19 year old 5 star 2020 recruit Makur Makur (cousin to Thon) has dropped out of the NBA draft and committed to Howard Univ. This follows a trend of 5 star high school players taking official visits to HBCUs

(side historical note, if interested: historically black colleges and universities go back to the mid 1800s in Philly and Ohio. Wilberforce in central Ohio is the oldest private HCBU in the country. Most HBCUs were setup and funded by the Freedman's bureau in the decade of reconstruction after the civil war and were liberal arts institutions. many quickly became high quality universities and colleges like Howard, Moorehouse, Hampton, scattered throughout the country and, public or private, mostly small college in size and atmosphere. when there was a racist backlash to reconstruction and Jim Crow was established the funding for HBCUs stopped. then, shifted toward the govt favored philosophy of booker t washington that higher education for blacks should be limited to the trades and agriculture. this resulted in new land grant HBCU universities (Texas Southern, Tennessee St, Tuskegee)these state schools tend to have large arenas and are mostly in the south.)

While Makur's signing is expected to be the first in a trend of 1 or 2 years and done prospects choosing to play at an HBCU instead of a Kentucky or Memphis or UCLA (schools Makur turned down), there is an overlap to other Mid Majors like UT. Howard's coach, who already had signed a really good big class including several local kids and a talented iranian big, recruited Makur as being able to come in and develop quickly into the featured player, and mentioned how Murray St helped Ja Morant develop. schools like Gonzaga, St Mary's, Butler, VCU, Richmond, Murray St, Belmont etc... are all mid majors that really figured it out and can still be themselves but play at a higher level. I think UT flirts with this territory. We have really good program culture, strong academics. guys get degrees. guys get masters. smart kids choose UT. Facilties are great. Campus is better than most comparable MW universities. Not sure exactly how UT figures out their ultimate identity as a program.