The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is hosting bi-weekly basketball coaches’ video conferences to discuss upcoming games and other topics between January 17 and March 6 this season.
“This is a great opportunity to showcase our league,” stated South Carolina State WBB Coach Tim Eatman on Wednesday’s first media conference.
The MSR asked the MEAC coaches if they believed their league, and HBCU basketball in general, receive comparable national attention as their football counterparts.
“Football is king,” admitted Howard MBB Coach Kenneth Blakeley. “But what we’ve done basketball-wise, not only in the MEAC but also in the SWAC and some of the players we’ve had the chance to coach that have done super things in our conference, has given MEAC basketball or HBCU basketball and SWAC [basketball] a platform nationally that’s only going to increase as time goes on.”
Black college hoops is as “competitive as any level I ever been at,” added Morgan State Men’s Coach Kevin Broadus. “This league is a tough league and people better start recognizing that.”
Rivalry, what rivalry
Morgan State plays at Coppin State on Saturday in a men’s/women’s basketball doubleheader in Baltimore. The MEAC contests are annually seen as a rivalry game, but according to Jermaine Woods, the Coppin State women’s coach, he doesn’t see it as much of a rivalry since his squad has not been successful against Morgan State.
“I don’t understand the rivalry, but I understand East Baltimore vs. West Baltimore because the two schools are only 15 minutes apart in Maryland, added Woods.
Visit from greatness
After playing a game on the West Coast earlier this season, Morgan State’s Edward Davis, Jr. said an NBA superstar visited his female players and asked if he could speak to them afterward. “He immediately hit the word ‘effort,” reported Davis on Golden State guard Stephen Curry, who spoke to his players in the visitors’ locker room. “He pointed out 2-3 kids and [said], ‘I see this effort.’ He said even at [the NBA] level, [Curry] preached to [his] guys about effort.”
Player spotlight
Norfolk State’s Diamond Johnson (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Kierra Wheeler (Minneapolis, Minn.) both are on the 2023-24 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year watchlist, the only HBCU players on the list and the only teammates from the same team on the list as well.
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