Recruits should get a chance to see Black Excellence.
Two weeks ago one of the top basketball prospects in America, Josh Christopher took an official visit to Howard University, and set social media on fire. Many people praised his decision, and his visit went viral. As I watched everything unfold, I thought back to something that hit me over a year ago.
I had an idea last year that all HBCU’s should host recruits on their homecoming weekends. It’s the perfect time.. Recruits get to see the pageantry of these great institutions, they get a chance to me meet former players, & most importantly they get to meet/rub shoulders with prominent alumni who could help them with their “40 Year Plan”.
The recruits can meet the current players, and along with their parents can get a chance to watch a Division 1 practice in the SWAC, MEAC, & other 1 bid leagues. Most top shelf prospects and parents feel like they’re “better than the SWAC” when in reality 75% of them couldn’t get minutes as a freshman in these conferences. So getting a chance to see how talented, athletic and skilled the players are in leagues like this, it would be a good dose of reality.
Texas Southern assistant coach Brandon Chambers reached out to me in September about speaking to the team about life as a student athlete, and the benefits of playing at TSU, etc. The next day I sent him a text saying how I think Homecoming would be a perfect time to host some of the top underclassmen in the greater Houston area. He welcomed the idea with open arms and took it from there. I was unable to attend the visit but the recruits, & parents loved it and thought that TSU did a 1st class job with hosting them. Some of the top ranked players in our 2019-2020 rankings were on hand, ‘21 Ja’Vier Francis, ‘21 Josh Farmer, ‘22 Chris Marshall, ‘21 Trey Banks, ‘22 Elijah Hill, ‘21 Brian Perry, ‘22 PJ Haggerty, ‘21 Patrick Punch, ‘21 Ramon Walker, ‘21 Sir Isaac Herron ‘21 Chris Felix, & ’21 Lucas Burton.
Hopefully this will start a trend of top recruits visiting HBCU’s and taking them seriously in the recruiting process.
