Big East Basketball: Ponds, Paschall and Powell top exciting players in 2018-19

1. Markus Howard, Marquette

There are not enough words in the English language to properly describe Markus Howard‘s unfathomable talent. Dickie V describes him as a  “PTPer,” or Prime Time Player. Bill Raftery claims, “He’s got Onions.” Howard’s the best bucket getter in the Big East and without a doubt one of the best scorers in the nation. Markus Howard hits clutch shot time after time.

Howard leads the Big East in scoring at 25.7 points per game. Howard also averages 4.0 assists per game and 4.2 rebounds per game. He’s a great scorer who is a hard-nosed guard. He’s listed at 5’11” which seems a bit generous, but he still gets in the paint and grabs a good amount of rebounds for a point guard. Howard has scored 30+ points seven times this season, and he dropped 40 or more three times, including a 53 point performance in an overtime win against Creighton. Howard scored 45 points against Kansas State. K-State is 4th in the nation in defense, averaging giving up only 59.8 points per game.

There have only been two games where he’s failed to score in double figures. Against Georgetown, he got hurt early in the game and only played a total of three minutes. Against St. John’s Howard only scored eight points in 26 minutes. He was in foul trouble all night and Marquette ran into a hot Johnnies team that they caught on a very good night.

Markus Howard is without a doubt the most electrifying and exciting player in the Big East. Howard is leading Marquette to their first NCAA tournament since the 2016-17 season. Marquette hasn’t been this good since the days of Jae Crowder, Darius Johnson-Odom, and Wesley Matthews before. It looks like Marquette is poised to continue their national contention run again, and that’s almost all thanks to Markus Howard.