“Back” is a versatile word.
It can serve as a noun, adverb, verb or adjective. Add all the definitions up across those four forms of “back” in Merriam-Webster’s old handbook and you get 18 different meanings for the four-letter term.
It’s fitting, then, that Bruce Thornton and Meechie Johnson Jr. are both back at Ohio State in different senses. Thornton is the final remnant of a 2022 recruiting class that ranked eighth in the country but has not seen any of its players make an NCAA Tournament to date. With a chance to join classmates Felix Okpara, Bowen Hardman or Roddy Gayle Jr.