Dansen wrote:
Fantastic story, great job. Thanks for continuing to push the Rambler stories. Would love to hear any other anecdotes that didn’t make it in
Well his father, Bryant Townes, had some really awesome stories that I am bummed didn't make the final cut. The first was that little Marques was strong enough to shoot a basketball on a 10-foot rim by the time he was "3 or 4" years old. Which seems bananas to me. The way he described it, it seems like the elder Townes was showing this off to anyone and everyone like a party trick, and that it amazed his friends/family.
And secondly, I asked Bryant Townes what his reaction was when he saw Marques' shot against Nevada go through the net: “I mean everybody was so happy for him. But like I’ve said I’ve seen him do that many times growing up. Hitting game-winners, three-pointers and stuff like that.”
What he's referring to is a middle school basketball championship game, in which Bryant was the coach and Marques was the star player. As Bryant describes it, and again it seemed like the details may have been exaggerated, their team was down by 2 points in the championship game to a team that had won the league three years in a row. He drew up a play for Marques to get the final shot, and he hit a three-pointer for the win. So he said he wasn't surprised at all after the Nevada shot. I never got to follow up with Marques to see if it was true. If it didn't sound like such an ol' wise tale, would've been cool to include.