, who became the first five-star prospect to sign with an HBCU since ESPN’s recruiting database began in 2007. Maker hoped to lead a revival of HBCU basketball, but he played in just two games that COVID-shortened season, in which Howard finished 1-4. Yes, 1-4. After several players tested positive for COVID-19 in January 2021, Howard canceled the remainder of that season in early February.
Blakeney escaped with his wife and daughter to Ireland and France for a month last summer for a mental-health vacation. Now, in March 2023, he’s “sleeping like a baby,” he says. Which is no surprise. Because for the first time in 31 years, Howard, the so-called Harvard of HBCUs, alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, Toni Morrison, Thurgood Marshall, and so many other luminaries, is dancing.
After finishing the regular season first in the MEAC, and winning the conference tournament championship game, 65-64, Howard—a 16-seed in the West regional—faces the defending national champion, No. 1 Kansas, on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa, at 2 p.m. EST. Though Howard underinvested in men’s basketball for years, Blakeney has now created a new culture in Washington, D.C.
Still, better players started coming to Howard. They’ve thrived in off-court settings too. Hawkins, a D.C. native who attended DeMatha High School, a local hoops power, — chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. His intern duties included helping set up the Jan. 6 hearings and taking notes on cable-news coverage of the committee’s work.