The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) preseason basketball favorites will tip off the 2024-25 season against the top team in the nation. Howard University will head to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, for an HBCU vs. college basketball blue-blood matchup with the Kansas Jayhawks.
The Jayhawks will enter the season ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press (AP.) Kansas received 30 of a possible 60 first-place votes from the AP panel when its poll was released on Oct 14. and enters the 2024-25 season ranked seventh or higher for the 13th consecutive year.
“We welcome being preseason No. 1, especially with our returning players like Hunter (Dickinson), Dajuan (Harris), and KJ (Adams), and then you add the players we brought in,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “The goal is to be No. 1 at the end of the season, and though we welcome this, it is not the end goal.”
The Bison and Jayhawks have met three times in the past, with the most recent matchup coming in the 2023 NCAA tournament’s first round. Kansas notched a 96-68 win before being upset by Arkansas in the next round. Howard would take the lead five times in the first half against the Jayhawks before the No. 1 seed built a 50-37 lead into halftime that would last for the rest of the game.
Former Howard big man Shy Odom led the HBCU champs with 15 points and eight rebounds, and Howard ended their season at 22-13, in the program’s first tournament appearance since 1992.
“I’m so incredibly proud of our guys,” said Howard men’s basketball head coach Kenneth Blakeney after the NCAA tournament game against Kansas. “I just love how they have grown as people and have become better men over the course of this season. That’s a victory no one can take away from us… “I’m thrilled that we were able to represent Howard University, in a classy way that honored so many people before us and the legacy of Howard.”
The Bison will come into their 2025 matchup with Kansas with the MEAC preseason player of the year in senior guard Bryce Harris, and Preseason All-MEAC Second Team guard Marcus Dockery, both of which played against the Kansas Jayhawks in that NCAA tournament game.
The Bison will also be the first opponent to play a regular season game in the newly renovated Allen Fieldhouse. The 70-year-old hoops venue is one of the most iconic in all of college basketball and will be christened with some HBCU hoops visitors on Monday, Nov 4 at 7 pm CT, airing on ESPN+.