Sindarius Thornwell Is In The Sweet 16, And On NBA Draft Radars

For three seasons at South Carolina, Sindarius Thornwell was as frustrating as he was talented. One of the highest-rated recruits in program history, he was basically a starter from day one—and just as quickly one of the Gamecocks' best players, averaging more than 12 points per game in his each of his first three campaigns.

Still, there seemed to be something missing. Thornwell's scoring came at the cost of efficiency: he put up a 48.8 true-shooting percentage, largely because he shot 31.8 percent from behind the arc and 46 percent at the rim in half court situations. Those numbers, along with some other weaknesses in his game, worked together to essentially tank his NBA Draft stock coming into the current college basketball season.

Fast forward to now, however, and Thornwell's name is in the draft board mix. After South Carolina upset Duke in the NCAA Tournament to reach its first-ever Sweet Sixteen, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski even called Thornwell the "best, most unheralded player in the country."

Coach K wasn't wrong.

Arguably the best player in March Madness so far, Thornwell scored 24 points against Duke and 29 points against Marquette in the first round. Those standout performances weren't a surprise. Thornwell has been the same player during the tournament that he was all season, when he became South Carolina's first SEC Player of the Year and showed remarkable improvement.

Heading into South Carolina's game against Baylor on Friday night, Thornwell is averaging 21.4 points per game, the second-highest mark among high-major players behind potentially No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Markelle Fultz. He's also posting a 20-plus assist rate and a career-low 11.5 turnover rate.

Best of all, Thornwell has raised his true-shooting percentage to 58.7 percent, largely thanks to improved three-point shooting. He's shooting 40.2 percent from three, and made triples in each of South Carolina's tournament games. In the clip below, see how Thornwell has simplified his shooting mechanics, turning an inconsistent jumper into more of a (stable) set shot:

Of course, nobody goes from being a good college player to one of the best in the nation simply by refining their shooting form. So what else has changed for Thornwell? Primarily, South Carolina has downshifted him in its lineups. For three years, Thornwell played exclusively at shooting guard and small forward in relatively big lineups, largely because the Gamecocks had bigger players in Michael Carrera, Mindaugas Kacinas, and Laimonas Chatkevicius.

When all three left before this season, South Carolina coach Frank Martin turned to playing Thornwell as a small ball power forward who initiates offense both above the arc and at the high-post/elbow area against larger defenders. The result? A matchup nightmare for opposing defenses:

"Usually there are guys that you say, 'oh he's a really good shooter. He plays well with his back to the basket, he's a driver,'" Duke senior Amile Jefferson said heading into his team's game against South Carolina. "This guy is a player. He does it from all over, and he's hungry…He's truly one of the best players in the country."

Martin's shift wouldn't work nearly as well if Thornwell wasn't one of the top perimeter defenders in the country. A two-time SEC All-Defensive team member, he guarded Duke's Luke Kennard for much of South Carolina's upset victory, holding the most efficient lead scorer in college basketball to 11 points on 1-for-6 shooting from the field—Kennard's third-lowest scoring output of the season, and his lowest number of shots. In this clip, see how Thornwell consistently denies Kennard open opportunities:

Tough and physical, Thornwell is one of the college game's best two-way players, and has led his team to the Sweet Sixteen through personal improvement and sheer force of will. If he played for a school with a richer basketball history, he likely would be getting more hype. NBA talent evaluators certainly have taken notice; one league executive who spoke to VICE Sports believes Thornwell has played himself into the second round of the draft.

However, even those who like Thornwell still have concerns.

"He's a similar level prospect to K.J. McDaniels," the executive said. "He's plays the combo forward for his team, but doesn't have the size to do that in the NBA. So he's going to have to change his game. He's just starting to make threes, and does not have deep range—they're all right behind the three-point line. He makes a ton of plays from mid-post, etc.

"At the NBA level as a wing, you want players who shoot threes, and can make plays in pick-and-roll, and I worry about a guy like Thornwell who needs all of the physical advantage as a matchup problem at the college level.

"Having said that, he really defends and he needs that to be his calling card."

If that sounds overly harsh, keep in mind: prospects who play themselves off the NBA Draft radar rarely make it back on. Thornwell has come a long way, and done so with hard work and tangible improvement. For the majority of NBA players—especially role players—want and persistence are as important as talent, because everyone has talent, and sticking around in the world's best basketball league is very, very hard.

Thornwell didn't have go to South Carolina in the first place. He didn't have to stay there after a so-so start. But he did, and now you can make the case that he's the most important player in program history—surpassing Alex English, John Roche, and legendary diminutive scorer Devan Downey. Whether Thornwell is drafted or not, whether he plays in the NBA or somewhere else, his resilience should help him find a home.

"He wanted to surround his heart with the state name that means so much to him and his family's name on the back of his jersey," Martin said on Thursday. "And that's powerful. When you have a young man that wants to take on that moment, that responsibility, and he's done it. He never ran away when we didn't win games."

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