Markus Howard is red hot. He scored 90 points over his last three games. He’s the only player to ever do that in Marquette basketball history. Not Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder, Wes Matthews, Butch Lee but Howard is the only one in this rarified air. He played a large part in Marquette’s impressive victory over Vermont, 91-81, as the Golden Eagles earn another feather in their cap when it comes to their non-conference schedule.

Markus Howard appreciation hour
The things Howard did in the second half are very special. I hope people appreciate they are seeing a great point guard. He went off for 34 points tying his career-high making six threes on 11-of-20 shooting for the game. Howard is getting close to perfecting the tear drop shot in the lane that makes him to guard because if you play up on him around the three-point line, he blows right past the defender for a layup in the lane. As a fan, you get excited every time Howard has the ball and think every shot is going in. He’s that damn good.

Andrew Rowsey bounces back in a major way
Steve Wojciechowski kept Andrew Rowsey as part of the second unit, and many speculated it was due to the senior’s poor outing on Saturday versus Georgia where he turned the ball over six times. Rowsey tried to shed the ‘hero ball’ label as he finished with 10 assists and only one turnover. He added 13 points as well. If this is not an outlier, and we start seeing more games like this from Rowsey, look out.

Marquette hangs tough
People might not realize how good Vermont is this season. They’ll be a tournament team and be seeded somewhere in the 12-14 range. They gave Marquette everything the Catamounts could muster on Tuesday night. Marquette led for most of this game minus an early 3-0 deficit. Multiple times Vermont closed the gap only to have Howard and others shut the door on them. That’s a sign of a good team. They never wavered or let the Catamounts get on too big of a run. Say what you will about this team on either side of the ball, but they held their ground whenever the opposition got close.

Next up
Marquette renews their rivalry with Wisconsin. This is a more interesting matchup than years past. We have many new faces to the rivalry including Brad Davision who will try to slow down Howard on the perimeter. These two teams are potential bubble participants at the end of the year, so, a win for either would be massive. Marquette will try to win back-to-back games in Madison for the first time since the early 80’s.

Charlie.