Four years in the past, when Kenny Blakeney interviewed to develop into the following males’s trainer at Howard, he introduced alongside his 75-page marketing strategy. The written phrases nonetheless may just no longer include his grand imaginative and prescient for what he believed Howard basketball may just develop into: a hoops vacation spot in a town that loves the sport. And, additionally, a emblem that would go beyond native confines and attach national with the Howard attract. This week, Blakeney’s imaginative and prescient looks like a fairy story come true.
The Howard males — sure, from that long-overlooked program on Georgia Avenue — are dancing as a No. 16 seed and will face No. 1 Kansas in the primary spherical Thursday in Des Moines. The March Madness platform is the type of advertising and marketing {that a} grasp salesman equivalent to Blakeney had envisioned — despite the fact that he was once being a bit of formidable and a little bit naive all through his preliminary pitch to Howard President Wayne A.I. Frederick.
“Dr. Frederick has talked about how he’s never done more than a three-year contract for coaches,” Blakeney stated, recalling their 2019 assembly. “It was something like that. So one of his questions was: ‘How fast do you think you can win a MEAC championship and get to the NCAA tournament?’ ”
Blakeney stated 3 years. Then he put his imaginative and prescient to paintings.
In the wave of activism and Black empowerment that swept the country following the demise of George Floyd, Blakeney signed Makur Maker, the primary five-star recruit to select an HBCU in the fashionable technology. Though Blakeney concept Howard would make the event with him, the Maker impact by no means translated to the court docket. The prized freshman performed in handiest two video games as a result of accidents and the pandemic ahead of stating for the NBA draft.
Still, Blakeney credit Maker for raising this system’s visibility. The seeds of that dedication would later blossom into Howard touchdown three-star recruit Shy Odom, who teamed with Bronny James at Sierra Canyon School in Los Angeles. In his first season with the Bison, Odom ranks 3rd at the workforce in scoring (10.8 issues consistent with recreation) and moment in rebounding (4.5).
Odom represents the type of participant who suits Blakeney’s imaginative and prescient, which spreads past the 4 partitions of the health club. His gamers pass to Soul Food Thursday like some other scholars. They attend campus panels, together with one moderated by Blitzer, the CNN anchor. (That’s why Blitzer would later disclose himself as essentially the most well-known fan on the workforce’s closed watch birthday celebration.) And those gamers additionally make area for inclusivity.
A personal traditionally Black college recognized for well-known alumni equivalent to creator Toni Morrison and Vice President Harris, Howard hasn’t ever been a basketball powerhouse. Rather, it’s a campus overflowing with achievers, intellectuals, activists. Mostly, they’re girls. Last fall, in line with the school, the Howard pupil frame was once 71 p.c feminine — and the lads’s basketball workforce is powered via girls, too.
According to Daniel Marks, the workforce’s leader program strategist, the workforce has 67 pupil managers as a result of Blakeney doesn’t wish to flip someone clear of receiving résumé-building enjoy. Naturally, the vast majority of the managers are feminine faculty scholars. When Blakeney inspired the gamers to tackle a social justice undertaking, they selected the problem of Black maternal well being — guard Jelani Williams’s concept.
Marks relayed this tale: Upon listening to concerning the workforce’s dedication, a Howard pupil reached out to Odom via social media. She was once in search of assist to stay enrolled in faculty whilst navigating her being pregnant. Odom can have disregarded the message, however as an alternative he knowledgeable Marks, asking if the workforce may just assist. With the backing of the Golden State Warriors and the Washington Wizards, Howard basketball introduced the coed with certainly one of two $7,500 scholarships that the NBA groups funded.
Blakeney “talked about what Howard basketball could mean [in] representing this university and this brand,” stated Marks, who labored with the Milwaukee Bucks for 9 years however left as a result of he sought after to be a part of what Blakeney was once constructing at Howard. “His line is: ‘If our players leave Howard without having made an impact outside Georgia Avenue, then I’ve failed as a head coach.’ And he really believes that.”
Through his skill to connect to energy agents, Blakeney — who but even so running as an assistant trainer in the varsity ranks for a dozen years additionally co-founded a manner line — engineered the college’s collaboration with Jordan Brand. The Jumpman brand is in all places Howard, splashed on scholars’ tote baggage, on indicators outdoor the health club and at the court docket. As the ground underwent its Jordan Brand makeover, gamers needed to bus to Gallaudet University for six:20 a.m. practices. A sacrifice however one the workforce was once prepared to make.
Besides, the high-profile connection is going proper in conjunction with Howard basketball’s cameos in the mainstream. For the previous two seasons, Howard has highlighted its campus on nationally televised video games performed in Burr Gymnasium on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Burr is an intimate area, however Blakeney stated the workforce performed in entrance of extra sold-out crowds this 12 months than in any of his earlier seasons. Considering what number of studious girls rule the campus — scholars who most likely produce other actions on their social calendar — the sold-out video games will have to be a barometer of the way a lot Howard appreciates this workforce.
“It’s just seeing my friends excited and the people around me excited for such a big accomplishment,” stated Amari Graves, a first-year biology primary. She understands the Bison are huge underdogs this week, however that hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm for the gamers. “After 30 years — and they were so happy when you see all the pictures and the videos of them dancing or the TikToks. It’s just nice to see them excited for it.”
To whole the imaginative and prescient, Howard needed to win basketball video games. A 12 months in the past, the Bison had their first successful season since 2001-02. And in the event you bargain the pandemic-interrupted 2020-21 season, in which the Bison performed simply 5 video games and confronted no convention fighters, Blakeney didn’t deceive the college president. He wanted simply 3 complete seasons to perform what Howard may just no longer do in the former 3 many years.
That form of ascension makes other folks realize. After the workforce’s Monday evening apply, sophomore Bryce Harris was once telling me how his lifestyles has modified during the last few days, being showered with love via other folks he hasn’t heard from in years. Then, an older gents interrupted the dialog as a result of he noticed the blue-and-red apply jersey.
“Congratulations! You on the men’s team?” the person known as out. “Congratulations, bruh! I’ve got to shake your hand early. You’re going to be in somebody’s magazine.”
Harris accommodated his new fan — “Now, that’s the change,” he stated of the consistent consideration — and returned to explaining how Blakeney bought him at the imaginative and prescient 3 years in the past.
“Being able to take the foundation of what people who have come before us [did] and build something bigger,” stated Harris, a Long Island local. “He’s a firm believer in raising the standard, and that’s been perfect for us.”
Blakeney isn’t the primary trainer with large aspirations. Dreams like his will also be discovered during the bracket. But handiest Howard can declare that its leader visionary is making a basketball mecca.