Markus Howard Drops 45 Again, Might Be The Player Of The Year In College Basketball

Goldang is this guy good.

Friday night, Marquette guard Markus Howard put on the performance of the year in college basketball, scoring 40 points in the second half (45 overall) in a 103-85 win over No. 14 Buffalo.

It was the second time he’s scored 45 this season, the third time he’s had at least 37, and for my money he’s college basketball’s player of the year until further notice.

Howard, a junior, is what someone might call “a cold-blooded assassin.” He can “really fill it up.”

He’s just 5-foot-11, but he has a beautiful, technically flawless jump shot, shooting 40 percent from 3-point range and 91 percent at the foul line while scoring 25 points per game and running the point at an expert level and averaging 4.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds.

He’s one of just six players averaging 25 or more. The only other major-conference player scoring that much is Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, who also has a great case as the player of the year heading into conference play.

Marquette is 10-2 and ranked 20th. The losses were at Indiana and to No. 1 Kansas, so there’s no shame on the resume, although Howard had one of his worst nights of the year against the Jayhawks, going 6-for-23 with 18 points.

If there is a flaw in Howard’s resume, it’s that he has his share of Iversonian shooting nights. There’s the 6-for-23 against Kansas, but there’s also a 7-for-29 against Wisconsin, a 6-for-17 against UTEP, 6-for-16 against Charleston Southern. He’s shooting 43 percent from the field, the lowest number of his career, while shooting 17 times (nine of them 3s) per game.

The situation is something less than ideal, then, but it’s working for Marquette. The Golden Eagles have two other players averaging double figures, and as a team they’re shooting 46 percent from the field and 39 percent from the 3-point line and scoring 80 points per game. They play pretty good defense, ranking in the top 50 in field goal percentage allowed.

None of that is great, and none of that is bad.

The Golden Eagles go as Howard goes. Nobody in the country carries more weight for his team, and if you need 35 in an NCAA Tournament game, there’s nobody you’d rather have.