Kenny Blakeney graduated from Duke in 1995 and went into coaching. He was an assistant at James Madison, LaSalle, Delaware, Seton Hall, Delaware, Marshall, and then at Harvard for former Duke teammate Tommy Amaker.
And then he got out and worked for Under Armour from 2011-2019.
Blakeney worked a summer camp, if we remember correctly, and realized he missed the game. He came back as an assistant at Columbia for a year, and then took the Howard job in 2019. And nothing has been the same since.
His first
season was a 4-29 clunker. The next year was the Covid season, and Howard only played five games, finishing 1-4. Since then, Howard has been really solid.
The Bison have made the NCAA tournament in three of the last four years, and on Tuesday night, Howard won a tournament game for the first time ever.
UMBC was down 83-72 with 2:23 to play, and nearly pulled off a tremendous comeback, cutting the lead to 83-81 on a 3-point shot. Bryce Harris hit a basket with 0:13 to play to put Howard up 85-81, then Jah’Likai King got a layup to cut it back to a two-point lead.
UMBC put Isaiah Brown on the line, and he split, but it was enough for Howard to hold on, 86-83.
Next, the Bison get Michigan, and they’ll probably get thrashed, but the dream lives. We’ll see what they can do on Thursday.
Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions | Drop us a line
