Digging for dirt
Do you think Mo Williams would say that he’s taken on a “dirt” job at Alabama State University? He’ll be coaching inside of a 7,400 seat stadium at the Acadome. It’ll be a sellout for the Alabama A&M game and a few other games during the year. Pencil that in. If Trace Young and some of the other heralded players in Williams’ first recruiting class turn out to be legit, it might be a sell-out every single night. And what if Mikey Williams, the no. 3 prospect in the 2023 class, decides to attend Alabama State? (They are on his top ten list) That’s a sell-out season in the books. ASU will be trending on Twitter for every game. That’s a path to the NBA that comes right through Montgomery, Alabama.
Dwyane Wade couldn’t school you about HBCUs because he doesn’t know, he doesn’t care to know. Which is fine, they are called Historically Black Colleges and Universities, not Mandatory Black Colleges and Universities. Again, we aren’t monolithic, there are layers to the black dysphoria. We do what we do.
None of these arguments about facilities and television games really apply to the bonafide stars. Morant and Williamson could have gone anywhere and still made it to the league because they have transcendent talent. If Makur Maker goes to Howard and dominates, his NBA trajectory isn’t going to change. Especially if he leads Howard to an NCAA Tournament victory or two. ESPN has the rights to these games already, they can broadcast more if they would like.
Power to the players
Mikey Williams could engineer the HBCU version of the Fab Five 3.0 (don’t forget the Beetles) and shift an area of power in college basketball. Can you imagine a trio of four to five star recruits all selecting the same HBCU surrounded by a host of complementary players? Five years ago I couldn’t. Hell, last year I couldn’t, but our entire world is different now. Anything could happen.
When Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson all decided to attend Michigan University in the early 90s, they completely upset the apple cart. Michigan was already a great program having won a national championship in 1989, but how many documentaries have been made on the good ole days of Glen Rice and Rumeal Robinson? The Fab Five showed us that the strength of players’ talent and popularity can even outlive the memories of championships. King has since written an article saying that the Fab Five could have had the same impact at an HBCU. King says he thinks about how the group could have been viewed as trendsetters at the time instead of “thugs” on the Michigan campus.
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Digital on the rise
Television doesn’t drive the culture. the culture drives television. Furthermore, television doesn’t monopolize the media landscape. Wade’s comments also don’t reflect the visionary idea that today’s athletes grew up on social media and that carries more cache than anything else.
In an analytic report issued by SkullSparks, the SWAC was just a few hundred clicks away from being a top-five social media brand for NCAA conferences. The SWAC managed to finish ahead of the Big Ten, Big 12 and the Big East Conferences.
D.Wade was correct about a few things and we in the HBCU community want to see a few things happen our objective in sports especially basketball and football .Our objective in basketball is to put together a team at one of university that can make the final four , in football we want a team from one of university that can play and beat teams in the P5 conferences such as alabama,Ohio State,LSU or a Notre Dame. we in the HBCU community don’t want to be phase out at the table we want a seat at the table and some of the hundreds of millions of dollars that’s being generated by players of color for these P5 school and for this to happen for us we have to get some of these top HS recruits.D.Wade was correct Howard univ. was 4-29 last year and there basketball gym has a capacity of 2,700 and the future of HBCUs high profile recruiting hangs on the success or failure that this kid has at this university because parents and other high and low profile recruits are paying full attention to this move.This isn’t like the 60s and the 70s your only choice was an HBCU today you have the choice of any university in the U.S. which is much better for the university that’s competing and the athlete so if we in the HBCU community don’t get this right the first time there want be a second or third time.I don’t know how many wins one kid can add to a 4-29 record maybe 8 more so now we 12-21 and still out of the NCAA tournament so we in the HBCU community are back in the same position as before nothing changed.If we in HBCU community want these top recruits and want them to be successful and achieve the changes that they are trying to make we have to send them to our best school that can make this happen for them not somewhere to make a record better ,if we happen to get five 5star basketball recruits that want to play at an HBCU we can’t send them to different school they all need to be at the same university if they all go to different school then our chance at failure is very high but if they all go to the same school our chance of success and victory is very strong and at this moment in time that university for basketball is TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY.If we in the HBCU community don’t want to be left out in the cold again on draft day we have to come together as one. The only conference that’s a danger to P5 conferences for recruits at this moment are the HBCUs because the only thing that can Trump money is Love.