Each school basketball program in America begins every season with hopes of creating it to the Large Dance. Final 12 months, there have been two squads who represented HBCUs within the tourney: Howard College and Texas Southern. But, each groups acquired there in utterly other ways. On one hand, you had Texas Southern, who entered the SWAC Event because the lowest seed and ended up defeating each common season co-champions on the best way to successful a 3rd consecutive event title. Then again, you had Howard who dominated the MEAC by successful the common season and event championships, clinching a berth to the tourney for the primary time in over 30 years.
Will any individual within the SWAC cease Texas Southern from capturing a fourth consecutive convention event title? Will Howard carry its momentum from final 12 months into this season and run via the MEAC once more? The jury remains to be out.
Amongst HBCU groups to pay additional shut consideration to this upcoming season Howard is clearly close to the highest of the record. This system is returning a handful of core gamers from final 12 months’s roster, together with 2022-23 MEAC Freshman of the 12 months, Shy Odom. In addition they added two excessive main transfers to the combo: Seth Cities by the use of Ohio State and Dom Campbell from Notre Dame.
A participant who’s inclined for a breakout season is level guard Zion Harmon out of Bethune-Cookman. What Harmon lacks in measurement, he makes up for with grit, tenacity and a particular potential to use strain on each ends of the ground. The previous four-star recruit is coming off a season during which he earned All-SWAC Second Staff and Freshman of the 12 months honors. If he’s capable of hit one other gear this season, it’s not far-fetched to examine Bethune-Cookman combating for a spot in March Insanity.
One crew flying beneath the radar that everybody ought to have an eye fixed on is the College of Maryland Jap Shore (UMES). The defensive-minded Hawks had been streaky final 12 months however had some particular moments which have hoop followers questioning what this system’s ceiling could possibly be. UMES beat Temple College (the identical Temple who beat No. 16-ranked Villanova and No. 1-ranked Houston) on their residence flooring and had a midseason stretch during which they gained 11 out of 12 video games. Coach Jason Crafton’s Hawks led the nation–sure, nation–in steals per sport (11.1) and compelled turnovers per sport (19). A battle-tested roster that’s hungry to construct on the historic season they simply achieved–that’s a recipe for fulfillment.