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.

This is very interesting. I was not aware of Makur Makur committing to Howard.

Thanks for posting Pono

There were tons of great (All-Pro) players at HBCU like Jerry Rice. Walter Payton....until the Southern schools discovered they couldn't win without black players.

(07-04-2020 03:15 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  There were tons of great (All-Pro) players at HBCU like Jerry Rice. Walter Payton....until the Southern schools discovered they couldn't win without black players.

yeah, the football dynamic in the South totally changed around 1970. college basketball is a bit different. HBCUs - at least the more desirable ones in terms of academic, location and social standing- could become prominent again with just a few key signees. We've seen the Ivy do this in recent years. Harvard recruits much higher level talent than they did in the 70s 80s 90s 2000s because they realize their academic and institutional brand makes them competitive despite their lower profile athletics. UT has gone after a few 4 star regional recruits in recent years hoping to build a relationship based on fit more than reputation. Hasn't resulted in any signees but I think it's worth it when you focus on targeted recruits who really have some interest. You could almost put rian rollins in this context. He played on an elite AAU team and has big time talent and size and if he hadn't signed early w UT could have easily become a Big Whatever recruit. Not exactly the same cuz he wasn't an established blue chip recruit, but I've always believed as a mid major you recruit in 3 ways; good local/regional mid major talent, high potential sleepers, and going hard after a few guys who might be out of your league but you have an in or relationship with to make them consider you seriously.