College basketball: Christian Howard leading Columbia International on tournament run

Christian Howard has always been pretty big. Now he's all grown up, too. Four years after leaving Medina High as an All-Gazette center for the Bees basketball team, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Howard is a mentally and physically mature starter for Columbia International University, where he plays for cousin and Rams head coach Tony Stockman. "It's been a blessing," the 21-year-old Howard said in a phone interview. "He's hard on you, but it's for a good reason. Sometimes it feels like, 'Geez, what did I do?' but in the end he's always bettering you. I'm grateful for it." Though the South Carolina-based school calls call him a forward on its roster, Howard will essentially be starting at center when top-seeded Columbia International opens play in the eight-team National Christian College Athletic Association Division I Championship, which will be held at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. The Rams (20-7) will play in the quarterfinals Wednesday at noon against No. 8 Justice University (12-15) out of Arizona. "He's technically playing the five for us," Stockman said. "His thing is, nobody can guard him in the post. A lot of our stuff is for him. He's our main focus. We're trying to get him the ball." Howard has 1,353 points in a remarkably consistent career that has seen him score 306 as a freshman, 307 as a sophomore, 375 as a junior and 365 so far as a senior. His final season has been his best, as Howard is second on the team in scoring (14.6) and rebounding (5.8) and third in assists (2.8) while shooting .582 from the field and .728 at the line, which earned him first-team All-Appalachian Athletic Conference honors. "He knew what hard work was, but it takes time," Stockman said. "This year, what he's done a great job of is working with the assistant coaches and getting the extra work in. When he first got here, he struggled with that. This year, he's done a really good job." For Howard, it was all part of the maturation process. With Buckeye High graduate and Rams assistant coach Cory Inman, who played for Stockman at Ohio Christian University, staying on him about his studies, Howard is just one semester shy of earning his degree in sports management. He's also worked hard to transform his body and is now in the best shape of his life. "I'm a lot stronger, quicker and first-step faster," he said. "Conditioning is no joke when it comes to college. It's very emphasized. If you're a good player, you have to be able to play a lot of minutes at a high rate. Throughout the years, the coaches have been emphasizing if we're the better conditioned team, nobody can beat us." That has taken hold with Howard, who was just 17 when his standout career at Medina ended. Though not tall at all for a college center, he utilizes his quickness, great footwork and ample backside to score virtually at will if opposing teams don't double-team him. "Seven-footers, 6-11, all the above, when it comes to someone being taller than you, it's all about your footwork," he said. "That's what they've been preaching to me for four years. If you can turn a little advantage into a big advantage, it doesn't matter who they are or how tall they are. I'm not the biggest or the fastest, but my footwork I can turn into a big advantage." To that end, Howard has attempted just three 3-pointers in his college career, all as a sophomore and all unsuccessful. He's also worked hard to raise his free throw percentage from .549 to .606 to .625 to .728 in his four seasons. When Howard was a sophomore, the Rams won the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 7 seed, qualifying them for the eight-team NAIA Championship. Now it's time to put all he has learned to use and win the NCCAA Championship, which Columbia International had not qualified for since 2021, the year before Howard arrived. "We just have to be us," he said. "We have to take it one game at a time and play our game. If we do that, we'll be able to do big things and win it all." When the season is complete and his college career is over, Howard plans to meet with Stockman and get an agent, with the hope of playing for pay in another country, something both think is possible. For now, though, Howard just wants to enjoy the maximum three games he has left with the Rams. "It flew by so fast," he said. "You never think about it until it's your last year. Thinking this is my last week of college basketball is insane. Time really does fly by. The relationships I've built, I would have never had any of that if I didn't even try to play. It was four of the best years of my life. We had a winning season every year and I had a great time. "I've grown in tremendous ways. Through adversity, injuries, just learning how to be a student-athlete and doing it so far from home without my parents here, it's grown me as a person in so many ways. I would have never had this experience if I hadn't chosen Columbia International." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.