Saturday, March 03, 2018

Howard's 1,016 by 19th Birthday Tops Durant, Magic, Duncan, Tisdale, Curry ... well, everyone we can find

Magic Johnson scored 511 points before celebrating his 19th birthday, Steph Curry 700 points, Wayman Tisdale 810 and Kevin Durant 903. Only five players have scored 1,000 points in one season since Sports Reference started tracking in the 1980s and freshman could not even play until the early 1970s.

We looked through the greatest freshman seasons we could find, including freshman who finished in the top 50 at www.valueaddbasketball.com and lists of top freshman seasons and discovered that the majority of great freshman seasons were accomplished by players who turned 19 before they started their freshman season. So the majority total is ZERO.

And then you have the rare player who starts playing at 17 - two years younger than most of the all-time great freshmen.

Tim Duncan showed up on Wake Forest campus as a 17-year-old in 1993 and scored 860 points by the time he turned 19, and on Saturday Markus Howard celebrated his birthday by torching Creighton to bring his total to 1,016 points. We know no one has topped that total in a single freshman season, so we will leave it up to others to find someone else who came to a campus as a 17-year-old and put up two years of scoring to get to 1,000 by their 19th birthday, but for now Howard is the best ever that we can find.

RankPlayer19th birthdayby 19thTeamNotes
1Markus Howard3/3/20181,016Marquettethru sophomore season finale
2Kevin Durant11/29/2007903Texasfull freshman season
3Tim Duncan4/25/1995860Wake Forestfull freshman and soph season
4Wayman Tisdale6/9/1983810Oklahomafull freshman season
5Carmelo Anthony5/29/2003778Syracusefull freshman season
6Steph Curry3/14/2007700Davidsonday after birthday added 30 in loss to MD to end freshman season
7Jabari Parker3/15/2014633Duke37 points after birthday
8James Harden8/26/2008605Arizona St.full freshman season
9Bradley Beal6/26/2012546Floridafull freshman season
10Marvin Bagley III3/14/2018539Dukestill counting until birthday
11Jared Sullinger3/4/2011514Ohio St.121 after birthday
12Magic Johnson8/14/1978511Michigan Statefull freshman season
13Jordan Adams7/8/2013505UCLAfull freshman season
14Malik Monk2/4/2017503Kentucky251 after birthday
15Patrick Beverley7/12/2007485Arkansasfull freshman season
16Anthony Davis3/11/2012485Kentuckyfull freshman season
17Chase Budinger5/22/2007484Arizonafull freshman season
18Michael Kidd-Gilchrist9/26/2012476Kentuckyfull freshman season
19Miles Bridges3/21/2017473Michigan Statefull freshman season
20Chris Bosh24-Mar-03466Georgia Techscored 19 more in NIT loss to Bobby Knight's Texas Tech after birthday
21Tyus Jones5/10/2015461Dukefull freshman season
22Marcus Smart3/6/2013433Oklahoma St.74 after birthday
23DeJuan Blair4/22/2008429Pittsburghfull freshman season
24Justise Winslow3/26/2015425Duke67 after birthday
25Gordon Hayward3/23/2009420Butlerfull freshman season

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