The former Blue Devil has done a tremendous job at Howard, but would he consider a change?
As the Miami search gets underway, in the background for now, a lot of names have come up, including the Miller Brothers (Sean and Archie), Ben McCollum, Will Wade and Bucky McMillan, among others.
One name that we haven't yet seen that perhaps we should is Howard’s Kenny Blakeney.
Blakeney has had superb mentors in his high school coach at DeMatha, Morgan Wooten, and Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.
He’s the rare Howard coach who has won consistently and he also clearly has interesting ideas and insights into the NIL era of college basketball. He really seems to be ahead of the curve on this stuff.
Miami has a lot of things going for it. Jim Larranaga took the program to a different level and there appears to be a strong NIL program in place. Then there’s the environment: Miami is in a beautiful place, it’s warm and sunny year round and the city is dynamic.
In short, there’s a lot to interest a rising star like Blakeney.
There might be a snag though: Blakeney likes being in the DMV. It’s home to him and he’s made it clear that he’s happy there.
However, Miami would obviously be able to offer him a major pay raise and many other benefits besides.
Consider this for one: not many coaches will know the DMV talent market better than Blakeney and he could recruit there more or less exclusively if he chose.
However, we’ve always felt that Miami should be the dominant college basketball program in the Caribbean and Latin America. Consider for a minute the talent that has emerged from the Caribbean islands and nations over the years: Grievis Vasquez. Karl Anthony Townsend. Jose Alvarado. Obi Toppin. Buddy Hield. Deandre Ayton. Eric Gordon. Al Horford. Manu Ginobli. Tim Freaking Duncan.
In other words, Blakeney could recruit the DMV as well as anyone and also go after major talents in the islands and South America. And since Miami got a lot of mileage out of Norchad Omier, maybe they ought to consider how many other talented players might emerge from their own backyard.
Would Blakeney bail on DC?
Well, he might.
Obviously there’s the money. Aside from that though, with the epic changes sweeping college sports, there’s a chance that a school like Howard, in a smaller conference, might not have a seat at the table.
Blakeney has done brilliant things at Howard, but if he determines that he has to be on a bigger stage to continue in his career, he might consider a change. If it were us, we’d certainly make an inquiry - at the least.
