Marcus Keene is the best player you’ve never heard of

Marcus Keene is one of the best players in the nation. Here’s what he’s been up to while you were watching everyone else.

Marcus Keene doesn’t necessarily look like an elite basketball player when he’s walking around the Central Michigan campus in street clothes. At 5-foot-9 and 175-pounds, the junior transfer fits in alongside regular students, especially when compared to some of his teammates. Those that know who he is, though, realize what kind of talent resides in that small frame. When he steps onto a basketball court, he becomes the center of attention – the main event. Whether it’s wowing the crowd with an exciting highlight or putting on displays rarely seen before, Keene always seems to manage to stand out.

There was little before this year that indicated he would explode onto the scene the way he has. Beginning his career at Youngstown State, he played two seasons there before transferring. Averages of 6.5 and 15.6 points per game, respectively, his freshman and sophomore years, along with increases in shooting percentages, hinted at improvement. He sat out the 2015-16 season due to transfer rules and spent his time, as most transfers do, practicing with the team and working on his game. Even with that extra time, nobody could have seen this kind of leap coming.

He puts up big numbers

Keene started out his Central Michigan career with back-to-back 30-point games, something just three other players have done since the 2010-11 season. One of those players is the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, Markelle Fultz. With such a strong start leading to two Chippewas wins, it was clear that he had something special brewing. Still, two excellent games into the season could hardly lead anyone to speculate what was still to come.

The San Antonio native hasn’t slowed down since. Now 28 games into the season, he is averaging 29.8 points per game. That’s the third-highest mark of any player to play 20 or more games since 1992-93 and the best since 1997. If he can bump that average back above the 30-point threshold — where it sat for much of the season — he has a shot to finish with the highest scoring average since that 1992-93 season for a player that played in over 20 games. The top spot currently belongs to two-time NBA All-Star Glenn Robinson, who averaged 30.3 points per game for Purdue in 1993-94. That’s pretty good company to be in.

He has a penchant for big games

Not only is he consistently putting together excellent performances, but he is often doing it in spectacular fashion. On January 21 against Miami of Ohio, Keene dropped 50 points on a ridiculous 15-23 shooting from the field. He nailed 10 of 15 3-pointers and made all 10 of his free throw attempts. That was just the sixth 50-point game by any player since 2010-11 (North Dakota State’s Mike Daum added a seventh on February 18th). It was a master class in scoring, making shots from all over the court. That’s the kind or production you expect from someone like Kevin Durant, not a tiny guard from the Mid-American Conference. Not only did he drop a career-high, but he added in 4 assists and 3 steals to boot.

That kind of amazing performance isn’t just one instance standing out in a great season. He has six 40-point games this season, the most in a season by any player in the last 20 years. With Keene, the extraordinary becomes ordinary. These aren’t empty stats, either. While the Chippewas are just 16-12 (including 6-9 in conference play) and sitting in 5th in the MAC West division, the team is 5-1 in Keene’s 40-point outbursts. That mark looks even better when narrowed to conference play, where those games have accounted for half of the team’s MAC wins.

Keene, in stature and production, is reminiscent of Allen Iverson or, more recently, the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas. Rarely do we see a player under six-feet tall dominate with such regularity. He is off most NBA Draft radars, unlike Iverson but similar to Thomas. So how has he managed to flash such an incredible game without attracting all the hype that usually accompanies it?

He plays an old-school game

In the modern era of basketball, teams emphasize unselfish play and ball movement as keys to good offense. That attitude started in the NBA and has begun to trickle down to the college ranks, where it is being seen more and more. Keene, however, harkens back to a time when the game was dominated by isolation experts like Michael Jordan and Iverson. He spends many of his possessions dribbling the ball at the top of the key behind the three-point line, seemingly without aim. Then, out of nowhere, Keene creates:

It seems crazy that someone as small as Keene can get his shot off without any help getting open. His lightning-quick release and ability to make shots with a hand in his face quell any concerns there. His ability to blow by defenders off the dribble helps him too:

Keene’s excellence in isolation is one of the premier scoring threats in the country. He doesn’t rely on anyone else on the court to get his shot off, and he converts it at a ridiculous rate. Of all the players to use at least 100 possessions in isolations this season, he is by far the best at combining volume and efficiency:

He has used the most possessions in isolation by nearly 50 and is second in efficiency, but only barely. That results in him scoring a whopping 73 more points in isolation than anyone else in Division I. Those 73 points would rank in the 98th percentile of all individual isolation scorers this season.

He can really shoot it

This plays into his isolation dominance, but his ability to stroke the deep ball seeps into other areas too. Not only does it stretch the floor for his teammates, but the threat of his shot means he must be guarded just about anywhere in the half court. That’s not an exaggeration:

It doesn’t matter much if he is guarded or unguarded, he can rain 3s no matter the circumstances. Per Synergy Sports, he converts guarded catch-and-shoots to the tune of 1.241 points per possession and unguarded ones at 1.588. Both of those are excellent numbers, and it really opens things up for his teammates, most notably fellow guard Braylon Rayson.

While he shoots a lot out of isolations as noted above, he does most of his damage in the pick-and-roll. Over one-third of his possessions come as the ball handler in the pick-and-roll, and his 3-point shooting makes him extremely dangerous in that situation. Big men have to hedge as he comes around a screen while his defender follows him over it. If they don’t get out on him, Keene will make them pay:

He scores at the rim

Like most small guards, Keene is very quick. When paired with his shooting ability, that allows him to get to the lane often. When he gets there he is able to finish, shooting 58.7 percent at the rim, per Hoop-Math. Only 4.5 percent of his 111 makes at the rim have been assisted, meaning he’s doing the heavy lifting, creating his own shots. He is especially dangerous when he gets a full head of steam towards the rim. His tight handles allow him to keep control and maneuver around bigger defenders.

For someone so small, he finishes through contact incredibly well. Usually when smaller players excel at the rim, they have a good variety of touch shots like floaters and layups off the wrong foot. Think Stephen Curry or Steve Nash. Keene, on the other hand, uses impeccable body control to finish many of his layups. He can seemingly hang in the air forever, often putting it in while the defender is on his way back down:

He likes to snake off screens, using the threat of his shot to lure the hedging big off balance before cutting back across his body to get to the open space. That’s where his ball handing comes in, hanging his dribble out in front of lunging defenders before pulling it back and blowing by them. Having the ball on a string combined with his deceptive athleticism and body control make him tough to stop coming off a screen. Because of all the different things he can do, defenses are always keyed in on him, leading to the final part of his overall devastating game.

He can pass, too

Keene averages 5.0 assists on the year to go with his 21.4 field goal attempts. His willingness to pass, paired with volume scoring, means he has the fourth-highest usage percentage nationally, per Kenpom. When defenders have their heads turned watching him, he is happy to find the open teammate. Most often that comes after he’s driven to the hoop, kicking it out to shooters. Central Michigan shoots a higher percentage of their shots from 3 than all but one team, Savannah State. Keene is the driving force behind that, both shooting and assisting on a lot of deep balls. An incredible 72.3 percent of his assists go for 3-pointers, meaning his assists net 2.737 points on average.

Keene is top in assists on his team, with Rayson being the only other averaging more than one per game. He likes to run in transition, and when his teammates get down there with him he is happy to give it up. Aside from just scoring, his passing gives him another outlet to flash his creativity:

Keene is arguably more dangerous passing the ball in the open court than scoring it himself. The attention he draws as a scoring threat leaves passing lanes wide open. You don’t have to be Chris Paul to find teammates when there’s no defender within several feet of them. Being more than willing to pass isn’t a trait often seen in devastating singular scorers (see: Iverson, Allen and Bryant, Kobe), but with Keene it complements his game in a way that makes him even more dangerous than he otherwise would be.

Looking ahead

Marcus Keene is, astoundingly, only a junior. Not even picked to make an All-MAC team in the preseason, he has burst onto the scene, likely to be MAC Player of the Year. The scariest part is that he will likely be back next year to chase greatness again. Even if he doesn’t manage to eclipse Robinson’s scoring mark this year, he will have a good shot next year. Backcourt mate Braylon Rayson takes the second-most shots on the team and will graduate this spring. As much as Keene dominates the Chippewa offense now, he could do so even more next year.

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There won’t be much for Keene to work on heading into next year. He does just about everything well and any improvement from an already-high level would be grandiose. If you haven’t yet had the chance, make sure to sit down and watch some of Marcus Keene before the year is over. His team won’t make the NCAA Tournament without winning the MAC Tournament, so his superhero’s quest to make that a reality will be event television. His team has already lost their fair share of games this season, and if we’ve learned anything thus far, it’s that Marcus Keene will go down firing.