Harlem Native Returning Home To MSG As March Madness Star

HARLEM, NY — The Kansas State Wildcats will take on the Michigan State Spartans Thursday night in Madison Square Garden. While there isn't an immediately apparent New York City connection in the matchup outside of the venue — it will be a homecoming for the Wildcat's star player Markquis Nowell — a point guard from Harlem.

Nowell, who is coming off a game where he scored 27 points and dished nine assists in a winning effort against the perennial powerhouse Kentucky, has been one of the best players of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament thus far.

The five feet, seven-inch senior developed his game and crafted his skills growing up in Harlem, and hooping on playgrounds across New York City.

In a recent conversation with The Athletic, Nowell's father Marcus Nowell Sr., said that his son learned basketball playing at Harlem's Rucker Park, and farther uptown at the Dyckman courts.

“These are places you can’t just walk onto the court,” Nowell Sr. told The Athletic. “You better be good to get on the court. You have to be talented.”

Nowell also played for the famous Bronx-based New York Gauchos AAU team, before playing high school basketball at Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, and The Patrick School in Hillsdale, New Jersey.

After receiving little immediate scholarship interest from colleges due to his small stature, he ended up going to Little Rock Arkansas for three years, before transferring to the larger Kansas State program in 2021.

This season, in his final year of college basketball, he has flourished — averaging 17.1 points and 7.8 assists for a Wildcats team that finds itself four wins away from a National Championship.

Nowell's Twitter handle name? "MrNewYorkCityy".

The Harlem connections on Kansas State don't stop with Nowell.

Ismael Massoud and Nae'Quan Tomlin are both Junior forwards on the Wildcats that were born and raised in Harlem.

Tomlin stayed local for high school, attending the popular Urban Assembly school.

The 6 feet, 10 inch-player has also been a huge factor for Kansas State, and is coming off a 12 point, six rebound, and four block game against Kentucky.

Elsewhere on the Wildcats roster Senior Tykei Green grew up in Queens, and if you want to really push the point — Senior Nate Awbrey grew up in Manhattan — it just happens to be Manhattan, Kansas.

For those Harlem residents still looking for a team to root for in the Men's March Madness tournament, Kansas State is surprisingly the hometown team.

The Wildcats play Michigan State at Madison Square Garden at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, which you can watch on TBS.