Howard University Bison to face familiar NCAA Tournament foe in Kansas Jayhawks

Howard University, which last reached the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 1992, has been matched with its same first-round opponent of three decades ago — the Kansas Jayhawks.

KU, the No. 1 seed in the 2023 West Regional, defeated the Bison of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference 100-67 on March 20, 1992 in Dayton, Ohio.

On Thursday, it’ll be KU (27-7) versus No. 16 seed Howard (22-12) in a first-round 2023 NCAA Tournament clash, set for a 1 p.m. tipoff at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The game will be shown live on TBS.

Howard, a school located in Washington, D.C., advanced to its third NCAA Tournament in school history by defeating Norfolk State 65-64 Saturday in the MEAC final in Norfolk, Virginia. The Bison also lost a first-round NCAA Tourney game — to Wyoming, 78-43 — in the 1981 NCAAs.

“There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of gratitude within the team,” Howard team captain Jelani Williams said in an interview with Fox 5 TV of D.C. Williams, a 6-8 senior wing from Washington, D.C., averages 9.2 points (43.8% shooting) and 4.4 rebounds per game. He’s 26-of-76 from three for 34.2%,

“It took a lot of work for us to get to this moment right here. Getting to see Howard pop up on that screen (on the Selection Sunday show) for the first time in 31 years, I’m extremely grateful. We’re going to play hard. We’re going to play our brand of ball. We’re going to have a good day of practice (Monday) and go up there and try to get a win,” Williams added.

Of playing defending national champ KU, Williams said: “I feel like there’s no pressure on us. Nobody expects us to win. We’ve been underdog in a lot of our games this year and we managed to win 22 games so we’re going to go in with the same approach. We’re going to play hard and fight hard. Make sure you tune in. We’re going to put on a show, try to shock the world.”

In some high-profile games during the 2022-23 season, Howard fell to Kentucky 95-63 on Nov. 7 in Lexington; lost to Wyoming 78-71 on Nov. 18 in St. John, Virgin Islands; lost to VCU 70-60 on Dec. 11 in Richmond, Virginia, and defeated Harvard 66-54 on Dec. 18 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“This is why I came to Howard. I’ve waited all my life for a moment like this,” Williams told the Washington Post. “I knew this was my last chance to go to the NCAAs, and I was going to make it happen.”

Howard is led by all-MEAC first-team pick Elijah Hawkins, a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard from Washington, D.C., and famed DeMatha High School. Hawkins averages 13.0 points a game on 44% shooting. He’s made 52 of 110 threes for 47.3%. He has 177 assists to 118 turnovers with 51 steals in 30 games. He chips in 3.7 rebounds a game.

Second-team all-league pick Steve Settle, a 6-10, 180-pound junior forward from Glenarden, Maryland, averages 11.1 points (41.8% shooting) and 5.9 rebounds a game. He’s made 29 of 101 threes for 28.7%. He has 35 assists, 62 turnovers.

The league’s rookie of the year, Shy Odom, is a 6-6 freshman forward from Roxbury, Massachusetts. He averages 10.8 points and 4.5 rebounds a game.

MEAC Coach of the Year Kenneth Blakeney is in his fourth season at the D.C. school

“It’s one thing to dream about doing something like this. It’s another thing to actually do it,” Blakeney said of making the NCAAs in an interview with the Washington Post.

The post quoted Blakeney as telling the team after the conference title game: “Everything you’ve gone through, the 6 a.m. practices, getting thrown out of the locker room — all of it — was for this.”

KU is 2-0 all-time against Howard. Along with the ’92 NCAA Tournament game, KU prevailed over the Bison 89-34 on Dec. 29, 2011 at Allen Fieldhouse. In the tourney game in 1992, Greg Ostertag led the way with 16 points. Adonis Jordan had 15, Eric Pauley 12 and Rex Walters 10 with seven assists. Julius McNeil led Howard with 12 points. KU went on to lose in the second round to UTEP, 66-60.

Art Crowder, a member of the 1992 Bison team, told Fox 5 News: “I mean, to see this happen, I was waiting for so long. “Thirty-one years is a long time, and I just thought it would happen more. So I was really happy about them winning. I’m really proud of the team and the players. It’s just, wow! It’s so exciting that they finally did this.”