Ohio State’s neutral site game with No. 2 Auburn will be played on familiar soil for Bruce Thornton.
For the second time in his Buckeye career, the star point guard returns home for a game. Thornton grew up a quick 40-minute drive from Atlanta, where Saturday's matchup occurs, in Alpharetta, Georgia, and he’ll get his chance to show out before a smattering of familiar faces in the crowd. But for the team’s sake, as usual, he remains even-keeled.
“I expect him to play well,” Jake Diebler said on Thursday. “Whether we're in Atlanta or Columbus or really anywhere, I expect him to play well. I don't anticipate him treating this game any different. I think the biggest thing is he'll get to see some more family and some more friends, potentially, before and after. But he's so mature. His approach is consistent no matter what. It doesn't matter if we're going into an exhibition game or we're going into a game in Atlanta. I think his approach has always been the same.”
Now that the Buckeyes have stabilized their season with an 80-66 win over Rutgers on Dec. 7 that followed back-to-back losses, they’ll need all they can get from Thornton as Diebler’s first Ohio State squad gets a measuring stick game to see how it stack up against one of the best teams in the country. The Tigers will get the Buckeyes' best – Diebler, Thornton and company have had a full week to prepare.
“Auburn's a really good team, arguably the best team in the country right now,” Diebler said. “We wanted to certainly not wait until today to start focusing in on them. But there were some things coming out of the last couple of games for us to get to where we want to go. We needed to spend some time working on that. That maybe wasn't solely focused on how it could impact the game on Saturday.”
Thornton’s first trip back to Atlanta in a Scarlet and Gray jersey was a mixed bag.
Ohio State traveled to the Peach State’s capital to play UCLA in State Farm Arena on Dec. 16, 2023, the same venue as its game with Auburn this Saturday and home to the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. The Buckeyes came away with a 67-60 win in a tilt neither team led by two or more scores until the final three minutes. Thornton collected 13 points, but he did so on just 4-of-15 shooting.
“I don't know necessarily that last year being in Atlanta was the reason he struggled in the first half, if I remember correctly,” Diebler said. “It felt like everybody struggled in the first half of that one.”
Captains still haven’t been announced by the Buckeyes, but Diebler said on Thursday that it’s safe to pencil in Thornton’s name as one of them. That will make him a three-time captain in three seasons in Columbus, Ohio State’s offensive maestro proving a leader on and off the court.
“Make no mistake, Bruce is our leader,” Diebler said. “This will put him, I guess, a three-time captain so far. which speaks a lot about who he is. But his leadership isn't the only one that's important for us. We've relied on other guys to help us in that regard.”
The Buckeyes needed his leadership recently. After a gut-wrenching buzzer-beater overtime loss to Pitt that saw Ohio State blow a 12-point second-half lead, the team came out flatter than decarbonated soda at Maryland, trailing 50-17 at halftime and by as many as 40 points before mounting some far-too-late offense to make the final score a bit closer, 83-59.
There were questions circulating about the very viability of Diebler’s first Buckeye squad. Then Thornton decided to take control of matters against the Scarlet Knights, racking up 14 points and three assists in the first half while going 6-of-7 from the field. He finished with 22 points, improving his season average to a team-high 16.2 points with 5.7 assists per game.
“I don't like being down by 40. Just trying to be completely honest,” Thornton said after the game. “So like me waiting around, trying to shoot the ball – in this league, with these types of players, you can't do that. I figured it out. I learned from it. Today, I was aggressive in there. And it helped us a lot today.”
Of equal importance to those numbers, Thornton held his teammates and himself accountable for what transpired during the previous game in College Park.
“It starts in the locker room,” Thornton said. “Make sure all the players just knew that that was unacceptable. We prioritized our effort that we played with at both ends of the floor, and we just know what to do now. Practice these last few days was very hard, like it should be, and it prepared us for today. And we showed out.”
Now Ohio State will need Thornton’s leadership once more. Auburn’s 8-1 record includes victories over No. 3 Iowa State and No. 15 Houston, its lone loss coming on the road against No. 4 Duke. The Tigers, coached by the legendary Bruce Pearl, shoot a blistering 51.1% from the field, sixth-best in the country.
Forward Johni Broome is the center of Auburn’s attack. With a team-high 19.6 points per game, Broome adds 11.9 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per contest, both marks which lead the SEC.
“He can score,” Diebler said. “He can make 3s, scores it inside, he can score it off the dribble. We've also been really impressed with his passing, and he's an elite rebounder. So that covers almost everything there is to do offensively. He's a complete offensive player and he's got really good shooting on the perimeter around him that makes it a real challenge defensively, game planning.”
“Make no mistake, Bruce is our leader.”– Jake Diebler on Bruce Thornton
Broome is surrounded by a trio of guards who all score at least 11 points per game and shoot at least 42.6% from 3. As a team, Auburn shoots 37.6% from beyond the arc, third-best in the SEC. Freshman Tahaad Pettiford is one of the more interesting players to watch, a composite five-star prospect per 247Sports with 11.3 points per game who’s collected 20 and 15 points his last two games while shooting 8-of-16 from outside.
“His speed with the ball in his hands, and I think his ability to make tough shots,” Diebler said. “He's got deep range, he can shoot it off the catch, he can shoot it off the bounce, and he's fast with the ball. And he plays with a confidence that jumps out at you on film. So he's been really, really good so far this year, and we've got to make sure that we're dialed in. He's an important part of the scouting report.”
Only three games remain for Ohio State before the start of full-time Big Ten play. The Buckeyes will be battle-tested by then, with Auburn being the fourth of five power conference teams that they face in their non-conference schedule. Saturday they get to see if they can hang with one of college basketball’s best while Thornton tries to show out in old stomping grounds.
“When you look on paper, we’ve got one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country,” Diebler said. “It's certainly important for us to get these types of reps in before the bulk of the Big Ten season. This is a really good team and what will most likely not be (an) entirely neutral court with the proximity to their campus, it being down in Atlanta. But I think for us it's a great opportunity for us to continue to grow as a team.
“We’ve talked about it like this, this month as we get ready for the rest of Big Ten season is important for us to keep growing and moving forward. We’ve got a great opportunity to show what we're capable of on Saturday in an NBA arena that I know our guys are excited to play in.”
