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LSU Basketball Hires Former SEC Player of the Year Marcus Thornton to Support Staff

Originally posted on LSU Tigers on SI | By Zack Nagy | Last updated Aug 16, 2025 8:00 AM ET

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.

The New Director of Scouting: Jack Frost

LSU men’s basketball head coach Matt McMahon announced on Monday that Jack Frost, who has over 10 years of experience with college basketball programs, will be the team’s new director of scouting for the 2025-26 season.

Frost last season was the director of operations for the University of Denver following five seasons in the Stanford basketball program which included a year as assistant coach.

At LSU, Frost will handle many of the preparations for the coaching staff regarding future opponents for the Tigers as well as preparing video clips of practice and opponents for players to be able to study.

He will also assist Coach McMahon off the floor in duties as part of the operations of the basketball program.

In his tenure at Stanford, Frost served as a program assistant and video coordinator from 2019 to 2021; special assistant to the head coach in 2021-23 and assistant coach in the 2023-24 season.

“We’re excited to welcome Jack Frost to our LSU Basketball staff as the new Director of Scouting,” said Coach McMahon. “Jack brings an intelligent basketball mind, a relentless work ethic, and a passion for impacting winning. He’ll be a tremendous addition to our program.”

At Stanford, as assistant coach, he was responsible for out-of-bounds underneath plays and was the special team’s coordinator on Jerod Haase’s staff.

Frost led the Cardinal to as high as fourth in the country in OBU offense, averaging 1.1 points per possession, while only allowing 0.74 points per possession defensively in Pac 12 play.

He was involved in the recruitment and development of two of the last four Pac 12 Most Improved Player of the Year and four consecutive Pac 12 Scholar Athletes of the Year.

“I’m excited and humbled to join Coach McMahon and his staff at LSU,” Frost said. “It is truly a privilege to be part of such a storied program.

"I’m looking forward to getting to know this fine group of student-athletes and working with the entire coaching staff to help build something special here.”

Prior to his arrive at Stanford, Frost spent three seasons as an assistant coach and the JV Head Coach at Milligan University (2016-19).

Frost headed player development, scouting recruiting, scheduling and bench coaching for the Buffaloes. Frost developed and executed an analytical program that produced individual and lineup +/- reports after each game.

While working on his masters in accounting at the University of North Carolina (2013-14), Frost was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels’ JV team under the direction of then-JV head coach Hubert Davis.

Frost helped prepare scouting reports and trained the JV players at UNC.

A native of Iselin, New Jersey, Frost earned his undergraduate degree in business administration in 2013 and a master’s in accounting in 2014.