Detroit Sports: A 2017 Wishlist Item for Every Team
By Matt Snyder
Zac Snyder: Marcus Keene Averages 30 Points Per Game for the Season
Central Michigan took a back seat to in-state rivals Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan during football season but the script looks to flip during basketball season. Western’s undefeated regular season and Cotton Bowl berth was one of the big national stories this fall, but Central basketball could be one of the big stories through the winter. The reason for that: Marcus Keene.
There have been a number of great scorers in college basketball over the last two decades but none has finished a season with a scoring average of at least 30 points per game. That hasn’t happened since the 1996-97 season when Long Island’s Charles Jones scored 30.1 points per game.
Through 12 games this season, Keene is averaging 31.9 points.
While Keene has been a 30-point game waiting to happen on a nightly basis, he isn’t a stat-stuffer for a bad team. Keene’s success has been to the benefit of the Chippewas so far this season, getting out to a 9-3 record and making the team one of the MAC favorites with conference play just around the corner. Make no mistake, winning comes first for Keene, who was quoted as follows for a recent Yahoo! Sports feature:
"It would be something that I would like to accomplish. But if I don’t, it’s okay as long as we’re winning. I still want to win. Winning comes first. I really want to get to the NCAA tournament. If I average 29 at the end of the year but we get to play a game in the NCAA tournament, that’s what I really want to do."
Central Michigan basketball has the chance to put themselves on the map this season, and it starts with Marcus Keene averaging at least 30 points per game all season.