Ty-Shon Alexander receives a commemorative 1,000 point ball on January 26, 2020.
Scoring 1,000 Points Still a Celebrated Milestone
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to
BIGEAST.com
OK, a show of hands if you think Seton Hall’s Myles Powell and Marquette’s Markus Howard have absolutely dominated the headlines for the bulk of the BIG EAST basketball season.
OK, hands down.
And why shouldn’t they? The BIG EAST’s dynamic duo have each breached the 2,000-point plateau in their careers this season which is certainly worth all the buzz they have generated.
But this season has also seen three other BIG EAST studs reach a coveted career milestone as Creighton’s Ty-Shon Alexander and the Xavier tandem of Naji Marshall and Tyrique Jones have each eclipsed 1,000 points in their stellar careers. Their achievements may have gotten a little lost due to the exploits of Powell and Howard, but they are achievements which certainly need to be acknowledged and celebrated, according to Creighton head coach Greg McDermott.
“I think it’s still a special mark. Guys like Myles Powell and Markus Howard don’t come along very often and if you look in the history books of each institution it’s not like you have 300 guys who have gone over 1,000 points,” McDermott said. “It’s hard to do. It takes a career where generally you have success when you’re a younger player and then you remain consistent throughout your career. And you have to stay healthy as well. So, I think anytime that it’s done it’s a feather in the cap.”
Alexander, the Bluejays’ brilliant junior guard, got his 1,000th point in a loss at Georgetown on Jan. 15. He was honored by the school for his milestone prior to Creighton’s home game against Xavier last Sunday. Alexander’s current total of 1,063 points places him 35th on the school’s all-time scoring list. And he’s still just a junior so there is plenty of time to keep climbing that Creighton list.
“For Ty-Shon to score 1,000 points less than 20 games into his junior season, for a guy who averaged five points a game as a freshman, that’s two really good years of basketball that was preceded by a year as a freshman where he came off the bench and played the roles on our team that we needed him to play,” McDermott said. “So I think it needs to be celebrated and it will be celebrated at Creighton as long as I’m the head coach.”
January also saw both Xavier’s Marshall and Jones each join the 1,000-point club for Xavier, although like Alexander, both of their achievements came during losses. Marshall reached 1,000 points during a defeat to Seton Hall on Jan. 8 while Jones reached the mark in a lossat at Marquette on Jan. 15, the same night Alexander sank his 1,000th point for Creighton.
“I’m happy for them,” Xavier head coach Travis Steele said of his two program stalwarts. “Those guys have done a lot for our program and they’re both tremendous players. They work really, really hard at their craft so to see the fruits of their work (realized) through their play, through their scoring and defending, it’s really makes you happy as a coach. We rely heavily on those two young men to produce for us and they do.”
Like McDermott, Steele also believes despite the superlative seasons (and careers) being enjoyed by Powell and Howard this season, achievements like Marshall’s and Jones’ need to be recognized.
“Markus Howard and Myles Powell, you think of how many points they’ve scored and it’s crazy” Steele said. “We had (former Xavier star Trevon) Bluiett here a couple of years ago who did the same thing and that shows how elite those players are. But I think anytime you can reach that 1,000-point milestone that’s a huge honor and there has been a lot of work put in getting to that point. So I’m really happy for those young men.”
But it’s not just Alexander, Marshall and Jones who will be doing some celebrating this season. With a little over a month left in the regular season, there are several other players around the league who are knocking on the door of that 1,000-point club. Players like Alexander’s Creighton teammate Mitch Ballock, who enters this weekend’s action with 899 career points. DePaul’s Paul Reed is sitting on 874 points while a third Xavier player, junior Paul Scruggs, is looking to join Marshall and Jones in the elite group as he heads into Saturday’s game at Seton Hall with 871 points.
Butler’s Sean McDermott has 865 points as he heads into the Bulldogs’ Saturday home game against Providence while Marquette’s Sacar Anim has 857 as the Golden Eagles prepare to host DePaul on Saturday. Two other players, Villanova’s Collin Gillespie, with 819 and Providence’s Nate Watson with an even 800, will also be joining the club at some point either this season or next.
Butler head coach LaVall Jordan already has one player - Kamar Baldwin with 1,790 career points - in the exclusive 1000-point club. But before the season is over, and most likely before the calendar flips to March, he should be expecting McDermott, his senior marksman, to be joining Baldwin.
“When you’re talking about the impact that someone makes on your program, you can point to a Sean McDermott and just talk about a guy who just sticks with the process, trusts the process and is working his tail off to be the best he can be and maximize himself,” Jordan said. “You look at the course of his career and how he’s developed and his confidence in his game and his expanded role, it’s definitely something to be celebrated. For him to be able to reach a mark like that is a credit to his work ethic (and) it’s a credit to who we are as Butler. I think those 1,000-point, 2,000-point scorers obviously have an impact on your program so we celebrate those guys and what they mean to the programs that they’re a part of. And certainly Sean is important to Butler and Butler basketball.”