You’re Nuts: How will Ohio State play differently next season without Bruce Thornton?

Connor: A faster, more explosive pace

Every year since 2020 or so, Ohio State’s head coach — whether it was Chris Holtmann or Jake Diebler — spent time during the preseason talking about how they want to play faster and improve their tempo that upcoming season.

However, five of the past six seasons, Ohio State has finished 200 or worse in tempo. The one exception was two seasons ago, where the Buckeyes barely slipped ahead of 200, finishing 197th in tempo with 67.3 possessions per 40 minutes.

Oddly enough, I think Ohio State will actually move a bit faster with Thornton not on the team. Bruce Thornton was many things — a great leader, an efficient scorer, an absolute menace around the basket — but one thing nobody has ever accused him of is being fast.

Thornton operated at a very intentional pace, and was both mistake and risk-averse. For his career, Thornton’s assist-to-turnover ratio was better than 3-to-1, largely because he avoided making risky plays.

Early in his career, he talked a lot about “hitting singles” instead of trying to make the home run play. In basketball terms, Thornton was reluctant to thread the needle and attempt a tough pass that had a 50% chance of turning into a basket and 50% chance of resulting in a turnover, when he could always pull the ball back out, burn a few more seconds off the clock, and re-assess the situation around him.

There’s no arguing with Thornton’s efficiency or success rate — he was more trustworthy than pretty much any other point guard in college basketball over the last two years. But the fact that Thornton was patient, intentional, and never seemed to get rattled did not result in Ohio State playing at a particularly fast pace.

The guys who will handle the ball on most possessions for Ohio State this season — Justin Pippen, John Mobley Jr., Curtis Givens, and Jimmie Williams — aren’t wired the same. When he brought the ball up, Mobley was quicker, shiftier, and more willing to make those risky passes in tight windows that could result in flashy assists or bad turnovers.

Both Pippen (Cal) and Williams (Duquesne) played for teams that finished in the top-150 in adjusted tempo last year, and both guys had the ball in their hands a ton. Givens’ Memphis team turned the ball over a ton (317th nationally in turnover percentage), but also got up and down the floor pretty quick (37th in adjusted tempo).

I’m not sure if Ohio State will be better without Thornton this year, but on paper it does look like the Buckeyes will be a bit faster and perhaps more unpredictable with some other guys handling the ball next season.

Justin: Less iso ball

For the last four seasons, Bruce Thornton has been one of the focal points for the Buckeyes offense as the starting point guard.

And due to his play style, a lot of the Buckeyes offense came in iso sets. With him now gone and Justin Pippen and John Mobley as the starting guards, I think we will see less of that.

It will still be there with Mobley being a solid shot creator, but Pippen is a better player when he is facilitating and moving the ball around the perimeter.

Even back in 2021, this is what Brandon Jenkins of 247 Sports had to say in his recruiting analysis of Thornton.

“Thornton is an extremely stocky point guard who looks as if he should be the designated third-down running back recruit for the Buckeyes down the road,” Jenkins said. “Nevertheless, he brings a gridiron mentality to the hardwood as he is tough, agile, and heady. He is terrific with the ball in his hands and is a solid pull-up shooter. He balances his game out as a point guard in the way he never hesitates to advance the ball down the floor on the break or find the open man in the halfcourt.”

He is a very efficient scorer from all three-levels and in traffic, making a key component of his game hitting shots late in the shot clock and well defended, even though he was a smaller guard.

So, with him gone, I agree they will pick up the pace a bit and also get into more of a half court offense when they aren’t pushing the pace. It will be interesting to see where the offense goes when they can’t rely on Bruce to hit a late shot in the possession.