One area where we’ve seen the Black Lives Matter movement spill over into sports is in the decisions of high profile high school athletes. Class of 2020 5-star center Makur Maker committed to Howard University, an HBCU (Historically Black College and University). Maker could have gone to a more traditional powerhouse school like Kentucky. In the college hoops recruiting world, we’ve seen other recruits flirt with making such a move (2020 5-star shooting guard Josh Christopher visited Howard), but Maker is the first to fully commit. It will be interesting to see if other high profile basketball recruits will follow suit and commit to HBCUs in the future or if Maker will remain an anomaly.
My feeling is we’ll see some other guys make the jump to HBCUs, but it won’t be a large percentage. Most guys will still rather go to a more traditional powerhouse program and play against the best competition in the country. Maybe I’m wrong and Maker is starting a movement, but it’s still early yet.