Tag: Markquis Nowell

Raptors guard Markquis Nowell among players selected for G League Up Next Game

Raptors 905 guard Markquis Nowell was among the players selected to compete in the G League Up Next Game during NBA All-Star Weekend.

Toronto Raptors rookie Markquis Nowell was among the players selected to compete in the G League Up Next Game during NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event will feature four teams of seven players competing in two semifinal games. The winners face off in the championship on Feb. 18 at 1:30 p.m. EST. The teams will be drafted by an influencer general manager, who will also customize their teams’ jerseys.

The 28 players include 10 selected by a fan vote. The remaining 18 players were selected by the G League and include eight members of the Ignite and one from the Indiana Mad Ants as the host team.

Nowell, who is signed to a two-way contract, finished in the top 10 of the fan voting after averaging 15.3 points, 8.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and two steals in 20 games with the Raptors 905. He is seventh in the G League in steals and 11th in assists during the regular season.

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Markquis Nowell makes bold claim to be a Raptors all-time great

The Raptors have had several greats suit up over the course of their history and Nowell is looking to add his name to that list.

The Toronto Raptors have had several great players suit up for them over the course of their history in the NBA and rookie Markquis Nowell is looking to add his name to the list.

From Chris Bosh to DeMar DeRozan to Vince Carter to Kyle Lowry, the organization has had plenty of notable players. Of course, Kawhi Leonard also etched his name into the history books by leading the team to its first title during his lone year in Canada.

Nowell, who went undrafted this year out of Kansas State, boldly predicted Tuesday on Instagram that he’d top all of those players and eventually become the best to ever play with the organization.

Nowell, who is signed to a two-way contract, averaged 12 points, 6.8 assists, three rebounds and one steal with the Raptors in the NBA Summer League. He produced his best game in Las Vegas on July 15 with 17 points, 12 assists and three rebounds.

He certainly doesn’t lack any confidence entering the league but it is clear the 23-year-old will have plenty of work to do to establish himself as the best player in franchise history.

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Markquis Nowell tried a Curry-like lookaway 3-pointer on a bad miss during NBA Summer League

Oh no, Markquis Nowell. Not like this!

It wasn’t long ago Markquis Nowell gave us one of the best highlights of March Madness. But he also has a lowlight of NBA Summer League.

Nowell, who pulled off an elite alley-oop pass for Kansas State while talking trash to Hall of Fame guard Isiah Thomas during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, is an exciting young player. As an undrafted free agent, Nowell signed a two-way deal with the Raptors.

Although he has played well as a distributor for Toronto as one of the leaders in total assists among all rookies in NBA 2K24 Summer League, Nowell has struggled with finding an efficient jumper.

So it was particularly shocking to see him try something like this:

This would have rocked so much if it went in and, yeah, he would have looked like Stephen Curry.

The guard instead looked a bit more like Nick Young, unfortunately, celebrating a 3-pointer on a brick. That’s meme material and you never want to become meme material this early in your career!

Nowell is shooting 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) on 3-pointers for the Raptors and is shooting less than 30.0 percent overall from the field in Las Vegas. So maybe the timing wasn’t right to try to emulate Curry, even if we have to admire the confidence it took for him to try.

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G League Elite Camp: Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell dazzled on Day 1

Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell was among the standouts from the first day of the G League Elite Camp.

The NBA G League Elite Camp tipped off on Saturday as 45 prospects hit the court to showcase their games in front of team executives, coaches and scouts in Chicago, Illinois.

The top performers are invited each year to compete in the draft combine, which begins Monday. The event has helped send several players to the NBA, including Jose Alvarado, Oshae Brissett, Kenneth Lofton Jr. and Terance Mann.

The players participated in various on-court drills, exercises and measurement testing. They were split into four teams and took part in 5-on-5 scrimmages. Several players emerged with standout performances from the first day.

Here are some of the top performers from Saturday.

Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell had one of the best men’s NCAA tournaments ever

Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell had one of the best men’s NCAA tournament runs ever.

Even though Kansas State couldn’t quite get past Florida Atlantic in the Elite Eight, Wildcats senior guard Markquis Nowell had one of the best men’s NCAA tournaments of any player ever.

After Nowell’s historic Sweet 16 performance against Michigan State, he continued that stellar play in the Elite Eight.

It was special to watch him bank an incredible 3-pointer while falling on a hobbled ankle  or see him execute that stunning sequence where people thought he pulled off a fake argument with coach Jerome Tang to set up a basket.

Nowell actually finished his 2023 men’s NCAA tournament as the only player in men’s college basketball history to record 80-plus points, 50-plus assists and 10-plus steals.

You can see how he tallied up all these points, assists and steals in four games below.

Nowell also joined some fantastic company with his tournament performance.

Nowell showed his appreciation for all the support his team had garnered during their impressive men’s NCAA tournament run.

His brother, Marcus Nowell, talked about why he was so proud of his sibling after his incredible March Madness run.

Nowell’s basketball future is uncertain, but it feels like he’ll get a chance at some level to prove himself at the professional level. After this stunning tournament run, he deserves it.

Kansas State’s unlikely Elite 8 run means we get more Jerome Tang, who we can’t get enough of

More Jerome Tang is a good thing for college hoops.

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang has an infectious personality. Even without meeting him, you can feel it ooze through the screen during interviews and in behind the scenes footage of his team’s incredible March Madness run.

The Wildcats continued that run Thursday with an impressive overtime win over Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans, demonstrating just how good they truly are. If it wasn’t evident after a 26-9 regular season and top-15 AP finish, it certainly is now.

Markquis Nowell is an absolute star and Keyontae Johnson might hear his name called on NBA draft night. But not to be overlooked in Kansas State’s success is the first-year head coach.

The more Tang and the gang hang around, the more we’ll get moments from him like this.

“We had to celebrate a little bit. Hope y’all didn’t mind.”

Thursday’s game was the biggest in the careers of many of his players, and you wouldn’t have been able to tell by their demeanor on the court. They were loose, even in the most tense moments of a game that was tight throughout, and it’s hard to think that’s not a reflection of their coach.

Tang is even the main hype man during a pregame Lil Baby listening session K-State apparently has been doing since before the tournament.

That’s a 56-year-old man getting more hype off a Lil Baby song than his 20-year-old players who I can assure you are the intended audience. Sure, they might be a little embarrassed in the way a kid might be embarrassed by a parent doing too much at the sleepover, and Tang’s dance moves leave a little to be desired, but they love him anyway.

And it’s not hard to see why. He’s good for that program, and he’s good for college basketball.

Prior to this season, Kansas State hadn’t qualified for the NCAA tournament since the 2018-19 season. Not only did they make it back in Tang’s first year, they shattered all expectations.

In a Big 12 preseason poll, the Wildcats were picked to finish last in the conference. Instead, they were third. And now they’re the first and maybe only conference team to reach the Elite 8 (Texas plays Friday).

Whether or not Kansas State advances any further, the season is a success, and Tang has officially put himself on the map as not only a fun head coach, but a legitimately good head coach.

The more the Wildcats win, the more he’ll get to show both.

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Markquis Nowell revealed he was actually trash talking Isiah Thomas before throwing the alley-oop pass to Keyontae Johnson

Markquis Nowell might be the coolest player in college basketball right now

Just when you thought things actually couldn’t get any cooler with Markquis Nowell’s epic performance against Michigan State, it just keeps going.

Nowell made the play of the night when he threw a lob pass to his teammate, Keyontae Johnson, in the final moments of Kansas State’s game against Michigan State. That’s already cool on its own.

It’s not the play people are obsessed with — it’s what happened before it. It looked like Nowell was actually arguing with his coach about something before catching his teammate cutting using his peripheral vision and tossing the lob. That’s what it looked like initially. Jerome Tang even played it up a bit like that’s what actually happened.

But now, Nowell himself is telling us a different story.

As it turns out, while he was arguing with his coach, he was also trash-talking Isiah Thomas and Mateen Cleaves. They were both in the Michigan State section and Nowell told them to “watch this” before he tossed the alley-oop.

He was asked about that moment in the postgame press conference and had so much fun with it.

“Yeah, I was talking to Isiah Thomas because I think he had a friend over there, and he was rooting for them. And I’m like, y’all not going to win today, and I just kept looking at him for some added motivation. But it was nothing but cool vibes with them over there. “

That’s just amazing, man. Not only did Nowell have the guts to throw that extremely dangerous pass in such a sensitive moment, but he did it while trash-talking an NBA legend. That’s just wild.

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He was certainly right about the good vibes, though. Thomas loves him and thinks he’s got an NBA future.

That’s some high praise from the Hall of Famer. After watching Thursday’s game, though, it’s hard to disagree with him.

Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell had one of the greatest performances in March Madness history

Heart over height. What a game, Markquis Nowell.

Kansas State senior guard Markquis Nowell didn’t let a hobbled ankle keep him from turning in one of the best performances in men’s NCAA tournament history on Thursday.

As his No. 3 Wildcats toppled No. 7 Michigan State in the Sweet 16, 98-93, Nowell celebrated setting a men’s NCAA tournament record for assists in a game with 19.

You could sum up Nowell’s incredible game by him executing arguably the most fascinating play of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament.

At one point, it looked like he possibly set up a pivotal bucket on a fake argument with Wildcats coach Jerome Tang. The coach disputed that it was a fake out, but it still looked incredible.

All in all, few basketball players have ever had such a stunning performance as Nowell’s during this year’s March Madness.

Nowell also scored 20 points in the stellar contest, including this final layup before the buzzer to widen the margin and send Kansas State to the Elite Eight.

The Harlem, New York, native got to shine in front of his home crowd at Madison Square Garden, and he’ll now stick around in the Big Dance with his fellow Wildcats.

At the very least, Nowell sure knows that everyone saw his magnificent performance.

After the game, the 5-foot-8 Nowell also got a special shoutout from Muggsy Bogues, one of the NBA’s most notable players to overcome stature and succeed in the pros.

Nowell is following in the 5-foot-3 NBA legend’s footsteps. Bogues even paid homage to Nowell’s signature slogan: “Heart over height.”

Did Markquis Nowell fake an argument with Kansas State coach Jerome Tang before alley-oop pass?

WAIT A SECOND. Was this an orchestrated play for K-State?!

Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell just had arguably the best game of March Madness thus far, and it was highlighted by one crazy possession.

Nowell, who was rudely referred to as “little kid” after Kansas State defeated Kentucky in the Round of 32, recorded 20 points and a tournament-record 19 assists during the victory over Michigan State. He created, assisted, or scored 69 of the 98 points for K-State.

While he had several incredible moments during the match, the alley-oop pass that he threw to Keyontae Johnson for the reverse dunk was an instant highlight during the men’s tournament.

Watch as the teammates connected for an instant classic:

This was a tremendously impressive basket during the clutch final seconds of overtime, but upon a second viewing, something else stands out.

Don’t look at the dunk and instead watch what Nowell does as he is handling the ball. He looks to the sideline and has an apparent disagreement with head coach Jerome Tang.

On a second watch, it sure looks like Nowell and Tang may have faked their dispute to distract the opposing defense only to find Johnson on the backdoor cut.

During the walk-off interview, Tang was asked about the moment with Nowell. Tang said they were at a “place of fire” and that Nowell was ready for what happened next.

Tang told Richard Johnson that he was calling one play and Nowell was “calling something else” when the guard noticed that Johnson was cutting to the basket.

However, the coach also said during his postgame press conference that Nowell couldn’t tell reporters because then the “next team” would know to expect it.

Good point! You should never tip your hand with trick plays.

Nowell said it was just a “basketball play” between him and Johnson, and they were able to pull it off because they knew Michigan State’s defense likes to play high and tight.

Johnson said that the two have a strong feel for each other.

K-State was one of the most efficient teams in the nation when finishing offensive possessions after timeouts, per Synergy. Meanwhile, only one team in the tournament has scored more points per game on cuts to the basket thus far.

No team in college basketball ran cutters more often (10 percent) than the Wildcats, per ShotQuality. Meanwhile, the Spartans’ defense allowed 1.19 points per possession on cuts to the basket — which ranked far worse than the NCAA average (1.12) in 2022-23.

In fact, Johnson has scored more points when cutting to the basket (117) during this past campaign than the entire Spartans roster managed on this play type (104) all season.

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Intentional or not, especially after K-State’s Tang ran a football-inspired formation on an inbound pass, it’s safe to say that the Wildcats do not lack creativity. Regardless of whether it was scripted or if it was improvised, that possession just fully rocked.

Despite the post-game statement from Tang, several fans and analysts all believed that this could have actually been an orchestrated play designed to catch their defenders off guard. Here is why:

Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell knocked down an unbelievable 3-pointer while falling on a hobbled ankle

What *can’t* Markquis Nowell do?

Kansas State senior guard Markquis Nowell didn’t let a hobbled ankle keep him from making what’s going to be one of the best 3-pointers of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament.

As the Wildcats took on the Michigan State Spartans in the Sweet 16 round on Thursday, Nowell went down with a rough-looking ankle injury during the game’s second half and missed a good stretch of time.

Once he left, the Spartans went on a run and got back in the game as Kansas State struggled to adjust without their star guard.

However, Nowell returned with a taped-up ankle and immediately knocked down an equalizing trey that brought the house down at Madison Square Garden.

Nowell has been one of the best stories of this year’s tournament. He sure hasn’t let an unintended critique from Kentucky coach John Calipari keep him from dominating whenever he’s on the court.

As Kansas State fought for a spot in the Elite Eight, the team surely was glad that Nowell could return to the game and stop the bleeding with such a beautiful 3-pointer.