Howard and coach Kenny Blakeney ready for NCAA First Four after MEAC tournament win

Howard University men’s basketball coach Kenny Blakeney has a vision of a starting five he’d like to see take the floor in the school’s NCAA tournament First Four game against Wagner on Tuesday.

But the reality of going into the NCAA tournament First Four in a season where Howard has played 13 different starting lineups will likely differ from what he desires.

“I’ve had to have amnesia a little bit, just not knowing from day to day who’s going to be at practice, how we would practice, and who would be ready to play,” Blakeney said after the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament championship win over Delaware State on March 16. “I’ve never seen anything like this before in college basketball.”

Yet, somehow, Howard won its second straight MEAC tournament title, the first time the Bison have gone back to back in more than 40 years (the Bison last won two in a row in 1980 and 1981).

“Our year has been somewhat fascinating and challenging,” Blakeney said Monday in Dayton, Ohio, shortly after his team’s arrival. “We’ve played this year with probably the most injuries of any team in the country — we lost 82 games due to injuries with guys that are in our rotation. For us to be able to be here and be a part of March Madness is truly a blessing.”

Key players who have missed a large number of games this season due to injuries and COVID-19 include:

• Forward Shy Odom, the MEAC Preseason Player of the Year, who played in just 19 games this season and missed the MEAC tournament.

• Guard Jelani Williams, who was expected to play big minutes this season after starting 16 games last season. Williams, whose career at Penn was delayed after a series of ACL tears, was playing major minutes for the Bison before his season ended prematurely in December 2023 after nine games when he suffered a broken wrist.

• Forward Dom Campbell, a starter at the beginning of the season who hasn’t played since Howard’s regular-season loss at Norfolk State on March 7. He’s been hampered by a multitude of injuries.

The impact? An increased demand on available players, who are being relied on to play major minutes (four Howard starters played 35-plus minutes in the MEAC title game victory).

“This year was really rocky for us in a lot of ways,” graduate forward Seth Towns, who scored 16 points in the MEAC championship game to earn a spot on the All-MEAC defensive team, said. “For us to come together at the end of the year is a testament to the leadership of the coaching staff and the incredible guys who were never willing to give up.”

The journey of Towns is the epitome of the team’s never give up mentality, having played his first college game at Harvard during the 2016-17 season. Injuries (back and knee) and the lost season of the coronavirus pandemic has seen Towns play through three presidential administrations (beginning with President Barack Obama, and now in Joe Biden’s presidency) and there’s an outside shot after four years of basketball (two years at Harvard, one year at Ohio State and now at Howard) he might have another year of eligibility.

“I’ve been out for so long, and I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to come back,” Towns said. When the season began, he didn’t know if he would be eligible to play this season. “And to do this at an HBCU and put on for the entire diaspora, it’s the most humbling, incredible blessing that I’ve ever experienced.”

Towns, for all the injuries over the course of his career, started 28 of the 31 games he played at Howard this season. The rash of injuries has led to the next-player-up mentality for the Bison.

And no player was able to capitalize more than senior guard Jordan Hairston.

It was a struggle for Hairston — from mid-December 2023 through the Feb. 3 game against Hampton when he made an eight-minute cameo — to get minutes. But Hairston, who came to Howard after early career stops at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and UNC Asheville, scored in double digits in seven of Howard’s final eight games, including a team-high 18 points in the MEAC title game that ended with him winning the MVP award.

“There were other guys who were better than me, and those were the guys to go with,” Hairston said of his role as mainly a spot player earlier in the season. “For me, it was sticking to my principles and being coachable. From that, my coaches trusted me and my teammates trusted me.”

While Hairston was named the MVP of the MEAC tournament, the most important player was junior Bryce Harris who, while listed as a guard, played more like a football linebacker as he bullied his way to the rim for 16 points to go with seven rebounds and a game-high four blocks.  

“We probably play one-on-one a half hour or an hour every day … and it’s just me and you, no rest, no foul calls,” Harris said of the bully-ball tactics that resulted in him becoming the team’s top scorer and earning All-MEAC first team honors. “It’s either you gotta get a stop, or I gotta get a bucket.”

The ability to overcome the the challenges this season that ended with the second consecutive MEAC tournament win (and the second season Howard has eliminated the league’s top seed, Norfolk State) is a testament to the program transformation that has resulted since the arrival of Blakeney.

Blakeney has gained his footing after two rough opening seasons (including the 2019-2020 post-coronavirus pandemic season when five-star center Makur Maker made headlines in the midst of a short-lived career at Howard), leading the Bison to three straight winning seasons and two straight NCAA tournament appearances.

“We never talked about defending [the title],” said Blakeney, who won two NCAA titles playing under the legendary Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. “We talked about pursuing it.”

Mission accomplished. Blakeney was been assisted by a Howard administration that allowed him to hire a talented staff of coaches, including associate head coach Rod Balanis, who came to Howard in 2021 after 20 years as an assistant at Notre Dame, and assistant coach Tyler Thornton, who was a graduate manager at Marquette after his playing career at Duke.

The result has been a collection of players who play as a cohesive unit with complete trust in each other and are fun to watch.

“I’m just so proud of these guys and their character and their work ethic,” Blakeney said. He put his hand on Towns’ shoulder. “To do what they do at this level, on this stage and consistently, it’s special.”

What so far has been the highlight of that magical season, the MEAC title, is what led to Towns clutching the MEAC championship trophy so tight after the victory.

“What it means to put this uniform on, to play for the name on the front of my jersey gives me goose bumps,” Towns said. “To represent the Mecca is an incredible honor.”