New Face, Same Place: Marcus Thornton

Kentucky's team is about as empty as the pictured arena, but a roster and stat stuffing Marcus Thorton could help.

As John Calipari holds steady to his statement that the Cats will only have 4 players (Hood, Harrelson, Miller, Liggins) return in 2010, he has some spots to fill and is hitting the recruting trail hard to find the bodies to do it. The new name in the melting pot: Marcus Thornton.

No, this isn't the NBA's Marcus Thornton or even LSU's one-time Cat killing point guard. This is the recently released from his Letter of Intent, Georgia Mr Basketball, 3.7 honors student, and Small Forward in the class of 2010.

Thornton is as a 3 star recruit, ranked as the #34 overall SF. Cal has recently offered him a scholarship and has plans to visit Thornton's home in the coming weeks.

Thornton recently talked about his intial converstion with Calipari to the Atlanta Journal Constition:

“He is a very impressive. He talked to us about what has transpired at Kentucky, and that he has eight people leaving (five underclassmen declaring for the NBA Draft, and three graduating seniors). He has some definite personnel needs. (Calipari) said he has to be able to recruit people who can hit the floor right away. He was using the term ‘He can’t hide them (any incoming recruits)’ because anyone that comes there is going to have to be a contributor. But he has a lot of people to choose from, I’m sure.”

He averages 24 points and 12 rebounds while leading his high school team to the state championship game in Georgia’s largest classification.