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There is a tight race going on for the top NCAA D1 individual scorer. Marquette's Markus Howard has been the #1 scorer most of the year, but has now dropped to #2, only 0.1 ppg behind Jhivvan Jackson of Texas-San Antonio-
Markus Howard has had a terrific year, and is one of the frontrunners for National Player of the Year. Recall that after last season, 2 of Marquette's top players, senior-to-be Sam Hauser and soph-to-be Joey Hauser, left Marquette and transferred. Sam is at Virginia and Joey is at Michigan State. Both sat out this season due to NCAA transfer rules.
But there were some people who predicted that Marquette would fall to the bottom of the Big East after losing the 2 Hauser brothers so late that head coach Steve Wojciechowski could not recruit anyone to replace them. That didn't happen. Marquette is still a great team and has been ranked in the top 25 nearly all year. They have remained competitive in the BIg East, which is by far the best conference in the country. Their NET ranking is 24, which is better than it was last season, and much better than their RPI has been in years. They will be an NCAA team again, and stand a good chance to go farther into the tournament than they have at any time since the Buzz Williams era.
And there were some who claimed the Hausers were the real stars on the Marquette team last year and predicted that Markus Howard would not be nearly as successful this season now that teams could concentrate their defenses on him. That didn't happen either. Howard is averaging 27.2 ppg compared with 25.5 ppg last season, and his 3-point percentage has stayed essentially the same (40%) as it was last season. It remains to be seen how well the Hausers do at Virginia and Michigan State, but IMO, Markus Howard is and has been the real star at Marquette.
Jhivvan Jackson, who leads the country in scoring at 27.3 ppg, is a high-scoring 6'0" junior guard for Texas-San Antonio. He is from Puerto Rico, and he only had 1 college scholarship offer- UTSA.
UTSA is only 12-16, 6-9, and 10th in the 14-team CUSA, mainly because they don't have enough talent around Jackson to win consistently. But he is a real recruiting steal.
Markus Howard has had a terrific year, and is one of the frontrunners for National Player of the Year. Recall that after last season, 2 of Marquette's top players, senior-to-be Sam Hauser and soph-to-be Joey Hauser, left Marquette and transferred. Sam is at Virginia and Joey is at Michigan State. Both sat out this season due to NCAA transfer rules.
But there were some people who predicted that Marquette would fall to the bottom of the Big East after losing the 2 Hauser brothers so late that head coach Steve Wojciechowski could not recruit anyone to replace them. That didn't happen. Marquette is still a great team and has been ranked in the top 25 nearly all year. They have remained competitive in the BIg East, which is by far the best conference in the country. Their NET ranking is 24, which is better than it was last season, and much better than their RPI has been in years. They will be an NCAA team again, and stand a good chance to go farther into the tournament than they have at any time since the Buzz Williams era.
And there were some who claimed the Hausers were the real stars on the Marquette team last year and predicted that Markus Howard would not be nearly as successful this season now that teams could concentrate their defenses on him. That didn't happen either. Howard is averaging 27.2 ppg compared with 25.5 ppg last season, and his 3-point percentage has stayed essentially the same (40%) as it was last season. It remains to be seen how well the Hausers do at Virginia and Michigan State, but IMO, Markus Howard is and has been the real star at Marquette.
Jhivvan Jackson, who leads the country in scoring at 27.3 ppg, is a high-scoring 6'0" junior guard for Texas-San Antonio. He is from Puerto Rico, and he only had 1 college scholarship offer- UTSA.
UTSA is only 12-16, 6-9, and 10th in the 14-team CUSA, mainly because they don't have enough talent around Jackson to win consistently. But he is a real recruiting steal.
