Bears
Former Bear to open Olympics competition Sunday in Paris
Playing for native Puerto Rico, they begin the Olympic tournament on Sunday in the same grouping with the United State.
CONWAY, Ark. — Former Central Arkansas guard Jordan Howard will make his Olympic debut this weekend, playing for Puerto Rico in Paris, France at the XXXIII Olympics.
Howard, the all-time leading scorer and three-point shooter in UCA history, has previously represented Puerto Rico on the men’s national basketball squad. The Puerto Rico team is in the same Group B as the United States and will open play at 4 a.m. Sunday against South Sudan.
Puerto Rico will then face Serbia, featuring NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 31 before taking on the odds-on favorite USA team at 10 a.m. next Saturday. The quarterfinals are set for Aug. 6.
Howard, a 5-11 guard from Chandler, Ariz., has played professionally since finishing his record-setting UCA career in 2018 with 2,524 points and 384 three-pointers. He also set UCA single-season records for points (880) and three-pointers (113) while being named the Southland Conference Player of the Year as a senior and the SLC Men’s Basketball Student-Athete of the Year twice.
Howard’s point total and three-point total were both Division I records for the state of Arkansas as well. As a senior, he led the nation in scoring with 880 points and was the active career scoring leader in the NCAA in 2018. He and his younger brother Marcus, who is the all-time leading scorer at Marquette University, are the highest scoring brother duo in UCA history with 5,285 combined points.
Howard scored in double figures in 120 of his 124 career games at UCA and made at least one three-pointer in 120 of 124 games. He played in the Reese’s All-Star Game at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas at the 2018 Final Four.
Howard, of Puerto Rican descent, has since played professionally in the NBA G League, in the Korean Basketball League, in Italy, Spain and Puerto Rico.
