Howard Bison

Date/Time: Saturday November 9th @ 4:00 at the Charles E. Smith Center in Washington, DC.
Record Last Year: 17-17, 10-6 (T-3rd in the MEAC)
Preseason Ranks: 341st (KenPom), 327th (Bart Torvik), 337th (Sports Illustrated), 343rd (CBS)
Projected Record: 12-19, 8-8 (T-3rd in the MEAC)
Postseason Last Year: CBI; lost to Coastal Carolina 81-72 in the 1st round.
Coaching Record: Kenny Blakeney, 1st season at Howard, has never been head coach previously.

All Time Record: 9-1; the lone loss came 90-85 at home during the 1986-87 season. We have won the past seven contests since, including a 70-64 win last season at the Smith Center. DJ led all scorers with 18 points as four Colonials finished in double figures, including Terry (17), Justin (14), and Maceo (10).

Offensive Efficiency: 330th (KenPom), 298th (Bart Torvik)
Defensive Efficiency: 344th (KenPom), 338th (Bart Torvik)
Tempo: 76th (KenPom), 66th (Bart Torvik)

Key Returning Players:
Charles 'C.J.' Williams (SR; Richmond, VA) 17.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg; 45% FG, 37% 3-pt, 86% FT
        Last year against us: 12 pts, 2 rbs; 4-14 FG, 1-5 3-pt, 3-3 FT in 31 minutes.

Key Losses:
RJ Cole (Transferred to Connecticut; Linden, NJ) 21.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 6.4 apg; 42% FG, 39% 3-pt, 82% FT
Chad Lott (Transferred to South Alabama; Shreveport, LA) 14.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.3 apg; 48% FG, 43% 3-pt, 68% FT

Comments:
With Kevin Nickelberry relieved of his duties after 9 seasons with the Bison (he is now an assistant on Will Wade's staff at LSU), new coach Kenny Blakeney (and not Karl Hobbs despite all those rumors) gets his first crack at leading a team. The Coach K former player tree seems to have spread throughout the D1 landscape. Belated congrats to another Duke legend Greg Paulus as well who just signed on to become the next permanent head coach at Niagara. Wish him the best.

Despite never being a head coach, Blakeney is quite well-traveled as an assistant (24 years to be exact at all levels in D1, with stints at James Madison, La Salle, Delaware, Seton Hall, Marshall, Harvard, and Columbia). His first year unfortunately projects to be a trying one though. In addition to learning on the job, two members of Howard's three-headed attack opted to take their talents elsewhere this offseason, and the Bison's window of contending in the MEAC has seemingly closed for the near future. Although they were among the top teams in the MEAC the past few years, they were just unable to overcome conference powerhouses Norfolk State and North Carolina Central. Howard was a topic of discussion this offseason as a couple of 5 star prospects in Josh Christopher and Makur Maker visited campus. While it remains to be seen if any top prospect actually signs at an HBCU, it is something to watch in the future.

The silver lining for Howard is that Charles 'C.J.' Williams is back for what feels like his 10th year with the program, and although he had an off night against us last year, he is guaranteed to be a nuisance once again. Williams has averaged double figures all four years he has been in school and can flat out score the ball in a variety of ways. In three career games against us, he has put up 27, 21, and 12 points.

Who steps up behind Williams though is a bit of a question mark. Kyle Foster will likely earn a starting spot this year after playing a bit in Cole's shadow all of last year. Apart from handling lead facilitation duties on the team, Foster will be tasked with picking up some of the scoring production left by the departures of Cole and Lott. Foster is not a sharpshooter, but has averaged respectable shooting numbers across the board in his tenure at HU (he made 53 threes his freshman year). Foster will have some assistance distributing the ball though, as freshman Khalil Robinson figures to have an immediate impact much like Jameer has been for us. The three star prospect out of HS was a mid-major priority (he even had an offer from UNLV) but ultimately decided to make his mark in the nation's capital. I would consider Robinson to be the X-factor for their team to watch out for. Like many MEAC teams, Howard likes to play a very brisk up-and-down game, but Blakeney's arrival figures to pump the brakes, even if just a little bit. That means sophomore Raymond Bethea, junior Nate Garvey, and freshman Wayne Bristol Jr. will earn some minutes in an extended rotation as well. Bethea and Bristol figure to be the bigger scorers, but all three will need to be more efficient with their shot attempts if they are going to develop into go-to guys late in games.

Howard's frontcourt appears to be fairly thin this year. Zion Cousins is the leader of their group up front. While his game is not a combination of Zion Williamson and DeMarcus Cousins, the junior actually has a fairly nice touch near the basket and is a serviceable rebounder. He will aim to keep up his efficiency with his usage guaranteed to go up this season. Frenchman Andre Toure will join him up front, though his offensive game is still very raw (he put up a donut in their first game loss against Washington Adventist; not a good sign for Howard's season as they beat them last year by 24). At the very least, Toure will provide more rebounding to the team. Michael Barber has not played too much for Howard but was a three star recruit out of HS (and had some legitimate power six offers including Ohio State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Baylor, and Georgia Tech!). Maybe this is the year he finally makes the rotation, especially with a thin frontcourt this year.

Between a new coach and the number of question marks, Howard is likely to be among the worst teams in the MEAC and country this year. Like many MEAC teams, Howard will attempt to turn teams over and generate offense in transition. This will be a good test to see whether we can keep our turnovers down (especially Jameer and the rest of the backcourt) after a disappointment in that department on Tuesday night. I think this would have been a better game to open the season, but maybe we didn't because we opened with them just two seasons ago. Anyways, we should get in the win column tomorrow afternoon.

Predicted Score: GW 84, Howard 68. 92% chance to win (Bart Torvik). ESPN says we have an 86.3% chance to win.
 

DMVPiranha,  great preview as always!! I knew about the article/discussion about black athletes going to HBCU's as a way to protest, but I had no idea that two 2020 5-star recruits have been on recruiting visits to Howard. If those 2 sign with Howard it would send shockwaves through college sports!!

About Howard's current team, CJ Williams is the star as DMV Piranha wrote, I didn't realize that GW and Howard are playing for the 4th straight year. Williams has averaged 20PPG in the 3 games he's played against GW. I saw Howard freshman Wayne Bristol Jr.(his father played for the University of Maryland in the early to mid 90's) play a few times in the Kenner League and he has the potential to be a big-time player, he's very athletic and can knock down 3's. I'm guessing he'll be a starter or in the rotation tomorrow. 

Nickelberry had abuse charges brought against him from a couple of his players, so Howard fired him. I wasn't aware that he is now coaching under Will Wade at LSU until reading DMVPiranha's post. Howard now has another coaching scandal as their 1st year football coach Ron Prince was placed on administrative leave after players brought abuse charges against him. 

Last edited by Thomas (11/09/2019 3:38 pm)

Anyone catch the line on this game yet?

Unwatchable at the moment. 

More 3s from Battle. Stroke looks pure, as advertised.  
Very confident looking 3 ball
 

Yeah, that's the story of that half.  The size. the confident shooting. Jamison Battle, I dig it. 
JNJr looks good.
The emphasis on taking lots of 3s seems clear.  The new longer 3 line does not appear to be a deterrent 

Florida Colonial wrote:

Still a long way to go but definitely got a bit better.  The positive of the first two games is that its freshman that have been the most impressive. I couldn't tell if Paar is on the bench? Whats the story with him. Just not ready  or hurt?

Not sure why Paar doesn't play, but looks like all the other freshman are getting playing time, so it must just be a matter of him not being ready.

Really liking the confident stroke from Battle. He also put it on the floor once and had a nice inside-out crossover move. JMJ has some shaky handles at times but really like his vision. Made a very tough crosscourt pass that somehow found Maceo in the corner.

Toro's clearly still trying to find his touch. Scary to think how good he'll be once he does. As he works his way back from having a year off, he still put up 9p/9r in the half.

Toro almost a double double at the half.
Jamison is a skilled shooter, has a nice step back 3.

Does anyone else watch Mezie and think, man, this guy might just be a star?
ceiling seems high, if he could tap into all the potential