Howard hadn't made the NCAA tournament in 28 years before Kenneth Blakeney arrived as head coach in 2019. For a while, it looked as though he might not be the right man to end that drought.
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Though Blakeney starred at nearby DeMatha under Hall of Famer Morgan Wooteen and won a national championship at Duke under Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, it took time for him to find his own voice as a coach. The Bison went 4-29 his first year, then managed just five games his covid-shortened second season, winning once.
As Howard gets set to make its third NCAA tournament appearance in the last four years with Tuesday's First Four game against UMBC, Blakeney got emotional reflecting on the journey.
"Being at DeMatha and being at Duke, you don't see the culture as it's being built. You get in the back of the line and you do what the older guys are doing in front of you," Blakeney said at Monday's First Four press conference. "So I didn't understand how to build culture. I understood how to follow culture. And there's a huge difference. I had to learn how to build a culture, and that took some time. And thankfully my man over here, [AD Kery Davis], was great."
Most college basketball fans will remember UMBC (Maryland-Baltimore County) from the school's 2018 tournament appearance when the Retrievers upset 1-seed Virginia in the first round. However, they should be in for a tough battle with this veteran Howard team. UMBC doesn't have a single player on the roster with tournament experience.
Here's the rest of my HBCU preview for the week.
Howard women are dancing too
The Howard men aren't alone. The women are dancing too, marking the first time in program history both the men and women qualified for the NCAA tournament in the same year.
The Bison women are making their return to the tournament for the first time since 2022 when they beat Incarnate Word in the First Four before losing to the eventual national champions, South Carolina, in the first round.
This year, they qualified as a 14-seed -- their highest since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985 -- and open play Saturday against 3-seed Ohio State in the first round.
Prairie View prepared for First Four
In the other men's 16-seed First Four game, Prairie View A&M takes on Lehigh. The SWAC champion Prairie View is making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2019 and third overall.
The Panthers are somewhat of an unlikely team to be here after going 18-17 and finishing eighth in the conference regular-season standings. However, after becoming the first team in SWAC history to win four games in four days to win the SWAC tournament as an 8-seed, head coach Byron Smith believes they're battle-tested.
"Playing a tough non-conference schedule with [Texas] A&M and LSU and Missouri, that really prepares us, obviously to go into the conference and playing some really good teams... everybody in our conference is really good. On any given night, you can be beaten... anyone could have won the conference tournament championship. But I think the non-conference and then playing in a tough conference has really prepared us now for the third season, which is really important to us. So I feel like we're ready to go," Prairie View head coach Byron Smith said Tuesday.
Tennessee State and Southern
The 32-year curse is over.
— Tennessee State Men's Basketball (@TSUTigersMBB) March 8, 2026
YOUR TENNESSEE STATE TIGERS ARE GOING TO THE @MarchMadnessMBB.
ALEXA, CUE "CBS College Basketball Theme"
Wrapping up this preview of HBCU teams on the NCAA tournament stage, the Southern women and Tennessee State men also qualified for the dance.
Southern will open play in a 16-seed First Four game Thursday against Samford. It's the Jaguars' third tournament in the last four years and second straight. Last year, they beat UC San Diego in the First Four before losing to UCLA in the first round.
Coached by former Blue Devil Nolan Smith, Tennessee State grabbed a 15-seed and will play 2-seed Iowa State on Friday. After a 23-win season for the Tigers, their best since joining the Ohio Valley Conference in 1986, they're playing in the tourney for just the third time ever and first time since 1994.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: HBCUs: Howard coach emotional reflecting on March Madness journey