Former LSU SEC Player Of The Year, Marcus Thornton, Joins LSU Basketball's Support Staff

BATON ROUGE – Former LSU SEC Player of the Year Marcus Thornton has joined the LSU Basketball program’s support staff for the 2025-26 season.

Thornton will serve in an off-court role in mentoring players and assisting in the player development aspect of the program under the direction of Coach Matt McMahon.

Thornton earned SEC Player of the Year honors and consensus first team All-America honors in the 2008-09 season in which the Tigers captured the Southeastern Conference championship under first-year coach Trent Johnson.

LSU was 27-8 that season, 13-3 in the league and reached the second round of the SEC Tournament.

Thornton averaged 21.1 points a game (tops in the SEC), making 78 three-pointers with 75 assists and 56 steals. Thornton played two years at LSU after playing his first two years at Kilgore (Texas) College. As a junior under Coach John Brady, he averaged 19.6 points (second in the SEC).

He presently is sixth in career scoring average (minimum 1,000 points scored) at 20.41 points per game at LSU and finished his two years with 1,347 points, 23rd all time. His 168 career three-point field goals are 10th all-time at LSU.

The 38-year-old Thornton was a second-round pick of the Miami Heat in 2009 and he played for seven NBA teams a total of 483 games with an 11.9 career scoring average, including 21.3 points per game for Sacramento in 2010-11 after coming there in a trade in the latter third of the season. He would average 18.7 points in 2011-12 in his first full season with the Kings.

(Release via LSU Athletics)