NCAA Basketball: 10 schools looking for new face of program for 2020-21

Marquette Golden Eagles – Markus Howard

If the season had not ended early, Marquette’s Markus Howard would have ended up among the top-20 all-time scorers in college basketball. Even still, the high-scoring guard leaves the Golden Eagles’ program as its all-time leading scorer and leaves Marquette wondering what basketball life will be without Markus Howard.

While having been successful so far in his six seasons at the school, head coach Steve Wojciechowski is facing growing pressure to have that success extend to the NCAA tournament, a place he has brought Marquette just twice and has yet to see a win. Now he must figure out how to do that without Howard, and finding the guy who can step into Howard’s role both on the court (in part) and off the court would be a good start.

With nearly a third of the team’s shots having been taken by Howard, the 2020-21 team will have plenty of shots available, and one player that could take advantage of that is junior forward Brendan Bailey. While the 6-8 forward has put up modest stats in his first two years, averaging just over seven points and five rebounds last season, he has shown flashes of his ability to fill up the bucket.

He scored 27 against Maryland and had 18 points and 11 rebounds against Creighton, but the biggest improvement to his game last season came in his three-point shot. He made over 38% of his attempts last season while hoisting up twice as many long balls as he did as a freshman. Nobody on Marquette’s roster is going to replace Markus Howard, but don’t be surprised if it is Bailey that steps into that lead role next season.