After watching Auburn basketball freshman Jahki Howard dunk the ball against Monmouth last month, you would never know that Howard's time on the Plains got off to a rocky start.
Earlier this season, an incident between Howard and fellow Tiger Ja'Heim Hudson on the plane to Houston caused the pair to miss the big game and several afterward. Social media videos surfaced that seemed to show Howard being a bad teammate and sulking when he didn't get to make shots.
But over the last few weeks, Howard has been working to prove that he is a valuable part of this Auburn basketball team, demonstrated in senior Chad Baker-Mazara's willingness to share minutes with the freshman, among other things.
Howard slowly worked his way back into the rotation and made his presence known in the Tigers' matchup against Monmouth where he had two monster dunks, including a windmill alley-oop.
“I’ve seen him dunk on a seven-footer, so that was crazy. And just in general, probably 360 just outrageous,” Auburn guard and fellow freshman Tahaad Pettiford said, per AL.com. “He’ll try that in warmups from time to time. Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if we tried it again. I wouldn’t be.”
And as for Howard's alleged attitude, Pettiford says that Howard is someone who just takes the game of basketball seriously and gets locked in during the games.
“You try to get him to smile on the bench and he was just locked in, but I guess it’s just normal for him,” Pettiford added. “I mean, when it comes to game time, he’s always locked in, but off the court he’s just a normal kid, smiling, always making jokes, but once he gets on the court it’s just a whole another Jahki.”
Though he got off to a slow start in orange and blue, it's clear that freshman Jahki Howard has a bright future on the Plains and a talent level that has yet to fully show itself on the court.