Sports Odds and Ends
Minnesota State Mankato this season is the only Minnesota college or university to win national basketball championships. The Mavericks women’s and men’s teams won their respective NCAA Division II championships.
Janay Morton is the school’s only Black assistant basketball coach. The Brooklyn Park native just finished her third season with the MSU Mankato women’s basketball team.
We caught up with Morton last week after her time in Cleveland—the annual coaches convention is also held at the site of the Final Four.
“It felt pretty great,” admitted Morton, who began coaching in 2019 at the University of Jamestown and was hired at Mankato in 2021. “I did receive a lot of love from other coaches that were down there, and coaches who knew me who had coached against me.”
When asked, Morton said she and the Mavericks coaching staff all felt the team had winning potential: “We felt we had a championship team this year, not only about the (Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) championship, but a nationally ranked championship team.
“We talked about focusing…and what our standard was. So all year long we focused on what our standard was. Culture was the number-one thing, so we had to make sure that whatever culture we were creating was going to be one that would ultimately create an amazing experience in a family environment, but we also do a championship as well,” she stressed.
MSU Mankato defeated Texas Women’s University 89-79 March 30, the program’s second-ever national title. Their male counterparts a day later defeated Nova Southeastern University 88-85, and Mankato became the first school to win both the men’s and women’s Division II championships in the same year since Central Missouri in 1984.
“Our players were definitely feeding off each other,” observed Morton. “They hung out [together] all the time, they love each other, just feeding off each other’s energy.”
Also not lost on her is the fact that she is among the few Black HC or assistants who were on championship teams this year. Shaheen Holloway’s Seton Hall men’s team won the NIT, its first title since 1953. And Dawn Staley became the winningest Black coach on April 7 with her third national WBB title.
“I’ve been talking about her,” said Morton of Staley. “I’ve been able to really appreciate that more and understand what that means. Not only for myself but for the ones that are in my position and the younger generation, because the same way I look at Dawn and see someone who looks like me getting it done and doing it with character and faith, it brings a lot of encouragement for me as well.
“I’m just trying to understand the gravity of what it means to do something like winning a national championship.”
Support Black local news
Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.