on the imbalance between how good a player is (or isn't) and how much money they're seeking.

This has been the feeling ever since so-called NIL compensation was made allowable almost four years ago, but it's exacerbated to cartoonish levels with each passing year. The coach quoted above had been recruiting a mid-major player who wasn't even top-three on his team in scoring. Nevertheless, this coach liked what he saw and thought the player could transfer up and maybe fight his way into the starting lineup. His school offered the player north of $500,000 — more than the coaching staff wanted, but bidding wars lead to some strange recruiting tributaries.

They didn't get the player.

A competing school swiftly came over the top and signed him for $1 million. (Another coach I checked in with to verify the story claimed the number is in fact $1.2 million.) The player was so bowled over by the offer, he signed a contract even before eventually calling and telling the other school what he'd done.

"I could hear it in his voice, just how shocked he was by the amount of money they were promising him," the coach who lost out said.

A role player on a mid-major that failed to make the NCAA Tournament will be paid at least $1 million next season. That's where we're at in college hoops. It's just one amazing story out of hundreds being swapped across the sport these days.

As one general manager at the Power Five level told me this week: "You can't even verify some of these numbers. What's real? What are we bidding against?"

"All of these numbers are insane," an SEC assistant texted Wednesday. "Going to have 4-5 guys [on our roster] making way more than me! "

While the reasons for college basketball's explosion in player pricing are many, one big culprit is the domino effect from the richest programs. Approximately a dozen schools are inflating the market because they have the capital to do so and the thirst to chase almost any player, regardless of how big the price tag. This dynamic has fattened in a matter of months.

A year ago, a handful of schools were able to easily clear $5 million. But now? That budget number has doubled — minimally — as has the quantity of programs with eight-figure accounts. A recent tweet from 247Sports' Travis Branham shed light on how much money is being injected into the fortunate upper echelon of college basketball.

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Eight will prove to be too thin a crowd for college basketball's $10 million club. Based on a variety of sources, schools believed to be operating in the realm of this golden tier are:
  • Arkansas
  • BYU
  • Duke
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky
  • Louisville
  • Michigan
  • North Carolina
  • St. John's
  • Texas Tech
These programs either have $10 million committed already or are easily capable of reaching that total in roster-building efforts by the end of this year's transfer cycle. They are 2025's whales of the portal, loading up on most of the priciest players and drastically inflating the market in the process.

There's another group of schools a rung below this. Don't cry for these guys, as they're still hitting at least a hearty $8 million if required. This includes (but is not exclusive to) Auburn, Connecticut, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, Virginia and still a few more trying to get there in the coming week(s). In talking to sources at these schools, even if most aren't at $10 million, there are still a couple in this lot that told me they could get there if absolutely necessary. (So: just by asking the right one, two or three really rich boosters for even more money.)
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continued

Just sayin': I don't see Ohio State in the schools mentioned in above article; which might be a clue to the reason that (so far) Ohio State isn't getting any "top tier" player out of the portial. Do the math: (obviously few players will get much more and several will get less, however) $10M/15 players = an average of $666,666 per player.

The $10 million club: College basketball's portal recruiting hits unthinkable levels of financial chaos

The price of talent is spiking to record amounts -- again -- now with hundreds of millions at stake in college hoops' unregulated economy​

491352411_1046731143993193_3615697912189917483_n.jpg


Three years ago, Nijel Pack left Kansas State and signed a two-year NIL deal that paid him $400,000 per season to play at Miami. It made him, at that point, the highest-paid player in college basketball and predictably precipitated geyser-like response. Shock, awe, cynicism, celebration, criticism, admiration, you name it.

Pack's publicly disclosed contract by a high-profile Miami booster made national news and signaled a dam-breaking event amid an uncertain, fledgling era of college athletics that guaranteed one thing and one thing only: NIL agreements would get exponentially more excessive in the years to come. All the way back in 2022, it was hard for some people to wrap their minds around the idea of a college basketball player with minimal name recognition earning a $400K/year contract.

Three years later, the size of Pack's payday barely registers as a headline-worthy transaction in college athletics.

Here's what $400,000 will get you for one season in 2025: a mid-major guy who averaged fewer than 10 points on a non-NCAA Tournament team. This isn't hypothetical; that very thing has already happened multiple times in recent weeks.

Nowadays, the sport is producing millionaire players on the regular.

Piloting through the portal to roster-build has never been more cumbersome — yet simple. The more money you have relative to the schools you are competing against, the easier it is to recruit the players you covet most.

More than 2,000 men's Division I basketball athletes entered the portal in the past three-plus weeks (it closes April 22). Almost all have done so to achieve a better situation and, most importantly, find more money. That is what is driving the overwhelming number of these transfers. Money, money, money ... and more money.

Five years ago, more than 4,400 Division I men's basketball players were legally and collectively paid a grand total of $0 in NIL earnings. That number is now promised to be in the hundreds of millions.

"It's insane," one high-major assistant told me late last week on the imbalance between how good a player is (or isn't) and how much money they're seeking.

This has been the feeling ever since so-called NIL compensation was made allowable almost four years ago, but it's exacerbated to cartoonish levels with each passing year. The coach quoted above had been recruiting a mid-major player who wasn't even top-three on his team in scoring. Nevertheless, this coach liked what he saw and thought the player could transfer up and maybe fight his way into the starting lineup. His school offered the player north of $500,000 — more than the coaching staff wanted, but bidding wars lead to some strange recruiting tributaries.

They didn't get the player.

A competing school swiftly came over the top and signed him for $1 million. (Another coach I checked in with to verify the story claimed the number is in fact $1.2 million.) The player was so bowled over by the offer, he signed a contract even before eventually calling and telling the other school what he'd done.

"I could hear it in his voice, just how shocked he was by the amount of money they were promising him," the coach who lost out said.

A role player on a mid-major that failed to make the NCAA Tournament will be paid at least $1 million next season. That's where we're at in college hoops. It's just one amazing story out of hundreds being swapped across the sport these days.

As one general manager at the Power Five level told me this week: "You can't even verify some of these numbers. What's real? What are we bidding against?"

"All of these numbers are insane," an SEC assistant texted Wednesday. "Going to have 4-5 guys [on our roster] making way more than me! "

While the reasons for college basketball's explosion in player pricing are many, one big culprit is the domino effect from the richest programs. Approximately a dozen schools are inflating the market because they have the capital to do so and the thirst to chase almost any player, regardless of how big the price tag. This dynamic has fattened in a matter of months.

A year ago, a handful of schools were able to easily clear $5 million. But now? That budget number has doubled — minimally — as has the quantity of programs with eight-figure accounts. A recent tweet from 247Sports' Travis Branham shed light on how much money is being injected into the fortunate upper echelon of college basketball.

Login to view embedded media
Eight will prove to be too thin a crowd for college basketball's $10 million club. Based on a variety of sources, schools believed to be operating in the realm of this golden tier are:
  • Arkansas
  • BYU
  • Duke
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky
  • Louisville
  • Michigan
  • North Carolina
  • St. John's
  • Texas Tech
These programs either have $10 million committed already or are easily capable of reaching that total in roster-building efforts by the end of this year's transfer cycle. They are 2025's whales of the portal, loading up on most of the priciest players and drastically inflating the market in the process.

There's another group of schools a rung below this. Don't cry for these guys, as they're still hitting at least a hearty $8 million if required. This includes (but is not exclusive to) Auburn, Connecticut, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, Virginia and still a few more trying to get there in the coming week(s). In talking to sources at these schools, even if most aren't at $10 million, there are still a couple in this lot that told me they could get there if absolutely necessary. (So: just by asking the right one, two or three really rich boosters for even more money.)
.
.
.
continued

Just sayin': I don't see Ohio State in the schools mentioned in above article; which might be a clue to the reason that (so far) Ohio State isn't getting any "top tier" player out of the portial. Do the math: (obviously few players will get much more and several will get less, however) $10M/15 players = an average of $666,666 per player.

The $10 million club: College basketball's portal recruiting hits unthinkable levels of financial chaos

The price of talent is spiking to record amounts -- again -- now with hundreds of millions at stake in college hoops' unregulated economy​

491352411_1046731143993193_3615697912189917483_n.jpg


Three years ago, Nijel Pack left Kansas State and signed a two-year NIL deal that paid him $400,000 per season to play at Miami. It made him, at that point, the highest-paid player in college basketball and predictably precipitated geyser-like response. Shock, awe, cynicism, celebration, criticism, admiration, you name it.

Pack's publicly disclosed contract by a high-profile Miami booster made national news and signaled a dam-breaking event amid an uncertain, fledgling era of college athletics that guaranteed one thing and one thing only: NIL agreements would get exponentially more excessive in the years to come. All the way back in 2022, it was hard for some people to wrap their minds around the idea of a college basketball player with minimal name recognition earning a $400K/year contract.

Three years later, the size of Pack's payday barely registers as a headline-worthy transaction in college athletics.

Here's what $400,000 will get you for one season in 2025: a mid-major guy who averaged fewer than 10 points on a non-NCAA Tournament team. This isn't hypothetical; that very thing has already happened multiple times in recent weeks.

Nowadays, the sport is producing millionaire players on the regular.

Piloting through the portal to roster-build has never been more cumbersome — yet simple. The more money you have relative to the schools you are competing against, the easier it is to recruit the players you covet most.

More than 2,000 men's Division I basketball athletes entered the portal in the past three-plus weeks (it closes April 22). Almost all have done so to achieve a better situation and, most importantly, find more money. That is what is driving the overwhelming number of these transfers. Money, money, money ... and more money.

Five years ago, more than 4,400 Division I men's basketball players were legally and collectively paid a grand total of $0 in NIL earnings. That number is now promised to be in the hundreds of millions.

"It's insane," one high-major assistant told me late last week on the imbalance between how good a player is (or isn't) and how much money they're seeking.

This has been the feeling ever since so-called NIL compensation was made allowable almost four years ago, but it's exacerbated to cartoonish levels with each passing year. The coach quoted above had been recruiting a mid-major player who wasn't even top-three on his team in scoring. Nevertheless, this coach liked what he saw and thought the player could transfer up and maybe fight his way into the starting lineup. His school offered the player north of $500,000 — more than the coaching staff wanted, but bidding wars lead to some strange recruiting tributaries.

They didn't get the player.

A competing school swiftly came over the top and signed him for $1 million. (Another coach I checked in with to verify the story claimed the number is in fact $1.2 million.) The player was so bowled over by the offer, he signed a contract even before eventually calling and telling the other school what he'd done.

"I could hear it in his voice, just how shocked he was by the amount of money they were promising him," the coach who lost out said.

A role player on a mid-major that failed to make the NCAA Tournament will be paid at least $1 million next season. That's where we're at in college hoops. It's just one amazing story out of hundreds being swapped across the sport these days.

As one general manager at the Power Five level told me this week: "You can't even verify some of these numbers. What's real? What are we bidding against?"

"All of these numbers are insane," an SEC assistant texted Wednesday. "Going to have 4-5 guys [on our roster] making way more than me! "

While the reasons for college basketball's explosion in player pricing are many, one big culprit is the domino effect from the richest programs. Approximately a dozen schools are inflating the market because they have the capital to do so and the thirst to chase almost any player, regardless of how big the price tag. This dynamic has fattened in a matter of months.

A year ago, a handful of schools were able to easily clear $5 million. But now? That budget number has doubled — minimally — as has the quantity of programs with eight-figure accounts. A recent tweet from 247Sports' Travis Branham shed light on how much money is being injected into the fortunate upper echelon of college basketball.

Login to view embedded media
Eight will prove to be too thin a crowd for college basketball's $10 million club. Based on a variety of sources, schools believed to be operating in the realm of this golden tier are:
  • Arkansas
  • BYU
  • Duke
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky
  • Louisville
  • Michigan
  • North Carolina
  • St. John's
  • Texas Tech
These programs either have $10 million committed already or are easily capable of reaching that total in roster-building efforts by the end of this year's transfer cycle. They are 2025's whales of the portal, loading up on most of the priciest players and drastically inflating the market in the process.

There's another group of schools a rung below this. Don't cry for these guys, as they're still hitting at least a hearty $8 million if required. This includes (but is not exclusive to) Auburn, Connecticut, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, Virginia and still a few more trying to get there in the coming week(s). In talking to sources at these schools, even if most aren't at $10 million, there are still a couple in this lot that told me they could get there if absolutely necessary. (So: just by asking the right one, two or three really rich boosters for even more money.)
.
.
.
continued

Just sayin': I don't see Ohio State in the schools mentioned in above article; which might be a clue to the reason that (so far) Ohio State isn't getting any "top tier" player out of the portial. Do the math: (obviously few players will get much more and several will get less, however) $10M/15 players = an average of $666,666 per player.
True, and important. Coach Diebler has proven he can really coach. Indiana and Scum are in the top 8. The good news is that we beat Indiana and came close with a hurt Team with Scum. If Debs can add a high pick at 7' 3+ to our front line I think we will have very good guards to round out a late drive. Debs has shown that he knows talent and also how to build talent (Bynum). Shooting has also taken a monumental leap forward. Scum has a very good team, but they better bring their A game tomorrow.
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