In very shocking fashion, and in what is now the youngest basketball division-I verbal commitment in the state of Arizona's long and rich high school basketball history, Perry High School's superb 5-foot-10, 165-pound sophomore guard Markus Howard has given a verbal pledge to the Arizona State Sun Devils and head coach Herb Sendek and his basketball staff.
This commitment is huge for the Sun Devils and Herb Sendek's future at the program, while possessing the fire power to help the program now attract better basketball prospects over the next few years. The top-rated 2017 prospect, Howard, is the top-rated Arizona basketball product to verbal to Arizona State since Jahii Carson in 2011, and the highest rated prospect to commit to ASU since Keala King and James Harden (NBA).
Howard was already being sought after by many high-major division-I college coaches around the country. Howard decided to pull the trigger with ASU over serious interest from Kansas, Florida, Arizona, Oregon, USC and UCLA, and would have reeled in numerous scholarship offers over time.
Howard is coming off a tremendous freshman season – leading his team to a strong 26-6 overall record on the season, and a Division-I state semi-final playoffs berth. Howard, alongside his brother Jordan Howard (Central Arkansas signee), would lead Perry to a highly successful season. Markus would average an impressive 23 points, 2.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds per/game. Markus was unguardable at times this high school season, as he went on numerous scoring outbursts against much older competition.
As a result of Howard’s early success this high school season, he was selected by the Arizona Republic newspaper as a First-Team All-State selection.
Howard is also coming off a strong showing this spring and summer, where he did exactly the same thing on the club circuit as he did to the state of Arizona this past high school season. Howard competed at the 17U level with his club team, Arizona Power Black.
Howard is also the product of a strong basketball family. His brothers, Jordan Howard and his oldest brother, Desmond Howard, both will have played college basketball. His father Chuck Howard is a basketball trainer and also the Strength and Conditioning coach for the Grand Canyon University basketball program, while also operating Grand Canyon’s Recreation Center. His mother, Noemi Howard, also works at the school – managing the school’s Rex Center.
The future looks to be extremely bright for Howard who is beginning to gain national attention and should rank among the elite prospects in the country throughout his high school career in the 2017 class. Look for Markus Howard to continue to ravage the Arizona high school basketball scene over his next three years of high school varsity basketball, and break many scoring records in the process.
