Despite its typical low seeding along with new rules, HBCU teams competed in this year’s postseason tournaments—Jackson State (SWAC) and Norfolk State (MEAC) in the women’s NCAAs and Howard (MEAC) in the men’s tourney.
“We want people who watch to respect HBCUs,” Jackson State WBB coach Tomekia Reed told Rob Knox for The Next. Both her squad and Norfolk State were seeded 14th and 15th respectively, which Knox noted “is still disrespectful to the work of each program that established a single-season school-record win total.”
The JSU Tigers (26-7 overall) finished the season 10th in the Mid-Major Top 25 poll and received at least one vote in the last three AP Top 25 polls. Norfolk State (27-6) was ranked 13th in the same national poll. Both schools were their respective conferences’ regular season and tournament champs but still got little love from the NCAA selection committee.
“The committee should value each program’s consistent greatness,” declared Knox.
“We have to keep working, grinding, and getting better so one day we’ll be among the 11 or 12 seeds in the tournament,” said Reed, the SWAC Coach of the Year for the third straight year, her sixth year at Jackson State. She has won five straight SWAC regular season titles.
“HBCUs are here,” Norfolk State 6-1 junior forward Kierra Wheeler told The Next. The Minneapolis native won the MEAC Player of the Year. “We are relevant and desire a platform like everybody else,” she added.
However, both the Spartans and the Tigers lost their first-round NCAA games. Howard lost to Wagner 71-68 in the NCAA First Four and finished 18-17, 9-5 MEAC. The conference tourney champs knocked off No. 1 Norfolk State in the semifinals, and defeated Delaware State in the finals.
The NIT last year changed its rules that now say regular season champions who don’t win their conference tourneys and don’t make the NCAAs don’t get an automatic bid into their field as in previous years. As a result, no Black school made this year’s field.
“There will be a lack of diverse institutions participating in the NIT,” MEAC Commissioner Sonja Stills told HBCU Sports in December.
Therefore, Norfolk State and SWAC members Alabama A&M and Texas Southern accepted invitations to the College Insider Tournament (CIT). The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) invited Bethune-Cookman (SWAC), Delaware State (MEAC), and Chicago State (independent).
North Carolina A&T (CAA) and Grambling (SWAC) both advanced to the Women’s NIT second round as the only Black schools in that tournament.
Tommies progress
Both St. Thomas basketball teams finished their third Summit League play in good shape.
The Tommies men as fourth seed lost to No. 1 South Dakota State in the league semifinals earlier this month; they finished 20-13 overall and 9-7 in conference play. It was UST’s first 20+ win season in the school’s Division I history, and most league wins since joining the Summit League.
The No. 5 Tommies’ women lost to 4th-ranked South Dakota in the Summit League quarterfinals and finished 15-16 overall, the first 15+ win season for the women in UST’s DI history. They also tied for the most league wins since joining the Summit League.
“Our guys played with a competitive spirit and unselfishness,” Tommies Coach Johnny Tauer told the MSR.
Sophomore Kendall Blue (Woodbury) led his squad in both tourney games with 15 and 13 points respectively. He is expected to return next season.
“We certainly will have a fair amount of new faces [next season],” said Tauer on the current state of college sport in the transfer portal era. “We got four freshmen who signed and are coming in—two from Wisconsin, one from Oregon and one from Washington State. We have a really good foundation of guys who have played in our program to carry on our culture.”
Junior Jade Hill (Minneapolis) started all 31 games for UST this season. The 5-7 guard averaged 13.2 ppg, 4.3 assists, and 3.2 rebounds per game.