Kenny Blakeney won a national championship at Duke in 1992. Following his graduation in 1995, he immediately entered the coaching world. After nearly 25 years as an assistant at James Madison, Delaware, Seton Hall, Marshall, Harvard and Columbia, he was given a head coaching opportunity in 2019.
That school was Howard, and Bison AD Kery Davis is looking awfully smart for doing so.
Blakeney’s Impact at Howard
Blakeney has now led Howard to the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons. Not bad for a program that only been to the Big Dance twice before (1981 and 1992).
The Bison, who last played Wagner in the First Four two years ago, will be playing for their first March Madness victory when they take on UMBC Tuesday night.
UMBC’s Return to the Tournament
The Retrievers are back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018, when they became the first 16-seed ever to upset a 1-seed in the first round game. UMBC’s head coach in that game, Ryan Odom, is now in his first season as the head coach at Virginia, the team the Retrievers shocked in that game.
UMBC is entering the NCAA Tournament on a 12-game winning streak. That’s the second-longest active winning streak in the country, trailing only High Point’s streak of 14 straight wins.
Other Teams in the First Four
The “mini-madness” of the First Four kicks off in Dayton Tuesday night with a matchup of 16-seeds Howard and UMBC followed by 11-seeds NC State and Texas getting it on. One night later we’ll watch Prairie View A&M face Lehigh before Miami University looks to keep its dream season alive by taking down SMU.
NC State are the only team in the field that has four players who average at least four three-point attempts per game and are shooting the three at a 40.0 percent or better clip. Leading the way for Will Wade’s outside attack is Paul McNeil Jr., who is just the fourth player in program history to make 100 or more triples in a season, and is now just four threes away from setting the program’s single-season record.
- NC State is 14-3 this season if it shoots 37.5 percent or better from three.
- NC State is just 6-10 when it shoots under 37.5 percent from beyond the arc.
The Longhorns are the only team in the tournament with a top 10 offense, but a defensive efficiency ranking that falls outside the sport’s top 100. Texas has lost five of its last six games, and has allowed an average of 88.8 points per gave over those five defeats.
A big part of the reason for Miami’s success this season lies with the fact that they are the ultra-rare modern mid-major who was able to retain most of its top talent from one season to the next. The Redhawks r