Former Virginia Tech basketball player Hank Thorns has resurfaced at Texas Christian University. The two-year Hokie guard announced he was transferring from the program in early May.
Thorns cited lack of playing time and lesser role in the offense than desired as his main reasons for departure.
Thorns played both point guard and shooting guard in his career with the Hokies, and this past season was used primarily as an extra ball-handler on the floor to support guard Malcom Delaney.
The Las Vegas native hopes to become a more prominent scorer at TCU as a combo guard, not strictly a point guard.
The Horned Frogs went 14-17, 5-11 in the Mountain West Conference last season.
TCU plays in the same conference as UNLV (Mountain West), so Thorns is guaranteed to play at least one game every season in his hometown. In addition to the one road game during the regular season, the Mountain West Conference Tournament is currently held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas also.
Under NCAA transfer rules, Thorns will have to sit out the 2009-10 season, but will return the following year with two years of eligibility remaining.
Next season, TCU will have two senior guards starting, Jason Ebie and Keion Mitchem. Both players started over half of the team's games in 2008-09, and will leave large voids of playing time when they depart after next season.
Thorns will be vying for a large portion of those minutes.
Thorns averaged 4.6 points, 3.2 assists, and 21.1 minutes of playing time per game his freshman season in 2007-08. The 3.2 assists led the team,and his 113 total number was a program record for a freshman. He also started 12 games that season as point guard alongside Malcom Delaney in the backcourt.
As a sophomore, Thorns started only three of the Hokies 30 games, scoring just 2.7 points per game while shooting 30 percent from the floor. His assists per game dropped to 2.4 as well.
Thorns collected a season-high 10 points on two occasions against Navy and Clemson while recording a career-high eight assists against ACC-foe Miami.
The newly added Frog also added a career-high seven rebounds against Gardner-Webb.
Thorns has family basketball connections in the state of Texas. His cousin CJ Watson used to play for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, and now plays in Oakland, CA for the Golden State Warriors.