Markquis Nowell, K-State’s ‘arrow,’ is writing March magic into his NYC hoops origin story (2025)

It’s easy to pick out a point guard born and bred in New York City. You hear it in their voice, you notice their swagger. Most of all, you see it in their talent.

Take Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell, for example. He checks in at five feet, seven inches — “on a good day,” he jokes — but he always believes he can be the best player on any court he steps onto. He takes over games. Kentucky learned what it’s like to be on the wrong end of that experience during Sunday’s NCAA Tournament second-round game, as Nowell scored 23 of his 27 points in the second half to go along with nine dizzying assists and three crucial steals in a 75-69 K-State win.

The kid from Harlem who grew up on basketball courts throughout New York City will lead the third-seeded Wildcats into the Sweet 16, where they’ll face No. 7 Michigan State. In a poetic twist of fate, the two teams will meet at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. Nowell has never played a meaningful game on that famed court. Until now.

But he has played just about everywhere else. Rucker Park. Dyckman Park. Kingdome. The proving grounds of the city.

“These are places you can’t just walk onto the court,” said Marcus Nowell Sr., Markquis’ father. “You better be good to get on the court. You have to be talented.”

His son learned that around age seven, when Nowell wasn’t good enough to make a particular grassroots team. Marcus Sr. and Markquis spent the next three months playing at every park they could find against any kid that would play him. He got better — because he had to.

The New York City basketball world is small. It is insular. Nowell knows just about everybody who has come out of the region in the years ahead of him, from Kyrie Irving to Donovan Mitchell to Isaiah Whitehead. He grew up idolizing Kemba Walker and still has a photo with Walker from when Nowell was in middle school. Walker’s run through the 2011 NCAA Tournament is the stuff of legend. It’s what Nowell believes he’s capable of, too.

“Before our first game (of the tournament), he came in my office and said, ‘Coach, let’s watch Kemba,’” Kansas State assistant coach Rodney Perry said. “So, we put on Kemba Walker from when he was at UConn.”

In a 77-65 win against Montana State in the first round, Nowell posted a double-double, with 17 points and 14 assists. He was arguably even more dominant in the Kentucky game, whether for the no-look passes or the no-no-no-yes deep 3s. Four more performances like those, and he’ll match the immortality of Walker.

“We are going to win or lose with him,” Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang said. “I’ve told him the story from scripture. I told him, ‘You are my arrow and I trust you.’ From then on, I’ve never thought about who anyone else has. He’s my dude. I’m going to roll with him.”

None of this success was a sure thing. Nowell has always been an undersized guard who needed coaches to believe he was good enough, even if he didn’t look the part.

That was true when he was growing up, playing on teams with older and bigger kids, for the Gauchos on the grassroots circuit or later for Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., or The Patrick School in Hillsdale, N.J. It was true when he was trying to figure out where he’d go to college. His peers were getting looks and offers from high-major programs. On the first day Division I coaches were able to recruit prospects in his class, Nowell’s phone stayed quiet. His older brother Marcus felt helpless as Nowell wondered aloud why no one wanted him.

“I’m not going to tell you lies, that I wasn’t doubting myself,” said Nowell, a consensus three-star recruit. “Nobody was calling. But I always had faith that one day that even if I went to a mid-major, I was going to get up to a high-major. That was just my mindset, going to Little Rock, doing what I had to do for a couple years.

“I don’t want people to look at me and judge me because of my size. I want you to actually look at me for my game and what I can do to contribute to a team. But I feel like that’s been the case my whole life, being doubted. That’s what I played with, that chip on my shoulder.”

Perry would like to correct Nowell on that last point. It’s not just a chip. “It’s probably more like a boulder,” he said, laughing.

Nowell spent two and a half seasons at Little Rock, averaging double-digit scoring and earning All-American honors his sophomore year. He’d been recruited there by an assistant coach from Harlem, Alfred Jordan, and Jordan helped facilitate his next move. Jordan hit up his little brother’s best friend, former K-State assistant Shane Southwell — who is also, yes, from Harlem — to tell him about Nowell hitting the portal in the spring of 2021. He was a no-brainer to Southwell, who had actually spent some time with Nowell years prior. They had met through Doron Lamb and played video games together one day after Nowell worked out nearby. They’d also shared a high school coach.

“And, when you’re from New York City, you know guys and you follow their careers,” Southwell said. “Markquis had made a big splash.”

He took Nowell’s tape to then-head coach Bruce Weber, who was intrigued. Weber had concerns about Nowell’s size, like every other coach. But he wanted to take the chance. Marcus Sr. and the rest of the family decided they were willing to trust Southwell with Nowell’s future, too. They knew him and his people. “I’d rather trust the word from somebody from New York,” Marcus Sr. said. “Because you’re never going to hide from me. We’ll always see each other.”

Marcus Sr. recalled that his son was told he’d backup Kansas State guard Nijel Pack. Southwell said the staff always believed Nowell could be a starter, and that the only issue was figuring out whether the Wildcats could really trot out a lineup with 5-7 and 5-11 guards and compete in the Big 12. The pair started together for the first time that December. Nowell ended up starting 21 games and earned an all-Big 12 honorable mention at the end of the season.

“He was always the kid that coaches didn’t want to select but had to select because he was just that good,” Marcus Sr. said.

Nowell still has the text messages saved. He’ll never get rid of them. They’re proof, in gray and blue bubbles, that his athletic director listened — really listened — to him when Gene Taylor hired Tang.

The first text in the exchange is from Nowell. It’s mid-March 2022, and he’s reaching out to Taylor to reiterate his support for Kansas State’s AD during his coaching search and that “I’m here every step of the way for the rebuilding process and we will be back to winning very soon.” He mentioned he’d heard good things about Murray State head coach Matt McMahon, whom Taylor said he’d look at. Taylor thanked Nowell for his help and told him, “With you here, we can go a long way getting back to winning for sure.”

Taylor had solicited feedback from all the current players as he began the search to replace Bruce Weber. They wanted someone with great energy. They wanted someone who could change up his style of play depending on his personnel and the opponent. Taylor, of course, had his own criteria, too. One of the main things he was looking for was someone who’d been part of a winning program; he felt that knowing what it took to build and sustain success would translate to Manhattan, Kan.

Nowell followed the reporting around the search and, on March 20, saw that longtime Baylor assistant Jerome Tang was being considered for the position. Nowell is a film junkie, so he’d been studying head coaches and assistant coaches alike. He’d noted sideline demeanors and the way players responded to them. He could see how the Baylor players gravitated toward Tang. So he texted Taylor, “We need Jerome Tang,” along with an emoji of prayer hands. Taylor replied, “Thanks.”

“I couldn’t tell him everybody we were talking to, but Jerome’s name had gotten out there,” Taylor said. “He wanted me to know that if we got him, it’d be awesome.”

Nowell liked Taylor’s text as his reply. Somehow, some way, he just knew. Tang was the guy.

Tang quickly realized Nowell would be his arrow, the player who determined where his first team would go. Nowell was one of just two players who stayed at K-State after the coaching transition. He believed in Tang at an almost instinctual level. When Tang told him he needed to find the right guys to build a team around him that he hoped could get to the NCAA Tournament, Nowell told him they would get there. Kemba Walker had taken a team of freshmen and sophomores to the title game; he could figure out how to maximize whatever roster Tang pieced together.

“It was a match made in heaven for Markquis and Coach Tang,” Southwell said. “Knowing Markquis, none of this has been surprising … because Coach Tang is a great guards coach. And when you have a guy like Markquis who, especially at his size, is so confident and who leads by example. It forces others to follow.”

Nowell can poke fun at himself and his stature now. He said one of the benefits of being so short is that when he falls, he’s closer to the ground. Doesn’t hurt as much.

He has embraced everything that comes with the outside world judging you by your appearance. He knows that every day he has to prove himself to people who don’t know how good he is or how big his heart is. Heart over height is his mantra, and you’ll usually see at least someone waving a shirt or a sign with that message on it at a K-State game.

To succeed at his size in the toughest conference in the country and now in the tournament, Perry says, Nowell had to first figure out two aspects of his game: 1) how to get a shot off over taller, longer players and how to handle them if he drives to the paint; and 2) how to handle switches. Ballhandling helps with both, and there are few, if any, players more trustworthy with the ball in their hands and the game on the line. This season, Nowell is averaging 17.1 points, 7.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game — and he plays almost the whole game every time, averaging 36.6 minutes per game.

As Tang would put it, Nowell is a dude.

That dude is about to play in front of his friends, family and everyone who has ever crossed paths with anybody who’s anybody in the New York City basketball scene. Nowell’s father expects “pandemonium” at the Garden after seeing some of the crowds that have turned out for elite high school matchups in the city over the years. He estimates 3,000 people will come to Thursday’s game specifically to see Nowell.

“I don’t know what an NBA executive is looking for,” Marcus Sr. said, “but if you’re looking for somebody who is going to sell tickets, you’ve got someone right there who is going to sell tickets.”

For the record, Nowell has wowed a Madison Square Garden crowd before. He was six, and his team got to play at halftime of a Knicks game.

“I think I was the same height,” Nowell said, smiling. “But really, I was a little, short guy with the big shorts.”

He’s still the little, short guy, although he has a uniform that fits a bit better these days. He’s still the same kid from Harlem trying to prove he belongs on the court. He’s still the same person who worshipped Kemba Walker, but now he’s a star player who can match Walker’s achievement, if everything unfolds according to plan.

Markquis Nowell is ready for his moment.

(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)