There are only a couple of weeks left for the college kids to impress the scouts before the NBA Draft takes place on June 20th. We will spend that time talking to the stars of tomorrow as they prepare for the next phases of their careers. If you want a player with postseason experience then Marques Townes is your guy: state champion in high school, 2016 NCAA tourney at FDU, and a very shiny moment while helping lead Loyola Chicago all the way to the Final 4 in 2018. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Marques about making a game-winning shot in March and what it would mean to get drafted.
At St. Joseph High School in New Jersey you had a 2-PT win over East Side Newark to win the 2014 state Tournament of Champions for the 1st time in school history: what did it mean to you to win it all? It was a really great experience. We had a great team including guys like Karl-Anthony Towns/Wade Baldwin. We had lost the title game the year before so we wanted to prove to everyone in the state that we were the best.
How good was Towns back in the day, and has he given you any advice about what it takes to make it at the next level? Karl was beyond unstoppable in high school. He would just get all of the rebounds and then throw baseball passes to us at half-court. It was like a show because not only could he dunk everything but he could also make 3-PT shots (before Coach John Calipari made him focus on his low-post play at Kentucky). He told me to just do what I do best, not get outside of my comfort zone, and enjoy the process.
You began your college career at Fairleigh Dickinson, where you made the 2016 NCAA tourney: why did you decide to transfer, and what made you choose Loyola Chicago (after Googling where it was)? I knew that I wanted to go somewhere else because I thought that I could succeed at a bigger school. My AAU/high school coach helped me out and was calling schools for me. I had a lot of schools interested in me but when I went to Loyola it really felt like home. That is how it was when I was at St. Joe’s: there was an instant connection and a family atmosphere.
Take me through the 2018 NCAA tourney:
In the Sweet 16 you made the game-winning 3-PT shot at the shot-clock buzzer with 6.3 seconds left in a 1-PT win over Nevada: did you think that your shot was going in, and how did it change your life (if at all)? It definitely changed my life: that will be a March Madness memory forever at our university. We were just trying to let the clock tick down, Clay made a good pass to me, and I got a little separation from the defense. All of the hard work I put in every year went into that shot and I knew that it was going in.
In the Elite 8 you scored 13 PTS in a win over Kansas State: how big a deal was it to advance to the school’s 1st Final 4 in 55 years? It was unreal. We also set the record for the most wins in school history so it was definitely a big moment. We took the lead early against Kansas State and kept the momentum during the entire game. It just felt like we were going to win it all: it was an amazing run but we just took it 1 game at a time and knew that we had the pieces to win. Everyone on that team will be remembered forever.
Last summer you represented the Dominican Republic at the Central American and Caribbean Games: everyone knows about all of the great Dominican baseball players, but how big is basketball down there? I think it is the next sport to start developing down there. Baseball is huge but basketball is on the horizon. I will be playing in the World Cup in China as well and we have some really good players. Francisco Garcia (2005 All-American at Louisville) is the president and is really excited to get things going.
In February of 2019 you scored a career-high 32 PTS/11-18 FG in a win over Drake: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? As any player will tell you, once you are in the zone the rim looks like an ocean and everything you put up feels like it is going in. I do not know why but I had some great games against Drake. I was just happy that we got the win.
You finished the season by being named conference POY/Honorable Mention All-American: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? It meant a lot to me personally. I was left out of the conference awards the previous year but I have been an underdog my whole life so I put in a lot of work last summer and entered my final season with a chip on my shoulder. It was a personal goal for me to win conference POY so even though we lost the conference tourney it was a great honor.
Your RPG increased during each of your 4 years of college: how were you able to keep improving every single year? You just need to have that mentality as a player. Rebounding is a lost art so I just try to crash into the lane and “rebound down” to help our big men out.
In the NIT last March you suffered a non-displaced fracture in your left thumb during a 9-PT loss to Creighton: how is your health doing at the moment? Not a lot of people knew about that. It happened on 1 of the last plays of the 1st half: I thought that it was just jammed but it was really hurting in the locker room. I put some ice on it but after going back out it still hurt every time that I touched the ball. I am just happy to be healthy now.
What would it mean to you to get drafted? It really would summarize all of the work that I put in, even as a kid. There have been so many practices/workouts to get to this moment that if I get onto that stage I might want to cry. I know that my family would be in tears as well as it is would be a lifelong dream come true.