BATON ROUGE – The 2009 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, former LSU Basketball star Marcus Thornton, returned to campus this past year and received his diploma Friday during summer commencement exercises at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Thornton, who served as a staff member for the 2025-26 LSU men’s basketball team, finished his degree requirements as part of LSU’s Project Graduation program.
The mission of Project Graduation is to assist former student-athletes with completing graduation requirements and obtain their degrees so that they can move forward in their career and individual life pursuits. This is achieved by being proactive in reaching out to former student-athletes and by providing information and assistance to those who reach out to us.
Project Graduation collaborates with individual university departments, provides accurate and easy to decipher information (steps to re-apply, degree audits, health center requirements, financial aid assistance applications, and career counseling), and fosters a positive environment consisting of academic advisement, tutorial assistance, and total person support services.
The initial commitment was made to assist these former student-athletes in obtaining a degree and that commitment is still honored and promoted even as they return as a student no matter the length of time since they last attended LSU.
Thornton received his degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Individualized Studies.
Thornton, a Baton Rouge native, who attended Tara High School, came to LSU before the 2007-08 season after two years at Kilgore (Junior) College.
In his first season, he made 90 three-pointers, the second most for a single season in LSU history. He was second in the SEC in scoring (averaging 19.6 points a game) and was second in free throw percentage at 81.7 percent.
As a senior in 2008-09, he helped the Tigers win the SEC regular season championship and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Thornton averaged 21.1 points for the season, the first player to average over 20 points for a season since 1996 at LSU. He had 30 points or more in seven games, finishing eighth in all-time season points with 739, with another 75 three-pointers that year.
In two years, he scored 1,347 points in just 66 games, which ranked 23rd to this date in all-time points leaders at the school. Besides earning consensus SEC POY honors, he was also named a second-team All-American for his play in 2009.
He was a second-round selection in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat with his rights traded to the then New Orleans Hornets. He would also play in the NBA for Sacramento, Brooklyn, Boston, Phoenix, Houston and Washington
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Also graduating on Friday, was a member of the 2025-26 LSU men’s basketball team, Jaden Bobbett. Bobbett, from Rye, New Hampshire was a fifth-year senior who transferred in from Indiana and played in seven games for the Tigers.
Bobbett also received his MBA in Business Administration.