Markus Howard of Marquette shares scoring record with brother Jordan Howard -

Of course Markus Howard heard. Anyone around the Marquette basketball program had the entire offseason to work through the simple math. Howard had scored 1,955 points. He needed 31 more to become the program’s all-time leading scorer.

Marquette’s season opener against Loyola (Md.) carried little weight in the scope of the season; the Golden Eagles easily cruised to the win. Howard’s parents, Chuck and Noemi, watched from Arizona at a friend’s house because the game wasn’t broadcast on a national television network.

The 5-foot-11 senior point guard wasted no time surging to the record that night, scoring 19 points in the first seven minutes, breaking the mark with a three-pointer just after the second half began and finishing with 38 points.

Howard appreciates an achievement of that stature and understands what it means to be the most prolific scorer in a program that has produced the likes of Dwyane Wade, Jimmy Butler and Maurice Lucas. But, he said, “now I’m kind of happy that it’s behind me.” Because frankly, this is all a bit awkward.

Howard has averaged 25.9 points this season, the most in the nation entering Saturday’s games, after averaging 25.0 last season, but he doesn’t have a game or a moment that stands out in his mind. Not his 53-point performance in January against Creighton. Or the 52 points he scored in a game as a sophomore. Or the two games on consecutive days last month when he combined for 91. Howard doesn’t relive plays with his parents. He usually wants to move forward.

“Sometimes you have to almost pep him up,” Marquette assistant coach Stan Johnson said. “Let him know: ‘Hey, man, take an hour or so, relish in it and enjoy it. These are historic moments.’ ”

As Marquette (9-2) heads toward conference play, Howard is up to 2,214 points. By scoring 32 on Friday in a win over North Dakota State, he and his older brother Jordan passed Stephen and Seth Curry as the highest-scoring pair of brothers in college basketball history. He has hit 354 three-pointers, about 44 percent of his attempts. Howard desperately wants to deflect praise, but his production makes that nearly impossible.

“I’m comfortable in my own skin, but when the attention is on me — when I know it’s way more than just me — that’s when I kind of get uncomfortable,” he said. “Because one person can’t do it all. … When it gets perceived that way, that’s when it makes me uncomfortable because that’s the farthest thing from the truth.”

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Howard won’t turn 21 until early March, but he has always been mature. His mom said the family talks about “not being moved” emotionally by successes and failures. The family leans heavily on its faith; Howard wears No. 0 to represent how he’s nothing without God.

Howard has a knack for scoring, fueled by how he can create space and get a shot off against nearly anyone. The gift, Johnson said, is the work. Howard might take 4,000 shots per week during the summer. When the season arrives, every opponent’s game plan starts with him. That’s what draws the attention and creates the platform, “but I want to be remembered more so for what I do off the court,” Howard said.

So he co-founded Marquette’s chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He has spoken publicly about mental health. His coaches call him an ambassador to the program and the university.

If Howard had a choice, he would lead an introverted life. He reads before games, sometimes the Bible and other times “The Jordan Rules” or Pete Carroll’s book. At home in Chandler, Ariz., the family has an extra-long couch that can fit Noemi, Chuck and all three of their sons. It’s sometimes nice to curl up there, watch a “Rocky” movie and maybe recite a few lines verbatim.

Howard fully sees himself as more than a basketball player, his mom said, “but he knows that others don’t, to a certain extent.”

With two basketball-playing older brothers, Desmond and Jordan, Howard always found himself in a gym. He mimicked his brothers and learned to love the sport. During halftime of his brothers’ games, he would shoot on the court. Even then, when he was 3, his mom said he had great form. When Howard played for the Jr. Suns, he wore Rec Specs goggles and hadn’t grown into his body, but Desmond would tell him, “You have to score 30 points” — his way of instilling an aggressive mind-set.

Desmond, a basketball skills trainer in the Phoenix area, checks on his brothers daily. (“I’ve got to make sure you’re breathing,” he said.) That means early-morning talks with Jordan, who plays professionally in South Korea. They all FaceTime nearly every day.

Chuck is the former strength coach at Grand Canyon University who now runs the school’s corporate wellness programs. Noemi manages three student fitness centers at Grand Canyon. One of her co-workers who follows college basketball couldn’t believe she never mentioned Markus was her son. For as much as basketball has consumed their lives, “we never, ever discuss our boys unless it’s brought up,” she said. The family pays little attention to records — the ones Howard has broken and those within reach.

But Howard’s most recent milestone has significance because he shares it with his brother Jordan, who from 2014 to 2018 scored 2,524 points at Central Arkansas — which, coincidentally, will visit Marquette for a game Dec. 28. The Currys combined to score 4,736 points in their college careers.

Markus Howard chose to return for his senior season without testing the NBA draft waters. Initially “he was ready to declare,” Chuck said. But Howard knew he could improve, and he wanted to finish out his four-year commitment to the university.

The individual accomplishments are monumental. And under Coach Steve Wojciechowski, the Golden Eagles’ record has improved each season since Howard arrived as a 17-year-old. But Howard has never been part of a team that has won an NCAA tournament game or a conference title. As a senior, he said he feels as if he’s playing with more poise and patience.

“Anyone who has that level of character, that level of work, that level of confidence, just your presence allows other people to be better,” said Johnson, who first recruited Howard when he coached at Arizona State. “We know with Markus that on any given night, regardless who we’re playing, we have a chance to win.”

Against Southern California at the Orlando Invitational in November, Howard became the fourth major-conference player to score 40 points on consecutive days. He led his team the way he typically does but with an even more outlandish stat line than usual: Howard scored 51 points, two shy of his career high, before Wojciechowski took him out of the lopsided game with about five minutes to go. He made nine three-pointers and shot 58.3 percent from the field.

That night, Marquette wore its white uniforms, which Howard paired with fluorescent pink sneakers that highlighted his every move. When Howard stood in the middle of team huddles, his teammates’ size hid the senior point guard, apart from his shoes shuffling around with urgency as he spoke to the group.

“I’m not trying to stand out or anything,” Howard said, explaining how he likes those pink shoes because they grip the floor well as he flies around.

But in that game, and through much of his career, Howard’s performance garnered headlines, attention and praise. During a timeout a few minutes before Howard was subbed out of the game, the public address announcer told the crowd Howard’s most recent achievement. With a game still to go, he had broken the Orlando Invitational’s three-game scoring record. Howard didn’t hear.

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