For the second time in his Buckeye career, the star point guard returns home for a game. Thornton grew up in Alpharetta, Georgia, a short 40-minute drive from Atlanta, where Saturday’s game is taking place, and he will get a chance to perform in front of some familiar faces in the crowd. But for the sake of the team, he remains balanced as always.

“I expect him to play well,” Jake Diebler said Thursday. “Whether we’re in Atlanta or Columbus or somewhere else, I expect him to play well. I don’t expect him to treat this game any differently. I think the most important thing is that he may see more family and friends before and after. But he is so mature. In any case, his approach is consistent. It doesn’t matter if we go to an exhibition game or a game in Atlanta. I think his approach was always the same.”

Now that the Buckeyes have stabilized their season with an 80-66 win over Rutgers on Dec. 7 after suffering back-to-back losses, they’ll need all they can get from Thornton as Diebler’s first squad in the U.S. Ohio State gets a crucial game to see how it compares to one of the best teams in the country. The Tigers will get the best of the Buckeyes – Diebler, Thornton and Co. had a full week to prepare.

“Auburn is a really good team, probably the best team in the country right now,” Diebler said. “We definitely didn’t want to wait until today to focus on them. But in the last few games we’ve learned some things that will help us get where we want to go. We had to spend some time working on it. Maybe it wasn’t just about what impact it might have on Saturday’s game.”

Thornton’s first trip back to Atlanta in the Scarlet Gray jersey was a mixed bag.

Ohio State traveled to the capital of the Peach State to play UCLA on December 16, 2023 at State Farm Arena, the same venue as this Saturday’s game against Auburn and home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. The Buckeyes won 67-60, with neither team leading by two or more points until the final three minutes. Thornton scored 13 points, but only managed to do so on 4 of 15 shots.

“If I remember correctly, I don’t necessarily know that the fact that he was in Atlanta last year was the reason he struggled in the first half,” Diebler said. “It felt like everyone was struggling in the first half.”

The captains still haven’t been announced by the Buckeyes, but Diebler said Thursday that it was safe to mention Thornton’s name as one of them. That makes him a three-time captain in three seasons at Ohio State University’s offensive maestro Columbus, who is proving to be a leader on and off the field.

“Make no mistake, Bruce is our leader,” Diebler said. “So I think he will be captain three times so far. That says a lot about who he is. But it’s not just his leadership that’s important to us. We relied on other people to help us in this regard.”

The Buckeyes have needed his leadership lately. After a heartbreaking overtime loss to Pitt in which Ohio State blew a 12-point second-half lead, the Maryland team performed worse than decarbed lemonade, trailing by as many as 40 points at halftime, 50-17 a much-too-late offense started to bring the final score a little closer, 83-59.

Questions swirled about the actual viability of Diebler’s first Buckeye squad. Then Thornton decided to take control against the Scarlet Knights, putting up 14 points and three assists while going 6 of 7 from the field in the first half. He finished the game with 22 points and improved his season averages to a team-high 16.2 points with 5.7 assists per game.

“I don’t like being 40 points short. I’m just trying to be completely honest,” Thornton said after the game. “The way I wait around and try to shoot the ball – in this league, with these type of players, that’s not possible. I figured it out. I learned from it. Today I was aggressive there. And it helped us a lot today.”

Just as important as those numbers was that Thornton held his teammates and himself responsible for what happened in the previous game in College Park.

“It starts in the locker room,” Thornton said. “Make sure all the players just knew that was unacceptable. We prioritized the effort we played at both ends of the field and now we just know what to do. The training over the last few days has been very hard, as it should be, and it has prepared us for today. And we showed it.”

Now Ohio State will need Thornton’s leadership again. Auburn’s 8-1 record includes wins over No. 3 Iowa State and No. 15 Houston, with its only loss coming on the road against No. 4 Duke. Coached by the legendary Bruce Pearl, the Tigers have an incredible shooting percentage of 51.1%, making them the sixth best in the country.

Forward Johni Broome is the center of Auburn’s offense. With a team-high 19.6 points per game, Broome adds 11.9 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game, both points that lead the SEC.

“He can score,” said Diebler. “He can make threes, score inside, he can score off the dribble. We were also really impressed with his passing and he is an elite rebounder. So that covers almost everything that needs to be done offensively. He is an absolute offensive player and has a really good shooting ability in external defense, which makes defense and game planning a real challenge.”

“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-point range. As a team, Auburn shoots 37.6% from distance, third-best in the SEC. Freshman Tahaad Pettiford is one of the most interesting players to keep an eye on. According to 247Sports, he is a five-star prospect with 11.3 points per game who has put up 20 and 15 points, respectively, in 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 hit hard shots,” Diebler said. “He has great reach, he can shoot the ball off the catch, he can shoot the ball off the bounce and he’s quick with the ball. And he plays with a confidence that you see on film. He’s been really, really good so far this year and we need to make sure we’re dialed in. It’s an important part of the scouting report.”

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Only three games remain for Ohio State before full-time Big Ten play begins. The Buckeyes will be battle-tested by then, with Auburn being the fourth of five power conference teams they face in their non-conference schedule. On Saturday, they’ll see if they can hang with one of college basketball’s best as Thornton looks to excel on old turf.

“If you look at it on paper, we have one of the more rigorous non-conference schedules in the country,” Diebler said. “It’s definitely important for us to get those types of reps before the bulk of the Big Ten season. This is a really good team and most likely not a completely neutral court due to the proximity to their campus, which is in Atlanta. But I think it’s a great opportunity for us to continue to grow as a team.

“We talked about it like that. This month as we prepare for the remainder of the Big Ten season is important for us to continue to grow and move forward. We have a great opportunity to show what we’re capable of on Saturday in an NBA arena that I know our guys will enjoy playing in.”