Marquette Basketball: Markus Howard Named To Big East All-Freshman Team; Andrew Rowsey Named Sixth Man Of The Year

The Big East opted to roll out their postseason awards for men’s basketball a little at a time. On Sunday, we got the announcement of the all-league teams, which included Marquette’s very own Markus Howard being named to the All-Freshman Team. On Monday, we got some of the individual awards, where Andrew Rowsey was named Sixth Man of the Year.

Howard, a freshman from Chandler, Arizona, is leading Marquette in scoring, averaging 13.1 points per game. His 55% mark from long range is the best three-point shooting percentage in the country by two full percentage points. He fell just a few free throw misses short of finishing the regular season with a 50% field goal percentage (51%), a 50% three-point percentage (55%), and a 90% free throw percentage (88%). In the 18 game Big East schedule, Howard ranked 11th in the Big East in scoring at over 15 points per game and was named Freshman of the Week in the league three times, including for the final week of the regular season.

Rowsey, a redshirt junior from Lexington, Virginia, came off the bench for 23 of his 30 appearances for Marquette this season, averaging 11.2 points per game overall and 12.6 per contest in league games. He’s tied for the second best free throw shooting percentage mark in the country at 94.3%, and unofficially leads the country in “Fouls Drawn By Pump-Faking My Defender Into The Air.” Rowsey leads the team in Offensive Rating according to KenPom.com, and his three-point shooting percentage of 46% is second only to Howard on the MU roster and ranks 5th in the Big East. Rowsey is the first Marquette player to be named Sixth Man of the Year in the Big East since Davante Gardner earned that distinction in both 2013 and 2014.

Here’s the full listing for the all-league teams. Asterisks mark the unanimous choices.

ALL-BIG EAST FIRST TEAM

Andrew Chrabascz, Butler, F, Sr., 6-7, 230, Portsmouth, R.I.
*Marcus Foster, Creighton, G, Jr., 6-3, 210, Wichita Falls, Tex.
*Angel Delgado, Seton Hall, F, Jr., 6-10, 240, Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic
*Jalen Brunson, Villanova, G, So., 6-2, 190, Lincolnshire, Ill.
*Josh Hart, Villanova, G, Sr., 6-5, 215, Silver Spring, Md.
Trevon Bluiett, Xavier, G, Jr., 6-6, 205, Indianapolis, Ind,

ALL-BIG EAST SECOND TEAM

Kelan Martin, Butler, F, So., 6-7, 220, Louisville, Ky.
Justin Patton, Creighton, F, Fr., 7-0, 230, Omaha, Neb.
Rodney Bullock, Providence, F, Jr., 6-8, 225, Hampton, Va.
Kyron Cartwright, Providence, G, Jr., 5-11, 185, Compton, Calif.
Khadeen Carrington, Seton Hall, G, Jr., 6-4, 195, Brooklyn, N.Y.

BIG EAST HONORABLE MENTION

Rodney Pryor, Georgetown, G, Gr., 6-5, 205, Evanston, Ill.
Kris Jenkins, Villanova, G, Sr., 6-6, 235, Upper Marlboro, Md.

BIG EAST ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

*Kamar Baldwin, Butler, G, Fr., 6-0, 170, Winder, Ga.
*Justin Patton, Creighton, F, Fr., 7-0, 230, Omaha, Neb.
Markus Howard, Marquette, G, Fr., 5-11, 175, Chandler, Ariz.
*Marcus LoVett, St. John’s, G, Fr., 6-0, 175, Fort Wayne, Ind.
*Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s, G, Fr., 6-1, 165, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Donte DiVincenzo, Villanova, G, Fr., 6-5, 205, Wilmington, Del.

With four guys turning up as unanimous choices for the all-league First Team, it stands to reason that one of the four will be the Big East Player of the Year when that award is announced later this week. I presume that will be Josh Hart in a runaway, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In my five man All-Big East team, I only successfully identified Hart, Delgado, and Bluiett out of the six guys that the league’s coaches voted to the team. However, I even predicted getting at least two of my five picks wrong because it was largely a crapshoot in my eyes past Hart and Delgado, and correctly identified Chrabascz and Foster as likely candidates. I have to say I’m shocked that Brunson made his way in there, especially as a unanimous choice.

There’s four freshmen that are unanimous choices for the all-freshman team, so you’d figure that one of them will be the Freshman of the Year as well. My choice was Shamorie Ponds, and he is one of the four. I won’t be surprised to see one of the other names pop in, though.

Here’s the other individual awards that the league already announced.

BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year

Khyri Thomas, Creighton
Mikal Bridges, Villanova
Josh Hart, Villanova

BIG EAST Most Improved Player

Kyron Cartwright, Providence

BIG EAST Sixth Man Award

Andrew Rowsey, Marquette

BIG EAST Sportsmanship Award

Billy Garrett Jr., DePaul

I don’t really have any idea about the criteria for any of those, so that’s why I didn’t make any picks for them. Shoutout to all of those guys for winning those awards.