2023 NCAA Tournament Preview: First glance at No. 16 seed Howard, KU’s first-round opponent

By Shane Jackson Mar 12, 2023

The Howard basketball team holds the trophy after defeating Norfolk State in an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament, Saturday, March 11, 2023, in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Mike Caudill)

Top-seeded Kansas will kick off its tourney journey this year against Howard — a program that’s back in the Big Dance for the first time in decades, has plenty of depth and can get hot from long range.

The 16th-seeded Bison (22-12) are from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, and they earned their spot in the NCAA Tournament field by winning their conference tourney on Saturday — 65-64 against Norfolk State. Their last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1992.

Only one No. 16 seed in tournament history has beaten a No. 1 seed, but the Jayhawks shouldn’t be taking Howard lightly. For starters, the Bison have shown that they can be dangerous from long range. They rank 31st in the country in 3-point percentage, making 37.2% of those shots, and the ShotQuality analytics tool lists their “Open 3 Rate” at 44%, the 24th-best in the nation.

Three of Howard’s players are averaging double figures in scoring this season. The top scorer is guard Elijah Hawkins, who’s producing 13 points per game and shooting 47.3% from long range. Steve Settle III is averaging 11 points and 5.7 rebounds, and Shy Odom has an average of 10.8 points per game.

Howard’s bench has gotten some use, too; the team ranks 52nd in the nation in bench minutes at 36.3%.

From a betting perspective, Howard went 18-13 against the spread and has covered the number in each of its last four games. The Bison prefer to play an up-tempo game, and they went over the point total in 15 of their 28 regular-season games.

Many of Howard’s biggest flaws are on defense. The Bison struggle taking care of the ball and are unable to defend the rim. According to KenPom.com, Howard’s turnover rate is 22.9%, or 356th in the nation. And there are 320 teams in college basketball that are better than the Bison at defending shots at the rim. Their lack of size doesn’t help — they’re 212th in the nation in average height.

Coincidentally, one of Howard’s players is originally from the state of Kansas. Kobe Dickson, who is averaging 14.8 minutes per game this season, is from Holcomb, which is near Garden City in the southwestern corner of the state. He spent three years at Cornell before transferring to Howard this past season.

Kansas vs. Howard will tip off at 1 p.m. Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. The game will be televised on TBS.