Tag Archives: Marcus Thornton
There Will Never Be Another Pistol Pete……Never
With the NCAA Final Four still on the brain after the teams playing were decided this past weekend, I found myself thinking about the players that stood out this year…. Blake Griffin, Tyler Hansbrough, our own Marcus Thornton, and others. However dominant these players were this year, their performances do not even come close to the achievements of Pete Maravich back in the late 60s. And saying it doesn’t come close, makes me feel kind of stupid because it doesn’t even come close to being able to be compared….if that even makes sense.
Just take a gander at Pete’s collegiate stats while at LSU, you will notice that not only did he average a mind-boggling 44.2 points, he did it without the 3-point line!…..but let’s dig a little deeper….. He never scored less than 17. He also only scored less than 30…. four times!!! He scored over 40 points an unbelievable sixty-nine times!!! He played in 101 games (including 18 games on the freshman team) and scored 40 or more points, 68% of the time he stepped foot on the floor. Freshmen were not allowed by the NCAA to play varsity back at that time. He only played 83 games (3 seasons) at the varsity level. And don’t forget, he didn’t have a 3-point line! More after the jump…..
I mean, take a step back and think about that! He also averaged over 6 rebounds and 5 rebounds a game as a varsity player. He was also not afraid to contest shots coming up with a block every now and then, or driving the lane, taking a tough shot and risking getting banged up. He was a true all-around basketball player. He could do it all.
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LSU Tigers Survive First Round, Beat Butler 75-71
Ahhhhhh, the first game of the NCAA tournament. The ‘madness’ has begun. For the next 4 days, college basketball fans everywhere will be glued to the TV, to the CBS Sports.com’s live stream, or to ESPN’s update page. Hopefully everyone got their brackets in on time and they’re not too roughed up after the first day.
This morning the LSU Tigers came out on fire with a quick 3 by Bo Spencer. Then he stole Butler’s next possession and laid it in. Next Marcus Thornton got a steal and Tasmin Mitchell hit a jumper. Garrett Temple then got a steal and Marcus Thornton made a layup. The score was quickly 9-0 after only the first 1:40 of play…..Butler timeout. More after the jump……
Then, for whatever reason, the Tigers slowed things down and allowed the Butler Bulldogs from Indianapolis to creep back into the game and make things interesting. Butler chose to go with the one option that definitely works against LSU this year…… give it to the big guy in the middle. Butler’s Matt Howard got off a few layups in the first half, while drawing fouls from Chris Johnson and Quinton Thornton. Butler also began to do what they do well, which is make three’s. Pretty soon, they were back in the game.
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LSU Tigers Take Care of “Big Blue”, 67-58
LSU went into the SEC tournament in Tampa, FL with two straight unimpressive losses. Tiger fans were anxious to see how the Tigers would start the 2nd round game today against the Kentucky Wildcats.
LSU came out on fire jumping to a quick 13-5 lead. UK fought back to within one at 15-14. LSU then paced the Wildcats for the rest of the game. LSU led the rest of the way and took a low scoring 28-23 lead into the locker room at halftime. More after the jump……
Kentucky hung tough until the 6 minute mark in the 2nd quarter when the Tigers refused to let up. Even a 7-0 scoring run late by UK did not break LSU. Strong point guard play by Bo Spencer, scoring by Marcus Thornton, and relentless defense lead the Tigers to victory.
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Coach Johnson and Marcus Thornton Win Top SEC Honors
For their extraordinary efforts and achievements this year in basketball, Coach Trent Johnson and Marcus Thornton brought home top individual SEC awards. Coach Johnson won the SEC Coach of the Year and Thornton won the SEC Player of the Year.
Both are absolutely deserving of the honors. Johnson took a 13-18 team from a year ago and turned them into the best team in the entire SEC. The Tigers finished the regular season with a 25-6 overall record and a 13-3 conference record. LSU lost its first SEC game to Bama and lost its last two to Vanderbilt and Auburn, but won 13 SEC games in a row in between. Coach had his players focused and playing hard ’til the end in each of those games. He brought out the best in his players and that is what a great coach does. Johnson has now won Coaching honors in three different leagues; SEC, Pac-10 with Stanford, and the WAC with Nevada. More after the jump….
Marcus Thornton averaged 20.9 points per game along with 5.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists,and 1.6 steals. Other players in the league may have had better stats in each category, but Thornton was the best player on the best team and that aways counts a lot in the determination of these awards. It’s the equivalent of the NBA’s MVP award and Thornton certainly was the MVP this year. Countless times, he put the Tigers on his back and took control of games. He averaged 35 minutes per SEC game (reminder: this includes 49 in 2OT vs. State, 2-11-09 as well as his lowest, 23 minutes in the blowout vs. S. Carolina, ). This minutes per SEC game stat is not calculated by anyone, so without doing it for every player, I just calculated Jodie Meeks from UK and foundThornton is behind Meeks by only 1.3 minutes per game.
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LSU Stumbles in Final Home Game vs. Vandy, 75-67
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LSU had only a single lead in this one….. 2-0. After that, the Tigers’ goal closed up and they decided defense was overrated. We knew Vanderbilt had a big guy that would give us trouble. We didn’t think A.J. Ogilvy would come in and score a career high 33 points. The ‘Dores took complete advantage of mismatches all night and the Tigers had little to answer back to keep their 10 game winning streak alive. More after the jump……
Not to mention, LSU shot an abysmal 36% to Vandy’s 51% tonight. The Tigers also struggled from the line shooting only 68%, and from the 3-point line, 28%.
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Marcus Thornton x Two More Great Games = SEC Player of the Week
After coming up huge once again for the Tigers in two wins last week over Florida and the first at Kentucky in 20 years, Marcus Thornton was awarded SEC Player of the Week for the 2nd time this year. He scored 32 points, had 5 assists and 5 rebounds against the Gators at home on ESPN and had 23 points (15 in 2nd half), 9 rebounds, and 4 assists Saturday in Lexington on CBS. His averages for the week: 27.5 ponts, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.
One of the assists led to the game winning shot from Tasmin Mitchell against Kentucky. Thornton was the decoy and dribbled off Tasmin’s pick, attracting two defenders, leaving Mitchell open for the three pointer.
Thornton is doing it all for LSU this year including shooting 40% three pointers and 75% free throws, while only sitting for less than 9 minutes a game. There is no doubt that he leaves it all out on the floor each night and now the nation is starting to learn who he is after the two performances that earned him this honor were on national TV. As posted before, Thornton is the same height and build as a few NBA players you might know….. Dwayne Wade, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd…. Anyway, since Thornton will definitely be leaving LSU this year as he is a senior, the NBA is obvious as the next level for him. I think he could make a good fit there. He is very athletic and aggressive for his size. But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, he still has a few more games to play as a Tiger.
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LSU Basketball Moves Further Up in National Polls, #11 & #12
The Tigers piled on two more wins last week and continued their hot streak in the SEC. Now, LSU has won 13 straight conference games, 10 straight overall and for the 3rd week in a row, rise in the national ranks. The Tigers find themselves at #11 in today’s ESPN/USA Today poll and #12 in the AP poll. See the new polls here.
Some quick poll-analysis: the only teams with higher winning percentages than LSU are UCONN, UNC, Memphis, Pitt, and Oklahoma. The top 10 in both polls are almost identical, however, the 11-20 ranks of both polls involve the same teams, but the order is comparably different. For example, Villanova is #11 in the AP and #16 in the ESPN/USA Today. (more after the jump…)
All that doesn’t really matter, just something I noticed.
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LSU Outlasts Florida in Shootout, 81-75
32 points, including six three pointers, 10-11 on freebies, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds….. Marcus Thornton gave a huge effort in front of a huge crowd and a national audience on ESPN to lift the Tigers past Florida Tuesday night in the PMAC.
It was certainly everything a shootout is meant to be. Did I mention Thortnon had 6 three’s, 5 in the first half? As well as LSU played in the first half, Florida matched everything the Tigers threw at them. LSU may not have played their best defense in the first half, but neither team could miss. It was back and forth the entire 20 minutes. Florida went into the locker room with a four point lead.
LSU got some great contributions for Garrett Temple with 21 points and 7 rebounds (3-4 three’s, 4-4 free throws). Tasmin Mitchell had 12 and 8 and Bo Spencer had 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. The scary stat, which has become a trend lately…….3, yes 3 bench points. Terry Martin came off the bench to hit a jumper, get fouled and make the free throw…..that’s it. The lack of a solid sixth man or any bench play for that matter may hurt the Tigers in March.
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