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Long-suffering Howard basketball pulls in heralded recruiting haul
Mark Gail/ The WASHINGTON POST - One recruiting analyst labeled the recruiting class that Howard men’s basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry signed as a top 40 class.
Text Size PrintE-mailReprintsBy Eric Prisbell, Published: June 2
Howard men’s basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry was never confident about securing a commitment from Prince Okoroh, the Eleanor Roosevelt forward who Nickelberry felt was good enough to play in the Atlantic 10 Conference and smart enough to thrive in the Ivy League.
As a Gates Millennium Scholar, Okoroh had his choice of schools. Would Okoroh want to suit up for a team that had won just six games this past season? Would he commit to a program whose basketball court was sprinkled with dead spots and whose poorly ventilated locker room was no bigger than a large storage closet?
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.The answer was yes. And when Okoroh called Nickelberry with the news in mid-April, a few days before he was named MVP of the preliminary game of the Capital Classic, the coach was “astonished,” Okoroh recalled. “He almost didn’t believe me at first. When I told him I was coming, it was almost like he fainted.”
This area’s already competitive college basketball recruiting landscape became more competitive in recent weeks with coaching hires at Maryland, George Washington and George Mason. But an under-the-radar development has been the recruiting by success-starved Howard, which assembled an attention-grabbing class punctuated by Okoroh’s signing.
A school that for more than a decade struggled to recruit local players, much less local players with talent, has secured a large class that analysts say includes accomplished students and players, most from the area. Observers call it one of the best recruiting classes in school history. Skip Perkins, the school’s new athletic director, calls it his version of the “Fab Five.”
“I kind of have to pinch myself and slow down,” Perkins said, “because I can’t wait for basketball season.
“I am glad to see how we recruited locally.”
A few moments later, Perkins added simply: “Proud. Just proud.”
Anytime a recruiting class from a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference program cracks the top 100 nationally, it is considered a rousing success, says Clark Francis, the longtime recruiting analyst and publisher of Hoop Scoop. When Francis considers Nickelberry’s class in total — five freshmen, two transfers, one redshirt freshman — he sees a top 40 class.
“That is pretty unusual” for that level, Francis said. “To get the level of talent he has gotten, it is sensational. Kevin has always been a great recruiter. He is the ultimate example that, at that level, it’s more about getting players.”
Donal Ware, who hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, “From the Press Box to Press Row,” which focuses on sports at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, said Howard’s class is one of the best by a MEAC school in some time. “I’m not saying Howard is going to win it this year,” he said, “but I would say, ‘MEAC, watch out.’ ”
For Nickelberry, the class was pieced together throughout a first season so arduous that he says only half-jokingly that he had to rely on Perkins for emotional support. There was Theodore Boyomo, a touted 6-9 freshman, who earned a medical redshirt after tearing knee ligaments in preseason practice. Then came the season-ending knee injury to Calvin Thompson, a preseason all-league selection, in the season’s second game and another medical redshirt.
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The remaining players were long on effort but short on athleticism and short in stature. With six scholarship players, Nickelberry abandoned the up-tempo, pressing style that he succeeded with as Hampton’s head coach. By season’s end, he could count the number of dunks on one hand.
What kept him optimistic was recruiting trail success that even exceeded his own expectations. Assistant coaches Keith Coutreyer and Travis Lyons worked their relationships with Team Takeover and D.C. Assault, the two premier summer league programs. Nickelberry, a Washington native, leaned on long-established area relationships and made every conceivable pitch to prospects.
.He detailed how George Mason used unsung local players to assemble a Final Four team five years ago. He urged prospects to research players he recruited to Hampton as a head coach and to Clemson and Charlotte as an assistant. He told them that he may be a better recruiter than coach, pledging that he would surround them with talent.
More than anything, he talked up Howard’s academic reputation and large alumni base. He showed prospects the substandard facilities and told them how this summer’s $6 million renovation to Burr Gymnasium and the cramped locker room would transform their surroundings.
“The players we got, we got with the facilities we have now,” Nickelberry said. “They came because of Howard and Howard’s brand and these coaches and what they believed in us. Some of the schools we beat out for these kids, we didn’t have the same things.”
The first coup was securing a commitment from guard Simuel Frazier of Norfolk during the fall signing period. Frazier had considered an offer from Saint Joseph’s of the Atlantic 10. The winter brought more commitments: Brandon Ford, an honorable mention All-Met guard from Gwynn Park; Brandon Bailey, an athletic 6-5 forward from Largo; and Oliver Ellison, a 6-8 shot-blocker from Gonzaga.
Nickelberry also landed two transfers: Tulsa’s Glen Andrews, an explosive scorer who graduated T.C. Williams High, and Coastal Carolina’s Tre Lee.
Landing Okoroh, who played for D.C. Assault, loomed as a challenge. Nickelberry knew the issues — namely, the program’s lack of success — were the same reasons why so many close to Nickelberry told him not to take the Howard job.
Nickelberry urged Okoroh to talk to the other prospects who had committed. Meantime, he sent Okoroh notes that always included “DMV,” a reference to the District, Maryland and Virginia, and the accomplishments a band of local players could achieve together.
“Most people come in here, they won’t recruit Prince. ‘Oh, we can’t beat out the Ivy League,’ ” Nickelberry said. “Well, you’ve got to try. I’m not sure if Howard was trying to get these kids.”
Okoroh said he chose Howard because of his connection with Nickelberry, the opportunity to play right away and the chance to pursue his desired major, chemical engineering. Having already forged relationships with other members of the recruiting class, Okoroh said their goal is clear:
“To help turn a program around and be remembered in history,” he said. “Our motto is that we’re going to shock the world. That’s what we plan on doing.”
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