Kenny Blakeney: Tommy Amaker Helped Teach Me How to Recruit

Former Blue Devil had biggest recruiting upset in memory

Howard coach Kenny Blakeney had one of the biggest recruiting wins for an HBCU in generations last week, when five-star center Makur Maker committed to his school.

The former Blue Devil player and assistant under Tommy Amaker and Mike Brey has one year under his belt as a head coach, but it appears he’s got the program on a steep upward trajectory.

Blakeney appeared on ESPN’s The Daily podcast, which also broadcast Maker’s first interview since committing. Since Maker hasn’t signed, Blakeney was prohibited by NCAA rules from discussing the commitment or even mentioning the player’s name, but he still talked about the school and recruiting there.

One thing that helped Blakeney approach recruiting at Howard was his time as an assistant to another former Blue Devil, Tommy Amaker, at Harvard.

“I think that experience was something that was actually needed for me to take the Howard job,” he said. “Howard is considered the black Harvard. When Tommy Amaker hired me, I remember being in our lounge. We were looking around at the furniture at Harvard. At the time, it had holes in it and was mismatched. I saw what Tommy did with limited resources, just using the brand Harvard presents to families—the ultimate kind of educational experience. It’s something I tried to emulate at Howard—utilize the brand Howard to attract some of the best student athletes that understand the value of our great university.”

Still, if he thought Harvard had limited resources, Howard is on an entirely different—lower—level of funding.

“I’m completely transparent,” he said of his message to recruits about the facilities. “One hundred percent honest, even to the point that I could almost be negatively recruiting against myself. I let somebody know if they’re looking at Howard, we don’t have crushed ice. We lost a recruit that I don’t think we ever had that told a friend, ‘Howard doesn’t even have crushed ice. How am I going to play there?’ We don’t have a posh locker room. Our practice gym is also our rec gym. Our offices are okay. I love our gym, but our gym probably hasn’t made any dramatic improvements since the 1950s, when it was built. I don’t want to waste anybody’s time. I don’t want them to waste our time.”