Marquette Basketball

Marquette guard Markus Howard went off for 51 points in a 101-79 win over the USC Trojans in the Orlando Invitational semifinal on Friday:

Howard, who is averaging a Division I-leading 29.3 points per game, shot 14-of-24 from the field. He made nine of 17 three-pointers and 14 of 17 free throws.

As the NCAA March Madness Twitter account noted, he's the first player in Big East men's hoops history to score 40 or more points in back-to-back games. Howard dropped 40 against Davidson in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Howard isn't a stranger to setting Big East scoring records. His 53 points against Creighton last year broke a single-game conference scoring mark of 52 points set by himself and ex-Friar guard MarShon Brooks.

The senior could have broken his own single-game mark once again, but head coach Steve Wojciechowski took Howard out with 5:35 remaining. The matchup was in hand at that point, with a Howard and-one layup giving Marquette a 92-62 edge before the substitution.

Howard will attempt to continue his scorching-hot stretch against No. 5 Maryland in the Orlando Invitational final on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. ESPN will televise the game.  

The Hauser brothers have officially split up.

Sam Hauser announced his intention to transfer to Virginia and his brother Joey confirmed his transfer commitment to Michigan State on Tuesday.

"I'd like to thank Coach Bennett and his staff for this unbelievable opportunity," Sam Hauser tweeted. "Excited to announce that I have committed to the University of Virginia! Again, thank you to Marquette University for helping me represent them in a positive way the past 3 years. I can't wait to finish my college career in Charlottesville!"

"Proud to announce that I have committed to Michigan State University!" Joey Hauser tweeted. "Thank you to Coach Izzo and his staff for this opportunity. Once again, thank you Marquette University for allowing me to represent them this past season. I can't wait to take this next step in my college career!"

Both brothers will have to sit out the 2019-20 season due to NCAA transfer rules. Sam will have one season of eligibility remaining, while Joey will have two.

Their decision to transfer came as a major surprise in April, given that both were expected to play major roles for Marquette next season.

Sam Hauser averaged 14.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists on 45.9 percent shooting and was named a team co-MVP with Markus Howard. He was named to the All-Big East second team.

Joey Hauser averaged 9.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists on 44.7 percent shooting during his redshirt freshman season. Both brothers started nearly every game for Marquette, which was ousted in the first round of the NCAA tournament but looked to be a potential Big East favorite for 2019-2020.

Both brothers have similar games, flashing an ability to stretch the floor from a big spot and some deft passing ability. It's likely they'll step into starting roles for their respective schools for the 2020-21 season. 

Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski has received a contract extension that runs through the 2023-24 season, the team announced Monday. 

The 42-year-old was previously signed through the 2021-22 season after agreeing to an extension in 2015, but he now goes into next season with five years secured under contract.

Wojciechowski is coming off his fifth season with Marquette after a long time at Duke as both a player and assistant coach under Mike Krzyzewski. 

While he is 97-69 overall in his time with the Golden Eagles, he has been even better after a rough first season with the team with at least 19 wins in each of the last four years. The squad reached the NCAA tournament in 2018-19 for the second time under the coach, although the No. 5 seed was eliminated in Round 1 by Ja Morant and Murray State.

Still, Director of Athletics Bill Scholl believes in what the coach is building going forward:

"We are excited about the direction of our program and the progress it has made, both on and off the court, during Steve's tenure. If you look at where the program was when he took over, it's easy to see we are on the right path in terms of competitive success and what our players are accomplishing in the classroom and contributing in the community.

"The basketball program at Marquette is absolutely trending in the right direction, particularly evident the last three seasons as one of the top teams in the Big East, and we are confident that will continue as we begin a new five-year commitment to Steve."

Next season is certainly an important one for the Golden Eagles, as expectations are high with All-American Markus Howard returning for his senior season. 

Jeff Borzello of ESPN ranked the team No. 2 in the country in his early Top 25 for 2019-20.

On the other hand, this was before Sam and Joey Hauser announced their intentions to transfer, taking away two top contributors from the starting lineup.

Despite the question marks, Marquette clearly likes what it has in Wojciechowski and believes he will lead the team where it needs to be.

Marquette forwards Sam and Joey Hauser announced Monday they plan to transfer out of the basketball program:

The school and head coach Steve Wojciechowski released a statement on the transfers, per Matt Norlander of CBS Sports:

Sam Hauser was heading into his senior season after three years with the program, while Joey just completed his freshman year. They plan to leave Marquette at the end of the semester.

This will be a significant loss for a program with high expectations heading into next season.

Jeff Borzello of ESPN.com ranked the Golden Eagles as the No. 2 team in his early Top 25 for 2019-20 behind only Michigan State.

Markus Howard will return after averaging 25 points per game last season, but the Hauser brothers represented the team's second- and third-leading scorers as well as the top two rebounders.

Sam finished the year averaging 14.9 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, earning him a spot on the All-Big East second team. Joey was named to the conference's All-Freshman team after averaging 9.7 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Losing these impact players will damage Marquette's hopes of building on a 24-10 season. Theo John will need to take on a bigger role in the frontcourt, while incoming transfer Koby McEwen will try to provide some scoring depth behind Howard.

Whichever school lands the Hausers, meanwhile, will get a huge boost when they are eligible.

Coming off his best season at Marquette, Markus Howard will continue his development on and off the court next season by returning to school.

Howard announced on Twitter he would be back with the Golden Eagles for his senior season:

Howard going back to Marquette isn't a huge surprise because his NBA draft prospects didn't appear to be very high. 

Prior to the start of the 2018-19 season, B/R's Jonathan Wasserman cited Howard's 5'11" frame and lack of athleticism as reasons to be skeptical of him as an NBA player. 

"His best chance to make an NBA roster will be as a scoring-spark specialist like Yogi Ferrell," Wasserman wrote.

Wasserman didn't include Howard among the top 75 NBA draft prospects last month. 

Rather than risk the uncertainty of professional basketball, Howard will remain with a team he knows well and is going to have high expectations in 2019-20. Marquette went 24-10 this season and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament before being upset by Murray State. 

Howard averaged a career-high 25.0 points, 3.9 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game as a junior. He was named the 2018-19 Big East Player of the Year and is among the 15 finalists for the John R. Wooden Award as the nation's most outstanding player. 

The Marquette Golden Eagles pulled out a 106-104 overtime victory over the Creighton Bluejays on Wednesday night, and it's all thanks to a record-setting night by junior guard Markus Howard.

Howard dropped 53 points on 15-of-26 shooting, including an eye-popping 10-of-14 from three-point range. 

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Per Marquette Basketball, the 53 points established a new school and Big East record. His 10 triples were one away from tying the school record he set on Nov. 29, 2017, when he dropped 11 in a victory against Chicago State. He also hit 11 against Providence on Jan. 3, 2018.

While the 5'11", 175-pound guard kept his team in the game during regulation, he nearly single-handedly carried the Golden Eagles to victory in the extra session. Howard scored Marquette's first 11 points of overtime and 13 of its first 15.

Overall, he put up 14 points in the five-minute period. Of course, Howard's record-setting night would not have been possible without the buzzer-beating heroics of teammate Sam Hauser:

Howard was not only feeling it from downtown, but he also had a good night at the line, converting 13 of his 15 free-throw attempts. His nine turnovers were the only glaring issue of his big night.

This is just Howard's latest standout performance of the season. He put up 45 in a victory over then-No. 12 Kansas State back on Dec. 1 and hit 45 again in a win over then-No. 14 Buffalo on Dec. 21. He has scored 20-plus points in eight of the last nine games.

By topping 50 points both last year against Providence and on Wednesday against Creighton, Howard accomplished a feat no other Division I player has in recent memory, according to ESPN Stats & Info:

Howard was named second team All-Big East a season ago. As he continues to produce big numbers (25.8 points per game this year), he is putting himself in serious consideration to earn first-team honors this season.

No. 21 Marquette improved to 13-3 on the season with the victory. The win was the Golden Eagles' 10th in their last 11 games.

Three brothers who play basketball, two of whom have put up eye-popping numbers. A former football-playing dad who helps them train.

No, they're not even remotely affiliated with Big Baller Brand, but the Howard family, college basketball's newest dynasty, can sort of see the resemblance.

"With all the attention we've been getting recently, there have been a lot of comparisons," said Jordan Howard, a 22-year-old senior point guard at the University of Central Arkansas. "Some people call us 'the real Ball brothers,' but we just prefer to be the Howards."

"My family's not all extra like they are; we're pretty chill," added Markus Howard, an 18-year-old sophomore point guard at Marquette. "We're just the Howard family—just brothers who love to play basketball."

Both ranked among the 25 best scorers in Division I, the two youngest Howard brothers are masters of understatement. Jordan's broken a slew of UCA and conference records, and he just became the Southland Conference's all-time leading three-point scorer. Last week, he set the school's D-I record for scoring with 41 points in a victory over Incarnate Word and leads the conference at 24.3 points per game.

That performance came a week after his baby brother had set college basketball's single-game scoring mark for this season (and Marquette's all-time single-game record) with 52 points in an overtime win at Providence. Averaging 21.5 points per game, he also leads his conference, the Big East, in scoring. Together, their numbers make them look more like the Splash Brothers than the Balls.

"There's no trash talk—that night, I was the first to text him saying how awesome it was and how much it motivated me," Jordan said. "I was like, 'I gotta keep up with you,' and he was like, 'No, I gotta keep up with you.' We're just pushing each other to be the best we can be."

Few families are better equipped to do that pushing: Chuck Howard, their father, was a running back at Indiana University and is now a strength and conditioning trainer—after spending eight years as a strength coach at Grand Canyon University. Noemi Howard, their mother, still manages rec facilities there. Desmond Howard, the oldest brother (he and Jordan are just 19 months apart), has his own basketball skills training company.

That support system has meant the Howard brothers have been involved in sports for as long as they can remember. Growing up in Chandler, Arizona (a Phoenix suburb), Jordan wanted to be just like Desmond, and then Markus wanted to be just like Jordan, and before long the three brothers were having heated contests on the backyard basketball hoop.

"My older brother was always hard on me and Markus," Jordan said, laughing. "I mean, we love each other more than anything in the world, but when it came to competition we'd wind up going inside crying sometimes. There was always a lot of competition in the backyard, but it definitely ended up paying off."

Markus, both the youngest and most highly recruited brother coming out of high school, credits much of his success to the tough love from his brothers. "Growing up, my brothers would always say that I was going to be the best out of all of them," Markus said. "I never really believed it, but it's a tribute to them pushing me so hard—I wouldn't be where I'm at now without their guidance and love to help me get better. All those times when they'd beat up on me, make it hard for me—it was all helping me."

Jordan had decided to pursue basketball seriously by the time he was in junior high, and Markus—one of the best players in the state in his age group—would occasionally play three years ahead with his brother's team. At Perry High School, the two got to play on the same team for one year when Jordan was a senior and Markus was a freshman. It's an experience they both treasure and hope to replicate in the future.

"We were close before, but me and him are kind of inseparable now, and I think it all started with that one year," Markus said. They both insist they never got sick of each other, even though they were literally together from the car ride to school onward. "There's no other people I'd rather be with than my family," Jordan adds.

That team made a postseason run, losing in the semifinals to Corona Del Sol—Duke star Marvin Bagley III's eventual alma mater. That left Jordan with a moment of apprehension. It was his senior year, and having gone unrecruited, he wasn't sure what was next. Both he and Markus are listed at 5'11"—slightly undersized for D-I recruits. He knew Russ Pennell, now the head coach at Central Arkansas, from Pennell's tenure at Grand Canyon University—but at that point Pennell was still waiting to hear back about the head coaching job. He told Jordan, "Trust me," and once he was hired immediately added the middle Howard brother to the roster.

Markus, who switched to Findlay Prep (which counts Avery Bradley and Tristan Thompson among its alumni) to get to college sooner, wound up even further away in Milwaukee—but the family is more close knit than ever.

Whenever they're not at school, they're back doing the same training routine that's helped them defy expectations so far. "We work out with our older brother every day twice a day in the summer and then lift weights with my dad," Jordan said. "He's been so huge as far as developing me and Markus physically and making sure our bodies are right whenever we're home. My mom cooks all the meals and does all the laundry. It's just a complete family affair."

If there's a family secret to the training that's brought them Splash Brothers-esque stat lines, it's a simple one: consistency. "It's just about getting a lot of reps up, sharpening the tools that we already have and staying consistent," Markus said. Added Jordan: "We challenge each other and try to make the workouts as hard as possible—harder than the games. Being really consistent with our work ethic, every single day."

For fun, they stick to simple pleasures: NBA 2K and spades, a family favorite played with a real, old-school deck of cards. "My dad taught it to us," Markus said. "Any time we're all together, we play: me and my dad against Jordan and Desmond. It's a lot of fun. Me and my dad kill Desmond and Jordan."

Both brothers have made all-academic teams, and while they hope to go pro, both are interested in working in sports media. Jordan, who majored in digital filmmaking and marketing, wants to make 30 for 30-style documentaries. He's done some projects already, documenting a retreat this summer featuring his sports-agent uncle's clients LeGarrette Blount and Odell Beckham Jr. Markus, who's majoring in communications studies with a minor in digital media, wants to be in front of the camera, perhaps as Stephen A. Smith's next debate partner or filling in for Michael Wilbon.

For now though, their focus is still on basketball. Namely, carrying their teams into March by continuing to average more than 20 points a game (and for Markus, maintaining his remarkable 100 percent free-throw mark). All the family ties in the world can't put a damper on the competitiveness that the brothers both hope will bring them to the NBA.

"I gotta say I'd win," says Jordan of a hypothetical one-on-one match up with Markus. "I can't say my little brother's gonna beat me, but if anyone were to, I couldn't be mad if it was him." 

Marquette Golden Eagles guard Markus Howard put on a show Wednesday with 52 points in a 95-90 win over the Providence Friars.

The Golden Eagles needed every one of those points considering it took them until overtime to finally dispatch of their fellow Big East foe despite the historic performance. According to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), Howard's 52 points tied a Big East record and set Marquette record for a single game.

The AP noted Howard's total tied Providence's Marshon Brooks for the Big East record and surpassed Marquette's previous mark of 44 points set by Tony Smith and Mike Moran.

It wasn't just the 52-point total, but the clutch nature of the scoring that was so impressive. Isaiah Jackson's layup gave Providence a 75-69 lead with less than three minutes remaining as the Friars appeared to be headed toward victory, but Howard scored Marquette's final 10 points of regulation down the stretch.

His and-1 with less than 30 seconds left ultimately sent the game to overtime, which he opened with a three that gave his team a lead it never relinquished. It was one of 11 shots he hit from distance during the evening.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports went as far as to call it the "best individual performance I've ever seen in person."

Andrew Rowsey was the only other Marquette player in double figures with 16 points in what was largely a one-man offensive show. Kyron Cartwright's 29 points were not enough for the Friars.

Howard will have a difficult time replicating his performance in Marquette's next contest on the road Saturday against the No. 3 Villanova Wildcats.

Joey Hauser, one of the top post players in the 2018 recruiting class, announced Sunday he's planning to play college basketball at Marquette.

The forward made his decision on his Twitter account:

His brother, Sam, also plays for Marquette, although head coach Steve Wojciechowski has clearly made Joey a priority lately, per Mark Miller of WisSports.net:

Hauser is graded as a 4-star prospect and the No. 18 overall player in the 2018 class, according to the Scout.com rankings. He's also listed as the seventh-best power forward among the group and the top player at the position from the state of Wisconsin.

The 6'8", 210-pound power forward, who rose to prominence at Stevens Point Area High School, possesses a well-rounded skill set. He's capable of creating offense in the paint or stepping outside the arc to knock down jumpers in the stretch 4 role.

He's also an efficient rebounder, using his length to clean up the glass against more physically imposing opponents, and PrepScouting discussed his distribution ability:

Interest in Hauser steadily increased over the past couple of years, and he told Scott A. Williams of the Stevens Point Journal seeing coaches from programs like Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky made for quite the recruiting experience.

"It's exciting to see all the coaches there and you get a little nervous, and you kind of get a little pumped up, but you just have to play your game," Hauser said. "They're not looking for you to score 30 points. They know you can play. They want to see if you're a good teammate and in control out there."

He must still add a considerable amount of strength to his frame, though not as much as if he were a traditional post player compared to the modern all-around power forwards. Otherwise, all the tools are there for him to become a collegiate star and potentially a high NBA draft pick.

All told, Hauser is far from a finished product, but his incremental improvement has made him a top prospect and a key addition for Wojciechowski and the Golden Eagles. He should make an instant impact early in his freshman season.

The intriguing part will be seeing how his role changes during the course of the year. It wouldn't be a surprise to see him start the campaign as a pass-first player for Marquette before developing into a more impactful scoring asset when NCAA tournament time rolls around.

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Before joining the NBA in 2003, Dwyane Wade used March Madness to gain national fame.

In his second and final season in Marquette, the guard took the No. 3-seeded Golden Eagles to the Final Four. He made a name for himself by averaging 21.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game, highlighted by a 29-point, 11-rebound Elite Eight performance to defeat top-ranked Kentucky.

Although Marquette lost to Kansas in the national semifinal, Wade put the program on the map. Following stellar tournament play, the Miami Heat snagged him with the fifth pick of an NBA-altering 2003 draft.  

The rest is history for the three-time NBA champion, who should have a spot reserved in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.