Bruce Thornton, Amare Bynum and passing the torch as Ohio State returns to the NCAA Tournament

Ohio State's senior captain wants this tournament trip to be a return to normalcy for the program. Players like Bynum need to ensure that happens.

Ohio State freshman forward Amare Bynum dunks during Wednesday’s NCAA Tournament public shootaround. (Bill Landis)

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Bruce Thornton still carries the world on his shoulders. He’s just strong enough to do so now. It weighs on him less. He’s not a freshman anymore. He’s a grizzled senior who’s seen some stuff.

Four years ago, when Thornton was a freshman, it didn’t matter whether he was ready to be the face of the team. Nobody else on Ohio State’s roster was going to do the job. Back then, a group that featured four true freshmen among the top eight players in its rotation and was devoid of any upperclassman leadership turned to Thornton, then 19, to bear the emotional burdens of a losing season.

We mention that to underscore this: Thornton then and Amare Bynum now are not nearly in the same situation.

“It’s not the same kind of pressure that I had when I was a freshman, where I had to do everything,” Thornton said Wednesday, 24 hours before the first NCAA Tournament game of his career, a 12:15 p.m. Thursday tip against TCU that will officially kick off the Round of 64.

Pressure rolls off Thornton’s back now. He’s grinded for 135 games for the privilege of feeling the kind of pressure he’s going to feel on Thursday, when he leads Ohio State onto an NCAA Tournament floor for the first time in four years. So Thornton was smiling on Wednesday. He’d finally made it here. Elsewhere in the locker room, Bynum was smiling, too. Bynum’s smile may have been more of the “you don’t know what you don’t know” smile, a blend of freshman naivety and excitement. But he was smiling nonetheless, and that’s where the comparisons between Thornton and Bynum begin.

Ohio State basketball should be here. Three consecutive years without a tournament experience shouldn’t happen for this program. Whatever happens on Thursday, Thornton has helped return the program to where it belongs, at a minimum. Young players like Bynum have to carry it forward, and make it better.

So, it’s interesting when head coach Jake Diebler compares his outgoing senior stalwart to his budding freshman star.